DG CONNECT & ETSI Workshop on Smart M2M Appliances
27 & 28 May 2014, DGCNECT, Avenue BEAULIEU 25, Brussels
Buildings are responsible for 40% of the EU's energy consumption and 36% of its CO2
emissions. Energy efficiency of buildings is key to achieving the EU Climate & Energy
objectives, such as fighting climate change and improving energy security, while also
creating job opportunities, particularly in the building sector. It contributes to achieve the
EU's concrete targets of a 20% reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in
energy efficiency of 20% by 2020. The recently adopted "Energy Efficiency Plan 2011"
reemphasizes that the greatest energy saving potential in the EU lies in buildings. The plan
focuses on instruments to trigger the renovation process in public and private buildings and
to improve the energy performance of the appliances used in them. It promotes the
exemplary role of the public sector, proposing to accelerate the refurbishment rate of public
buildings through a binding target and to introduce energy efficiency criteria in public
spending. It also stresses the role new technologies can play in empowering consumers to
make choices and behave in a more energy efficient manner.
BIM (Building Information Modelling) and BEMS (Building Energy Management Systems) is
still a fluent area open to innovation. But there is already a big progress on their
interoperability. The channel towards standardisation of new research outcomes, especially
towards the IFC standard of building SMART International, has been well established in the
last years.
The interoperability of the Smart Grid, necessary to implement the concept of Demand
Response and Demand Side Management, has made also good progress. The Commission
mandate M490 for Smart Grids standards resulted in the establishment of
CEN/CENELEC/ETSI Smart Grid Coordination Group, which has made already some
achievements.
However, the Smart Home ecosystem standardisation requires some additional thrust. The
Ad Hoc Industrial Advisory Group for the Public-Private Partnership on "Energy-Efficient
Buildings" has highlighted that issue frequently, including its proposal for a Research and
Innovation Agenda at H2020. The Energy Efficient Buildings Association (E2BA) has
communicated in the same direction. Our research projects provide evidence of proof of
concept installations where we obtain energy savings. However, all projects show a cost
barrier at connecting sensors, appliances and actuators.
The European Commission has decided to boost the progress in this area. The Commission
has just launched the “Study on the available semantics assets for the interoperability of
Smart Appliances, Mapping into a common ontology as an M2M application layer semantics
(SMART 2013/0077)”. We hope the study will provide the background material enabling all
stakeholders to discuss a single ontology for home appliances. The deliverables of the study
SMART 2013/0077 will be designed and used as an input to the ETSI work.
ETSI has also recognised the importance of semantic interoperability. The capability of the
M2M system specified by ETSI/oneM2M to enable applications to discover, interpret and
use M2M data from different sources, is considered essential for creating high-level M2M
services. As a part of the European Commission’s concept the Commission formally assigned
ETSI to lead and organize the development of a standard on Smart Appliances Ontology and
assure that it is fully ETSI M2M architecture conformant and recognized as an asset of the
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M2M community. ETSI being a Partner of the oneM2M Partnership Project representing the
specific requirements of the European region (in particular when raised by the European
Commission) will take care to progress the Smart Appliances Ontology to a world standard
based on oneM2M specifications.
In its meeting in November 2013 ETSI’s General Assembly approved “Smart Appliances” as
an ETSI strategy topic for 2014.
This DG CONNECT & ETSI Workshop on Smart M2M Appliances follows a series of previous
workshops with an increasing number of participants, which resulted in a common dream, a
new generation of smart appliances, with active behaviour at energy efficiency
management, conformant to a “plug and play” interoperability capacity, and a clear
mandate to start with a HIGH-LEVEL (SEMANTIC) MODELLING of information to be
exchanged.
Works have started, and the aims of this workshop are:

To inform about the study SMART 2013/0077. To report about the First Interim study
report that covers the stocktaking of existing semantic assets and use case assets.
This report includes (1) a description of each asset found, (2) a semantic map that
shows the semantic overlaps and differences between the assets, and (3) a
conclusion section that indicates which existing models are in the core of the smart
appliances domain. To explain the next steps and to explain how to participate in the
open consultation.

To inform about ETSI M2M horizontal platform strategy. To report about the M2M
architecture and semantic and interworking specification work of ETSI/oneM2M as
well as approaches to testing and certification. To introduce the communication
Framework and get feedback from the Smart Appliances Stakeholders during a round
table discussion.
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