Rainforest Automation and Bit Stew Systems Unite SEP 1.x and 2.0

Oct. 19, 2011 - PRLog -- Rainforest Automation, a developer of residential energy management products, unveiled its new SWIFT™ Smart Energy Wireless Information Terminal product along with Bit Stew’s Grid Director 2.0 Device Management Platform.  The SWIFT™ is a Home Area Network (HAN) device that displays home energy use on an 8-inch color touch screen.  It comes bundled with Rainforest’s popular RAVEn™ USB adapter that communicates directly with smart meters that have been equipped with ZigBee® Smart Energy Profile (SEP) 1.x wireless capability.  The SWIFT™ also has a built-in Wi-Fi radio with gateway software based on the preliminary version of SEP 2.0 recently approved by the ZigBee® Alliance.

“In addition to providing all of the functions of an in-home display, the SWIFT™ also translates the ZigBee® SEP 1.x data stream into SEP 2.0 over Wi-Fi, said Chris Tumpach, president of Rainforest Automation.  “This provides a painless upgrade path for the millions of SEP 1.x meters in the field today – without the need for a separate gateway.”

Rainforest Automation partnered with Bit Stew Systems, a leading provider of smart energy software solutions to the Utility Industry because of their knowledge and leadership in Smart Grid, HAN registration and management, cloud-based services and SEP 2.0 implementations.. In addition, Bit Stew Systems provides a robust platform featuring integrated functionality in AMI Management, Home Energy Management, Demand Response, Revenue Protection and Advanced Device Management. Bit Stew’s Grid Director 2.0 platform has recently been selected by a number of large utilities to support their on-going operations and deployment activities.

“The SWIFT™ connects seamlessly to our Grid Director 2.0 Platform suite,” said Kevin Collins, CEO of Bit Stew.  “This exploits the advantages of Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, extending the availability of real-time energy information to the Web, social networks, and mobile devices.  Utilities can now provide comprehensive access to smart meter data for their customers, secure in the knowledge that they will have access to all of the future potential provided by universal IP connectivity.”

The SWIFT™ uses the chumby software content platform as its operating system.  This gives consumers access to over 1500 additional apps, including many of the most popular internet services.  This means that latest versions of software are always available, and adding new features and updates is done automatically.

The SWIFT™ will be shipping in limited quantities in December.

About Rainforest Automation
Rainforest Automation, Inc. makes products that allow utilities and homeowners to manage residential energy usage.  From In-Home Displays (IHD), to Home Area Network (HAN) Gateways, to alternative Smart Grid communications, Rainforest makes innovative products that just work – and fit your budget.  The company is based in Vancouver, BC.  For more information, visit: http://www.rainforestautomation.com.

About Bit Stew Systems
Founded in 2005, Bit Stew Systems, Inc. started with the vision of building a robust scalable software platform that provides real-time analytics, dynamic event management and a fast and easy way to integrate other applications. Today, Bit Stew is setting the energy industry standard with its Grid Director 2.0 Platform for the new world of smart energy – a world of real-time customer interaction, automated workforce deployment and a single view into the new smart grid. For more information on Bit Stew’s solutions, visit http://www.bitstew.com.

Contact:
Bill Richardson
Rainforest Automation
604-630-4287
bill.richardson@rainforestautomation.com

Jett Winter
Bit Stew Systems
650 619-9000
jett@bitstew.com