The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) is working on a standard for Power Over eSATA, negating the need for a separate power cable.

An excerpt from VNUnet:

“Its fast transfer rate and efficient protocol makes eSATA the highest-performing external mainstream storage connection,” said Knut Grimsrud, SATA-IO president and Intel Fellow.

“Enhancing eSATA with power delivery will provide a new level of convenience to the designer and the end user.

“By eliminating the need for a separate power connection, customers can more easily expand their storage, making Serial ATA an even more attractive solution for mainstream storage applications.”

Presently USB 2.0 and Firewire-based devices enjoy the advantage of single power and data bus. Bringing such advantages to eSATA-based storage would be a great advantage to portable devices.

The specification is expected to be finalized and devices made available by the second half of 2008.

More information:

eSATA to shed the power plug (News.com)

New standard plans power delivery via eSATA (Ars Technica)

Spec will let external SATA drives cut power cables (Computer World)