Greentech Lead America: With an effort to deliver energy management services to their home automation or home security packages, broadband service providers (BSPs) have begun offering home energy management (HEM) services in recent years.
Although these services promise to help consumers reduce or more efficiently control their energy consumption, and thus their utility bills, adoption so far has been tepid.
Nevertheless, according to a new research brief from Pike Research, the number of subscribers to HEM services from BSPs in North America will grow steadily through the end of this decade, reaching nearly 900,000 by the end of 2020.
“This nascent market has yet to find real traction among consumers even though market drivers do exist,” says senior research analyst Neil Strother. “Consumers’ desire to reduce their monthly energy bills, new-home construction, and home remodeling present opportunities to install the necessary hardware, and the increasing competition among BSPs in this space demonstrates some market validation. BSPs, however, will need to lower barriers in order to maximize this somewhat limited opportunity.”
Those barriers include the relatively high cost of HEM hardware, in addition to recurring service fees; contracts that require multi-year commitments; uncertain returns on investment for consumers; energy costs that, for the moment, are relatively low and stable; a lack of technology standards; a crowded, confusing market; and lukewarm utility support.
Most U.S. consumers (63 percent) say they are interested in HEM, according to a recent Pike Research survey, but most are not aware that BSPs currently offer HEM services.
The research brief, “Home Energy Management from Broadband Service Providers”, analyzes the market opportunity for broadband service providers seeking to drive adoption of home energy management products among their residential customers.
Pike Research