“Since the 1980s, energy efficiency has been one of the key drivers of home automation, which is what it was called back then,” said Elizabeth Parks, president and CMO at research group Parks Associates. “It was a systems play where the major players were developing main control systems with HVAC, and the thermostats and controls back then weren’t connected to an app, but had controls on them.”
“All the other devices have been a slow evolution,” Parks said. “There isn’t and hasn’t been breakthrough technology. If you look back five years, purchase rates were low and there was high adoption, but now there aren't a lot of replacements or updates. There aren’t a lot of people buying smart thermostats, which creates a slow and steady build.”
“We think that microgrids and virtual power plants will play into consumer activity by individual homes connected with energy storage,” she added. “In some places, they are already doing it. For example, Southern Company is working on the orchestration of the grid, and it trickles into the individual household with the connected devices. It’s the bridge to make the grid work in a new way.”
“Lots of good things will be happening in the future,” Parks said. “It’s a slow and steady market, but it will grow through the services side. Home services will help connect with service providers and mean different ecosystem players come together in different ways in partnerships to play off of one another in the name of energy efficiency.”
Parks Associates is currently working on research on energy specific services that will be growing in the future and already sees that HVAC tune up service is growing by 11%, where 12M households will pay an annual fee to check systems.
“There are growing opportunities for different channels,” she continued. “Energy safety and security are key drivers for this growth, like HVAC and AI software. The big problem will be the data centers. It’s so big that there will be a focus on that and how to reduce energy use there to create more in other places.”
From the article, "The Transformation of Making, Storing, and Keeping Energy Reliable" by Jennifer Castenson
