Report on activities of the ECHONET Consortium (Jan.-Mar. 2019)
Classification

Current activities(1) The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced the start of international standard development for ECHONET Lite AIF
specifications between home air conditioners and HEMS controllers
・Since 2017, we have been working to make ECHONET Lite AIF specifications between home air conditioners and HEMS controllers aninternational standard under ISO/IEC JTC1 SC25 WG1. A vote was held on December 21, 2018 by representatives of member countries under
the New Work Item Proposal (NP) and Working Draft (WD), and the measure was approved as (ISO/IEC 14543-4-301). In response to this, onFebruary 6, 2019, METI announced that it would start developing an international standard for the purpose of obtaining approval as aninternational standard specification. The Consortium will make further efforts to obtain approval as an international standard specification.

Topics(2) The Tenth Forum was held on February 8, 2019
・On February 8, the Tenth Forum was held at the Large Hall, Seavans S Building 1F.
The forum was a success, with 86 total participants and special lectures by Mr. Koizumi from the Information Economy Division, Commerceand Information Policy Bureau at METI, Dr. Masao Isshiki, professor at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology, and Mr. Kawasaki fromPanasonic.
There were also reports given by commissioners on their activities during 2018, while member companies introduced their technologies. A
presentation on usage procedures and a demonstration of the “ECHONET Lite Web API experimental cloud” that started service in December
were then given to promote better understanding.
(3) ENEX2019/Smart Energy Japan2019 Exhibitions
・Co-exhibit booth and seminar with the Smart House Research Center, Kanagawa Institute of Technology at ENEX2019/Smart Energy
Japan 2019 (Jan 30, 2019 through Feb 1, 2019) held at Tokyo Big Sight.
At the co-exhibit booth, sixteen ECHONET Consortium member companies and two non-member companies exhibited ECHONET Liteproducts and technologies, successfully demonstrating the popularization status of ECHONET Lite to a large number of visitors.
(1) The Tenth Forum was held on February 8, 2019
・On February 8, the Tenth Forum was held at the Large Hall, Seavans S Building 1F.
The forum was successful with 86 total participants, including special lectures given by Mr. Koizumi from the Information Economy Division,
Commerce and Information Policy Bureau at METI, Dr. Masao Isshiki, professor of the Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Mr. Kawasaki fromPanasonic. The forum successfully ended with reports by commissioners on their activities during 2018, while member companies introduced
their technologies.
Then, a presentation on usage procedures and a demonstration of the “ECHONET Lite Web API experimental cloud” that started service inDecember were given deepen understanding of participants.

SteeringCommittee(2) Implemented audit for ECHONET Lite AIF specifications by certification body and test laboratory
・As a result of deliberation on internal audits implemented on certification bodies and test laboratories certified during 2018, we decided tocontinue the current system in 2019 as well.
(3) METI released news of their activities to make ECHONET Lite AIF specifications into international standards
・On February 6, METI announced activities to make ECHONET Lite AIF specifications between home air conditioners and HEMS controllers
into an international standard, which we are co-promoting with the Kanagawa Institute of Technology and with the help of the METI.
METI: http://www.meti.go.jp/press/2018/02/20190206001/20190206001.html
Kanagawa Institute of Technology: http://sh-center.org/hemsinfo/3026(1) Detailed Requirements for Device objects
・Started member reviews of APPENDIX Detailed Requirements for Device Objects Release L, a newly-added hybrid water heater class, andmade additional changes to properties for bathroom pre-warmer operation settings and the electric energy sensor class.
(2) Test tools
・Updated AIF certification test tools to Ver 1.3.0 (aif_tool-1.3.0). The update mainly includes additions and revisions to dummy device
functions, displaying sender IP addresses, emphasis and color coding of logs, supporting AIF specifications Ver1.1* for household solar power
generation, and the like.
・ Fixed bugs and updated test tools for low/high-voltage smart electric energy meters Ver.1.12G-R8.

TechnicalCommittee(3) ECHONET Lite WebAPI・ Demonstrated the experimental cloud at the Tenth Forum as a special exhibition.
(4) Held Plug Fest・ The second Plug Fest for fiscal 2018 was held February 14–15 at the HEMS Test Center, Kanagawa Institute of Technology. This time,seven teams from seven companies participated.
(5) Other・The COMPARISON OF IOT DEVICE ARCHITECTURE IN HOME NETWORKS with organized features of ECHONET Lite architecture wasadopted at an overseas academic conference, the 13th Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (MCCSIS).
(1) Promotional activities in Japan:
・ Shared information, including the activities of the JEMA HEMS Expert Committee, the HEMS Promotion Working Group, and the ERAB
Study Session/Smart House and Building Standards Project Promotion Study Session.
・To start a subsidized project for ZEH+, we started considering case studies that will get the attention of ZEH builders.

Promotion
Committee(2) International promotional activities:
・ Presented a general explanation of ECHONET Lite and provided demonstration using test substrates at Chulalongkorn University inThailand to around 110 students. Taught some students how to give demonstrations through explanations on open source and the tools
necessary to develop applications.
(3) Promotional activities in Japan:
・Exhibited at ENEX2019 & Smart Energy Japan 2019 Co-exhibit by the Kanagawa Institute of Technology and ECHONET Consortium atTokyo Big Sight (Wed. Jan 30 through Fri. February 1) at Tokyo Big Sight. A total 43,622 persons visited the venue.
With help of 18 companies (including 16 member companies), we successfully exhibited their technologies and ECHONET 2.0 concepts at themassive co-exhibit booth 20 segments in size.
(4) Overall activities
・We have been promoting approaches to health device manufacturers based on ECHONET 2.0 policy.