Energy service provider E.On has joined the HomeGrid Forum as it continues to promote G.hn and develop a widening portfolio including in the smart city and smart grid markets.
 
Germany-based E.On will bring expertise and market opportunities to the HomeGrid Forum, adding to the impact that home networking standard G.hn has already made in the smart grid industry, a market that is, according to Markets & Markets, forecast to be worth $61.3bn by 2023 globally.
 
“E.On joining the HomeGrid Forum is a significant step for us and we look forward to the organisation’s contributions to the growing success of G.hn in these new markets,” said Len Dauphinee, HomeGrid Forum president. “As the demand for smarter cities and smarter energy continues to grow worldwide, we welcome the expertise that E.On will bring in helping us promote the development and deployment of G.hn in these growing areas.”
 
E.On will represented on the forum by Bavarian energy provider Bayernwerk, one of its largest subsidiaries in Germany. It provides services to more than 1200 communities and municipal utilities, including electricity and gas, decentralised energy, and further infrastructure and energy services. The company operates 2.3 million links to the electricity network, serving over five million people in Germany and has 295,000 operators of decentralised electricity feeding energy to the north west, with approximately 60% coming from renewable sources.
 
“E.On develops the future smart grid to make the energy transformation in Germany come true,” said Elmar Peine, who is responsible for process data management at E.On. “We build energy networks and invest in research and development to ensure we can provide innovations. We believe joining the HomeGrid Forum will enable us to further align our ambitions with the industry and support the deployment of G.hn-based infrastructure as a game-changing technology for the future of smart cities and smart grids.”
 
Since its merger with the GiGaWire Alliance, the HomeGrid Forum has strengthened the development of broadband access technologies and created a global organisation committed to compliance and interoperability across a widening portfolio covering IoT, connected cars, lifi, GiGa Wire MDUs and smart grids.
 
The HomeGrid Forum is an industry alliance that brings together technology innovators, silicon vendors, system manufacturers and service providers to promote G.hn, a gigabit home networking technology based on ITU-T standards. Members promote the global adoption of G.hn, a single unified, multi-sourced networking technology over coax, copper pairs, powerline and plastic optical fibre.