1. Professor Chih-Lin Hu from National Central University, Taiwan is welcomed as an Advisory Fellow
Professor Chih-Lin Hu from National Central University, Taiwan is welcomed as a 4th Advisory Fellow as of February 10th. He has deep ties with ECHONET Consortium including introducing ECHONET Lite and ECHONET Lite Web API to Taiwan. Recently, he has been working to hold seminars such as “Japan-Taiwan Smart Energy Seminar 2024” and has supported our activities in Taiwan by introducing Taiwanese energy, EV, and smart home companies to ECHONET Consortium.
2. The 22nd ECHONET Forum
The 22nd ECHONET Forum was held on Friday, February 7 in a hybrid format, both in person and online.
3. ECHONET Symposium 2025
ECHONET Symposium 2025 was held on March 12th with the theme of “Smart Homes Connected with Local Communities – ECHONET 2.0 Solving Energy Conservation, Disaster Prevention, and Health Issues.”
4. Controllers that comply with the ECHONET Lite AIF specifications have become a requirement for the Childrearing Green Housing Support Project by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Ministry of the Environment
Controllers that comply with the ECHONET Lite AIF specifications have become a requirement for advanced energy management in the Childrearing Green Housing Support Project (Housing Support Project), a joint project of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Ministry of the Environment, and were listed on the Childrearing Green Housing Support Project’s website on March 21st.
5. Introducing ECHONET Lite Web API in Cabinet Office’s Smart City Reference Architecture
A column in the “Smart City Reference Architecture, Third Edition,” published on the Cabinet Office website on March 31, explained ECHONET Lite Web API and included an example of its use, “Elderly Care in Nomi City, Ishikawa Prefecture.”
6. Plug Fest
The 32nd Plug Fest was held at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology HEMS Certification Support Center on February 13th and 14th (with remote participation via VPN), and members from two companies and two teams participated (https://echonet.jp/plugfest_report_32/).
7. ENEX 2025
We exhibited at ENEX 2025, which was held at Tokyo Big Sight from January 29th to 31st, in collaboration with Kanagawa Institute of Technology.
1. Revision of roadmap for popularization and expansion
We have revised our roadmap for popularization and expansion adoption to reflect the latest market and policy trends. We also established an “Approach to the spread of ECHONET 2.0” to contribute to carbon neutrality and data distribution by promoting the spread of ECHONET devices and expanding service collaboration (October 2024).
2. Revision of certification registration fee
We have revised the certification registration fees of ECHONET Lite Standard Conformance Certification and Interface Specifications for Application Layer Communication Conformance Certification on October 1st, 2024.
3. Publication of IEC international standard
The international standardization of the contents of the APPENDIX Detailed Requirements for ECHONET Device objects Release Q rev.1, which has been carried out with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and the cooperation of Industry and the cooperation of Kanagawa Institute of Technology, has been completed and was published as IEC 62394 Edition 5.0 on October 30, 2024.
4. ECHONET Lite standards / System Design Guidelines
The English version of “Examples of Application for the Matter ECHONET Lite Bridge 1st edition”, which Japanese version was released to the public in June 2024, has been released to the public (October 2024).
5. Test tool
Low-Voltage / High-Voltage Smart Energy Meter Test Tool Ver.2.1.1 and AIF Certification Test Tool for other devices Ver.2.2.0 has been released for the members (October 2024).
6. CEATEC 2024
We exhibited at CEATEC 2024, which was held at Makuhari Messe from Tuesday, October 15th to Friday, October 18th, 2024. We also delivered online seminars at the CETAEC 2024 Online Sessions from Tuesday, October 1st to Thursday, October 31st, 2024.
We have announced the revision of the certification registration fee for ECHONET Lite Standard Conformance Certification and Application Communication Interface Specification Conformance Certification System. The new certification registration fee will apply to certification applications submitted to a certification body on or after October 1, 2024.
2. 21st ECHONET Forum
The 21st ECHONET Forum was held on July 4, 2024, with speeches from Masaki Umejima, Convener of the Smart Energy Development Plan of the International Electrotechnical Commission System Committee, and Akira Ishida, Director of the New Business and Standardization Promotion Department of the Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association. In addition, the three member companies introduced their technologies, and the ECHONET Consortium’s activity plan for FY2024 including the revision of the certification registration fee was introduced.
3. Plug Fest
The 31st Plug Fest was held from September 5th to 6th at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology HEMS Interoperability Test Center (with remote participation via VPN), with the “Multi-input PCS Class” as the highlight device, and members from 4 companies and 4 teams participated.
4. Guidance for Service Linkage
We have released “Guidance for Service Linkage Using ECHONET Lite Web API Ver. 1.00,” which summarizes methods for linking multiple clouds to integrate with services.
The 11th regular general meeting was held on June 24th, 2024. The FY2023 activity report, the FY2024 business plan and the revenues & expenditures budget plan were reported, and the financial statements for FY2023, appointments of 3 board members, appointment of 1 auditor and revision of Regulations on Membership Dues were approved and passed.
2. Change of Representative Director
With the expiration of his term, the representative director of the ECHONET Consortium has been replaced by Katsuhiko Hiramatsu (Panasonic Corporation). We would also like to inform you that the managing director has been replaced by Kenji Shiraishi (ECHONET Consortium secretariat).
3. ECHONET Lite devices Shipment Quantity Survey Report
We compiled the number of units shipped for FY2023 reported by our member companies and reported on our website that the cumulative number of units shipped by the end of FY2023 would reach approximately 150 million units.
4. ECHONET Lite Web API Certification WG was established
We aim to establish a certification structure and authentication system so that ECHONET Lite Web APIs can be smoothly adopted in the market.
5. ECHONET Lite standards / System Design Guidelines
English version of “between low-voltage smart electric energy meters and controllers Ver.1.10”, “between high-voltage smart electric energy meters and EMS controllers Ver.1.01” and “between bidirectional high-voltage smart electric energy meters and controllers Ver.1.00” were release to the public. (May 2024)
6. Detailed Requirements for ECHONET Device objects
“Detailed Requirements for ECHONET Device objects Release R rev.2” that added property values to the “Electric Vehicle Charger Class.” was released to the public. (April 2024)
English version of “Detailed Requirements for ECHONET Device objects Release R” was released to the public. (April 2024)
English version of “Detailed Requirements for ECHONET Device objects Release R rev.1” was released to the public. (May 2024)
English version of “Detailed Requirements for ECHONET Device objects Release R rev21” was released to the public. (June 2024)
7. Test tool
“AIF Certification Test Tool for other devices Ver.2.1.0” which includes updated test procedures and scenarios for residential solar power generation and storage batteries, has been released exclusively to members. (June 2024)
8. Matter ECHONET Lite Bridge Application Examples
We have released to the public “Matter ECHONET Lite Bridge Application Examples 1st Edition,” which outlines the interoperability between Matter devices and ECHONET Lite devices. (June 2024)
9. CHAdeMO-ECHONET Lite Cooperation Guidelines
We have released to the public “CHAdeMO-ECHONET Lite Cooperation Guidelines Ver.1.10” which describes the conversion and standardization guidelines for automotive battery-related properties between CHAdeMO and ECHONET Lite. (June 2024)
◆ ECHONET Consortium activity report (detailed version) (2024 4Q)[PDF：197KB]