Every once in a while I get a press release that is so odd and surprising, that I just have to follow up on it. That happened this afternoon when the CBC issued a press release that said:

e-Radio-Inc. (ERI) and CBC/Radio-Canada today announced that they have successfully tested a new technology that could revolutionize the way electricity is consumed across Canada and around the world.

What? The CBC is revolutionizing “the way electricity is consumed?” I started wondering if Red Green had duct taped together a cold fusion reactor. But no, it turns out that the CBC has partnered with this company, e-Radio-Inc, to broadcast instructions that make your home appliances much more miserly by consuming cheaper electricity, saving you money, and helping the environment. They successfully tested the system today.

Intrigued?

Here’s how it works.

The company embeds inaudible signals in radio broadcasts. In the test they used a Radio 2 broadcast. Little receivers – they’re size of a dime – in household appliances listen for, and interpret, the signals. The signals contain data on things like the state of the electrical grid, such as the current price of electricity or when the grid is getting overloaded. Kind of like a newscast for your dishwasher.

The appliances then listen to those ‘newscasts’ and decides what do, based criteria that you’ve inputted. So say you program your thermostat to turn off your when the price of electricity starts spiking on hot summer days. The receiver in the thermostat listens to the ‘newscast’ for the price of electricity, and once it gets too high, it turns down your air conditioner. That saves you money and helps the environment.

The technology is part of global movement towards making electrical grids more efficient, called smart grids.

Right now in cities across the countries electrical utilities are installing smart electrical meters that allow consumers to monitor their electrical use and alter when they use their appliances. This technology allows consumers to essentially train their appliances to do the same task.

Jackson Wang, the president of e-Radio says that with the technology will have both financial and environmental benefits, “there’s no silver bullet in the smart grid but this is pretty close.” Wang said this afternoon he’s aiming for a “10 to 25 per cent reductions in electrical use.”

Right now the technology is being tested with various appliances, including dishwashers, fridges, washer/dryers, stoves, microwaves and hot water heaters.

He decided the CBC was the perfect partner for the technology because it’s the only broadcaster with national radio coverage. CBC/Radio-Canada’s FM signals reach close to 99% of Canadians. He added using radio has advantages over using the internet because it doesn’t bog down from high traffic. “Radio is like a dedicated channel, radio can’t be knocked out by congestion, it’s a direct communication,”  he said. “An IP based solution is actually quite fragile.”

“This is an innovative way for CBC/Radio-Canada to maximize the use of its radio infrastructure for the benefit of both Canadian consumers and the environment,” said Michel Tremblay, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Strategy & Business Partnerships at the ceeb, said in the press release this afternoon.

Wang says he hopes the technology will cover the entire country to 2011, and first products based on this technology, smart electrical thermostats will hit the market later this year.

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	Technology, Transmission