Sales of home energy management (HEM) system is expected to grow rapidly over the next several years as technology vendors like Microsoft and Google are moving into the HEM market and investment from governments and utilities are pouring into smart grid and smart meter deployments, according to a report from Pike research.
The report, ‘Home Energy Management’, also stated that offering energy information displays (EIDs) and other energy management technology will be a key aspect of smart grid initiatives for utilities, which will become the prime distribution channels for these systems.
While there are dozens of EID vendors in the marketplace today, only a few have shipped significant quantities of devices so far. Nevertheless, consumer interest in technology offering more information about, and more control over, energy usage is high, the report said.
Over half of respondents were very or extremely interested in having a device in their home to monitor and adjust their energy usage, according to a consumer survey conducted by Pike Research.
The report analyzes the drivers of supply and demand in the market, explores the principal technology issues, profiles the offerings and strategies of the leading vendors, and presents a forecast of the global market through 2015.
The report forecasts the global market for EIDs to grow from low levels to millions of units shipped per year by 2012. Pike Research forecasts that in 2015, almost five million in-home devices will ship globally, mostly to US and European homes.
The firm foresees rapid continued growth in subsequent years as well: by 2015, there will be over 11.1 million users of web dashboards worldwide, plus more than 2.6 million users of energy management applications on mobile devices. In all, there will be 28.1 million users of home energy management systems worldwide by 2015.
Bob Gohn, senior analyst of Pike Research, said: “The global installed base of smart meters will reach into the hundreds of millions in the next five years.
“Forward-thinking utilities around the world are carefully making plans for ways that consumers can utilize the new capabilities offered by smart meters, and the smart grid customer experience inevitably includes a strong focus on home energy management.”