A few months back in an editorial (see "Say watt?" April 2002), I questioned whether proponents of powerline networking were right to be focusing on high-speed data. I suggested that home-control and power-usage applications might be a better fit.

It turns out that there is someone pursuing such a strategy, even while earlier schemes like Echelon's LonWorks and the CEBus (Consumer Electronics Bus) have stagnated. Upstart Optimal Technologies, which specializes in optimizing power grids, will soon offer up a product family called Surefast that aims to bring power management to the home.

CEO Roland Schoettle believes that most power-conservation initiatives aimed at the residence have shortsightedly relied on simply reducing demand. An example would be air-conditioning thermostats that the power company can disable in times of peak demand. Schoettle claims that rather than merely turning things off, utilities can squeeze more out of the grid by measuring the power load—especially what engineers refer to as the "reactive" load—and adjusting the flow of electricity accordingly. Such power monitoring is already used in power sinks such as factories, but hasn't been cheap enough for residential use.

Optimal plans to use its power expertise to insert a residential gateway with power-management capabilities into homes. The company has developed a proprietary powerline communication scheme that it claims costs about a tenth as much as LonWorks. The Surefast scheme will connect the gateway to ModBots—modules that monitor the power load and control lighting, air-conditioning, and other systems. The company also claims the system can coexist with LonWorks, CEBus, and X10 schemes.

The company is due to start a three-phase trial of the technology in the San Francisco area later this summer. The gateways can be connected via dialup links, but Optimal believes broadband connections have the most appeal. In fact, power may just be a Trojan Horse; Optimal plans for its gateway to support other technologies like voice and video.

Though they're compelling, we'll reserve judgment on Optimal's claims , not only because the company is relatively unknown but also because scores of other companies have failed with grand gateway plans. If the San Francisco trial succeeds, however, the company won't be in the background for long.