Under the terms of the agreement, CABA and ClimateTalk Alliance said they will establish forums for a timely and open exchange of information and establish vehicles to engage an array of stakeholders including the utility industry, regulatory organizations, energy service providers, building automation vendors, telecom firms, information technology vendors, consumer groups, and government organizations.

The first project that both organizations will be cooperating on is CABA’s “Impact of Smart Grid on Connected Homes” research project. This project is a new collaborative research study designed to improve the understanding of residential smart grid development and deployment in terms of: identifying market demand and growth areas for new products, comparing competing product strategies and communication of competitors, determining product preferences for end-users, developing messaging aimed at target audiences, defining critical success factors to expand product offerings to end-user markets, and establishing a market approach and foundation for strategic decision-making efforts. ClimateTalk Alliance will be participating as a Diamond Sponsor.

Ronald Zimmer, CABA president and CEO, said, “We are very pleased to be partnering with the ClimateTalk Alliance. This forward-thinking agreement will accelerate the application of intelligent technologies in homes and buildings to aid in the deployment of the smart grid.”

Diana Roberson, executive director, ClimateTalk Alliance, said, “This new relationship demonstrates our commitment to enhance cooperation in numerous areas with strong industry partners such as CABA. We anticipate that this agreement will provide a framework to develop greater support for standardized communications among HVAC and water heating equipment within the connected home.”

CABA is a non-profit industry association dedicated to the advancement of intelligent home and building technologies in North America. For more information, visit www.caba.org.

The ClimateTalk Alliance is a non-profit organization of companies committed to developing a common communication infrastructure for HVAC and smart grid devices, enabling the interoperability of diverse systems. For more information, visit www.climatetalk.org.

Publication date: 7/30/2012