In recent days, food quality and its monitoring have been in the news with the recall by Ireland of all its pork products. This emerged after organic pollutants known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were detected in pork fat during routine monitorng. PCBs are dioxins that emanate from fires and other forms of combustion. A small number of dioxins can cause skin disease or cancer and can damage immune andreproductive systems. The essential cause of the problem in Ireland is that machine oil accidentally contaminated pig feed in a food recycling plant. This feed was then given to pigs in just 19 farms in the island of Ireland but because pork is used in diverse products including processed foods it is perceived as difficult to trace. The economic effects are potentially catastrophic. 1400 jobs have been lost so far in Irish pork processing industries and this could rise to 6000. And of course the damage to the image of Irish food is immense.

One could argue that the deployment of smart sensors could help avoid such disasters for the food industry. This of course is not the first problem with food quality and issues have occurred in virtually every continent. The key point is that WSNs can play a role in the detection of contaminants in a timely fashion. The recent incident in Ireland took 3 months to come to light. Regulation driving the deployment of sensors to detect contaminants in food producing environments would deliver information to food safety authorities on a timely basis. WSNs can be deployed throughout the supply chain. RFID or indeed RFID sensors could be used to tag and trace pork from the farm to the supermarket shelves thus removing the need for blanket recalls and the untold damage this does to the reputation of the food industry in a country.

We have already examined the issue of food quality and the role WSNs can play in assisting the maintenance of same in a whitepaper on our site. We will be publishing an updated version of this paper in the coming year.

Shifting energy usage from peak hours to other parts of the day is critical for greater energy efficiency. General Electric (GE) (http://www.ge.com) has recently launched a program for the delivery of smart appliances with the goal of superior energy management. For example, GE's smart refrigerator has an automatic defrost feature which is based on the number of times the refrigerator door is opened. The refrigerator can potentially delay defrost cycles from taking place during peak hours with the result that consumers pay less money for the same energy usage.

GE has also launched a program of smart appliances with Louisville Gas & Electric Company (LG&E).. Under this program, Energy management enabled appliances will be placed in a select number of participating pilot homes which will be equipped to receive and respond to signals from LG&E. This solution was discussed in a previous blog entry where it was argued that consumers and/or their smart meters/actuators would need to receive data about energy usage in order to respond appropriately. GE also intends to introduce energy management enabled ranges, laundry pairs, dishwashers and microwave ovens. Consumers will then be notified of a rate change or of peak pricing on their appliance displays so that consumers will know when higher rates are in effect. Appliances can be programmed to avoid energy usage at peak times but consumers will ultimately have control as they can override this program.

The diagram below summarises at a high level how energy data is transferred from smart grids to smart appliances. However, there is a lot of complexity and potential problems that need to be considered. For example, how is the usage data transferred from engineering units into a reading that makes sense to the consumer? Where is this energy usage data stored? How do we provide Business Intelligence capability for the vast quantities of energy usage data that is generated? How can we transfer this data from remotely located smart meters to a consumer's Internet account or their mobile phone? How can the utility company provide this data to the ERP and other Information Systems? Vertoda can provide an answer to all of these questions.

The diagram below summarises the potential benefits of a smart metering system that integrates Vertoda. Raw data is translated by the Vertoda system and can be stored either in Vertoda's own database or loaded into the company's proprietary database system.The utility company's ERP, Business Intelligence and other Information Systems can all access the new pool of energy information for making decisions regarding energy needs and network planning. Consumers will also benefit from a utility company's use of Vertoda.Meaningful information can be delivered to smart appliances, mobile phones and email accounts in a timely fashion. Using Vertoda can help tap into the potential for smart grids and smart meters to more efficiently manage energy from the perspective of both the consumer and the supplier.