March 22, 2011 
Texas start-up aiming to bring more smart appliances to market
RICHLAND, Wash. - Battelle has granted a non-exclusive license for a technology that will help soften the blow for utilities during times of peak demand on the grid by temporarily shifting when smart appliances use power.
Start-up technology firm Encryptor of Plano, TX, projects to incorporate Grid Friendly Appliance Controller technology, developed at the D.O.E.'s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, into a new, low-cost electronic chip that can be easily built into appliances. Battelle operates PNNL for DOE.
"One of our missions as a national laboratory, in addition to conducting primary research, is to develop game changing technology and then transfer it to a useful purpose," said Cheryl Cejka, PNNL's director of technology commercialization.
"This technology has tremendous potential as a low-cost way of reducing stress on our nation's electricity system by making our everyday appliances better users of energy. We are very pleased that Encryptor's work will take it one step closer to market."
Encryptor projects to develop the technology within the next 2 to 3 years and then market it to appliance manufacturers as a highly capable, low-cost chip.
PNNL invented the controller with backing from D.O.E. and Battelle patented it in 2008. The device senses conditions on the grid by monitoring the frequency and voltage of the system and provides automatic responses in times of power disruption or grid emergency.
Within the North American power grid, a disturbance of the nominal 60 Hertz frequency is an indicator of serious imbalance between supply and demand that, if unarrested, could lead to a blackout. This simple computer chip can be installed in household appliances and turn them off for a few minutes, or even a few seconds, to allow the grid to stabilize.
The controllers can be programmed to autonomously react in fractions of a 2nd when a disturbance is detected, whereas power plants take minutes to respond. They can even be programmed to delay restart to prevent all of them coming on at once after a power outage.
For more information about the controller, visit PNNL's Accessible Technologies website.
Tags: Energy, Technology Transfer and Commercialization, Smart Grid
Battelle is the world's biggest non-profit independent research and development organization, providing innovative solutions to the world's most pressing needs through its 4 global businesses: Lab Management, National Security, Energy Technology, and Health and Life Sciences. It advances scientific discovery and application by conducting $5.2 billion in global R&D annually through contract research, Lab management and technology commercialization. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle oversees 20,400 employees in in excess of 130 locations worldwide, including 7 national labs which Battelle manages or co-manages for the D.O.E. and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and 2 international laboratories-a nuclear energy lab in the United Kingdom and a renewable energy lab in Malaysia.
Pacific Northwest National Lab is a D.O.E. Office of Science national Lab where interdisciplinary teams advance science and technology and deliver solutions to America's most intractable problems in energy, the environment and national security. PNNL employs 4,900 staff, has an yearly budget of nearly $1.1 billion, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965. Follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
