More and more utilities companies are adding new devices to the grid, and are also incorporating new data sets into their operational capabilities. According to a recent Utilities Industry Survey, the smart grid implementation has increased by 25 percent in the last year.

Cashing in on this market trend, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) – a company offering energy management, communication and control solutions for the Smart Grid, has augmented its portfolio in utility metering, home and building automation and Smart Grid infrastructure with technology and tools.

According to a press release, Texas Instruments (News - Alert) has announced new metering ICs, connectivity, reference designs and software that ease development for energy management applications. These new solutions will enable developers to create secure, economical and future-proof solutions for the Smart Grid.

Some of the new technology and tools released for the utility metering, home and building automation and Smart Grid infrastructure include: 24 new energy meter integrated circuits (ICs) including the MSP430F673x/F672x family; CC2538 system-on-chip (SoC) – a powerful ZigBee SoC; and support for the new power line communication (PLC) protocol, G3-PLC.

Officials with TI said in a press release that the company is committed to advancing the efficiency of utility metering. In this regard, it recently introduced 24 new energy meter ICs that feature industry-leading accuracy, flexibility, robustness and system cost savings for 1-phase, 2-phase and 3-phase electricity meter solutions. These ICs can provide developers with more flexibility in electricity metering and energy monitoring applications.

Some among the 24 new ICs is the MSP430F673x/F672x family of energy meter ICs. These ICs feature as well as integrate key functionalities such as lowest power, most advanced metrology and clocking for high precision and robust electricity measurements design.

As an active participant in the development of the ZigBee Smart Energy standard, TI has rolled-out a new ZigBee system-on-chip (SoC)- CC2538 SoC. This SoC is a cost-effective radio frequency (RF) solution solution for Smart Grid communication that eases development of control applications for electricity, gas or water smart meters and in-home displays.

Apart from the CC2538 ZigBee SoC, TI has also rolled-out a high performance RF transceiver, CC1200. This solution is an evolution of the CC1120 sub-1 GHz RF performance line, which supports the full bandwidth of the 802.15.4g standard for wireless smart utility networks in the sub-1 GHz bands.

Furthermore, TI is also offering the new PLC data concentrator reference demo on the SGI evaluation platform. This SGI board will help developers reduce time-to-market as well as provide the option to add PLC communication supporting different protocol standards in one design. The platform supports various PLC standards, including PRIME, G3, FlexOFDM libraries and more, all on the same hardware.

TI is also committed to provide reliable power line communication (PLC) solutions. In this regard, the company has announced its support for the new PLC protocol, G3-PLC.

The company’s G3 software package supports its PLC product offerings such as the PLC development kits and PLC data concentrator. This will facilitate application compatibility with a variety of international requirements, as these PLC solutions are capable of supporting multiple protocol standards and modulation schemes with a single platform.

To read the smart grid predictions for 2012 on TMCnet, click here.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3 2012, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration, click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.