QualityLogic Tools Help Advance Smart Grid Efforts

Businesses can dedicate piles of cash, and loads of time and human resources, to developing and introducing new products, but it all won’t amount to a hill of beans if the solution doesn’t work in the end. That’s why leading technology companies from around the world rely on QualityLogic’s testing products, quality assurance and engineering services.

QualityLogic solutions ensure conformance, performance, and interoperability both for individual products and systems. Such household names as Adobe, AT&T, Canon, Cisco, Dell, HP, Huawei, IBM, Kodak and Microsoft rely on QualityLogic solutions.

The company’s offerings are aimed at IT departments and web developers that want to ensure web applications or websites meet their quality objectives; network infrastructure equipment manufacturers and carriers with IP fax interoperability assurance requirements; printer outfits seeking validation of their products; software developers looking for the same; and smart grid companies that want to make sure their stuff works with other components and the compliance requirements of these new systems.

Dave Jollota, president and CEO of QualityLogic, tells TMC that a couple of years ago the 25-year-old company began to focus on the smart grid. Its focus is on writing test suites to ensure there’s interoperability between meters and consumers.

The OpenADR Alliance, which was established in December, contracted QualityLogic to develop a certification test tool for smart grid implementations. The test software that QualityLogic is writing as part of the effort will be used by certification labs, and may be used by vendors to pre-test before they get to the lab stage, explains Jollota.

QualityLogic is also a test partner on a five-state effort called the Pacific Northwest SMART GRID project, which is in part funded by federal government stimulus money. This will be a pilot test that will enable energy wholesalers and retailers to communicate about what energy is available at any given time and at what price. Jollota says 11 utilities, a couple universities, and the Bonneville Power Administration are involved.

Meanwhile, Jollota adds, the industry at large continues to move forward on the Smart Energy Profile 2.0. QualityLogic offers the Smart Energy Profile 2.0 Test System, which validates application-layer interoperability between HomePlug, Wi-Fi and ZigBee, Smart Energy Profile 2.0-enabled devices.

Commercial products based on SEP 2.0 are expected to be available in the beginning of next year, he says.

Original Content: www.iotevolutionworld.com