Non-utility providers and smart thermostats will help drive steady growth, report concludes
Until 2012, home energy management (HEM) systems, which help residential customers monitor and adjust their energy use, struggled to gain market traction. More recently, however, non-utility stakeholders have moved into this segment, increasing awareness of new tools and helping to drive steady growth.
The market is expected to decline significantly after that, to $1.8 billion in 2022, the report finds.
“Companies like Comcast, ADT, Verizon, and AT&T in the United States have added energy management as an option that can be bundled with home security, automation, or internet access,” says Neil Strother, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “The uptake of home energy management by consumers is still relatively low, but these service providers are seeding a market that has reasonable potential over the next several years.”
The primary driver for HEM systems is consumers’ desire to reduce their electricity bills. At the same time, the advent of smart thermostats – which include two-way communications capabilities that can take advantage of demand response signals – is creating new appeal among consumers and utilities alike. The acquisition of smart thermostat maker Nest Labs by Google, for a reported $3.2 billion, is seen by many industry observers as a potential watershed moment for the overall HEM market.
The report, “Home Energy Management”, examines global and regional HEM trends as they play out along a continuum of five segments that include: paper bills, web portals, standalone HEM, in-home displays, and networked HEM. The study explores the drivers and inhibitors shaping the market, plus major technology issues. Global HEM market forecasts, broken out by these five segments and world regions, extend through 2022. The report also includes key vendor profiles and analysis of new players, as well as case studies that illustrate the various stages of HEM market maturity.
