Powerline Update

2002 Update on the Powerline Industry

Industry Overview

Approximately 60 “trials” have been conducted worldwide in Access alone, mostly in European countries. The major Powerline vendors have come to call these “Introductory Systems” rather than trials. With the legalisation of Powerline most countries are now beyond the stage of trials.

Public acceptance has been slow. In the European market there is no primary need for Powerline as alternative competitive systems are already in place, or, else are becoming economically attractive. Powerline still has a lot of enemies.

The former forums, PTF and IPCF dissolved in the spring of 2000. The new PLCforum grew out of a combination of the two former organisations. It has today about 80 member companies and meets about 4 times a year. www.plcforum.org

While the principal purpose of founding the PLCforum had been to have only one worldwide organization, this did not in fact happen. The interests of the in-house Powerline applications seemed under-represented by the PLCforum, which continued to be dominated by electrical utilities and the established players in the Powerline industry. Thus, the HomePlug Alliance was also founded in the US in 2000. It has also about 80 member companies and meets about two times a year. www.homeplug.org

In the PLCforum there is growing interest in the in-house applications and in business not confined to Europe. Conversely, in the HomePlug Alliance, there is continued interest in future access applications of the technology.

The realisation that in-house systems can only be marketed if they comply with the evolving European and International standards led HomePlug members to abandon their first idea to sell product, thereby establishing an ad-hoc standard and thus penetrate the markets quickly.

Representatives of HomePlug are found today in all major standards organisations, working alongside their European colleagues.