CBC Canada Uses FM Band for Testing Energy Management of Household Appliances

E-Radio’s technology harnesses the “power of FM radio to wirelessly and securely activate” smart grid-enabled devices and appliances like washing machines, dryers, dishwashers and in-home energy use displays, the companies said. “Our technology piggy-backs on the main FM carrier” via the radio data system (RDS) “envelope,” e-Radio CEO Jackson Wang told us. “It can perform the energy management functions at the same time as delivering the main audio without any interference,” he said. The technology can be thought of as a “small data modem,” he said.

With the e-Radio technology incorporated in smart appliances, the consumer can remotely activate dishwashers, washing machines and other gadgets at a time of non-peak demand. “In today’s market, suppliers and users of electricity need a low-cost and reliable communications method for pricing and grid status to make more informed power consumption with the additional benefit of reduced greenhouse gas emissions,” said Wang. Radio with its “vast, stable and cost-efficient coverage” makes it a “proper fit to become the ‘’trusted club in the bag’ for the smart grid,” he said.

“This 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 without affecting the qualify of our radio service,” said Michel Tremblay, CBC senior vice president of corporate strategy. CBC radio tested the technology using the 94.1 MHz frequency in Toronto, the broadcaster said. The “groundbreaking test” proved that radio can be easily adapted for smart grid applications, e-Radio said.

CBC’s signals reach close to 99 percent of the Canadian population, the companies said. “Tapping into that infrastructure would mean that virtually every Canadian from coast-to-coast could benefit from the technology.” Besides demonstrating leadership in green technology, radio stations can generate new revenue streams using energy management technology, said Wang. In the U.S., FM stations that the FCC licenses already have “provisions to allow them to carry these extra bits of data,” as stations are doing now providing traffic information, he said. E-Radio has agreements with “industry leaders” in the appliance and consumer electronics industry for use of its technology, Wang said, without naming companies: “Pilots are in operation in a number of U.S. and Canadian locations.” His company is also working with private and public radio networks in North America, he said, and e-Radio technology has been endorsed by the National Association of Broadcasters.

CBC got an “experimental licence” from Industry Canada to test the e-Radio technology in Toronto, Peterborough and Owen Sound, said Angus McKinnon, senior media relations adviser for the broadcaster. The radio network hasn’t yet firmed plans for rollout of the technology, he said. In addition to helping “pioneer this new technology,” CBC expects to get a fee from the utility and appliance makers for “using our airwaves,” he said. Marketing of the technology would be done by utilities and appliance makers and not the radio network, he said.

In an October filing with the FCC, the NAB said the use of radio broadcasters’ existing FM subcarrier channels by way of RDS can be an “excellent and reliable method for communicating data for residential demand management programs.” It would allow utilities to “quickly and effectively communicate with potentially millions of devices to help balance the supply of electricity and moderate severe demand spikes that often tax and overwhelm electricity systems,” the association said.