"smart grid" articles

According to Parks Associates research, the percentage of broadband households not intending to purchase a smart home device due to security and privacy concerns has increased from 21% in Q1 2017 to 32% in Q1 2018. Further, more than one-fourth of U.S. broadband households strongly agree that it’s impossible to keep their personal data away from unauthorized users. Security and privacy concerns are clearly becoming top of mind for many connected consumers. As the number of...

Prior to the ninth-annual  Smart Energy Summit in Austin , Parks Associates sat down with  Jessie H. Shoemaker , Energy Storage Business Developer, Mercedes-Benz Energy Americas, to discuss the future trajectory of the energy industry: What are the barriers to bringing together a broad ecosystem of smart home products that work together as an energy management system? The barriers to unifying a cohesive ecosystem of products are myriad. There’s the general...

Prior to the ninth-annual  Smart Energy Summit in Austin , Parks Associates sat down with  Alton Martin with Trusource Labs , to discuss the future trajectory of the energy industry: What are the barriers to bringing together a broad ecosystem of smart home products that work together as an energy management system? Due to a lack of industry-wide interoperability standards, there is little incentive for companies to “play nice” with each other. Each...

Prior to the ninth-annual  Smart Energy Summit in Austin , Parks Associates sat down with  Manoj Kumar , CEO at Powerley, to discuss the future trajectory of the energy industry: What are the barriers to bringing together a broad ecosystem of smart home products that work together as an energy management system? Historically, the primary barrier has been the lack of a closed loop between energy and smart home products which has impeded proliferation of home...

Prior to the ninth-annual  Smart Energy Summit in Austin , Parks Associates sat down with  Deb Merril , Co-Chief Executive Officer, Just Energy, to discuss the future trajectory of the energy industry: What are the barriers to bringing together a broad ecosystem of smart home products that work together as an energy management system? A first key point is to understand what customers want. The energy industry is complicated enough, and consumers are...

Imagine a hot summer night in Phoenix, one of the hottest major cities in the United States. I’m visiting my grandmother’s home while on a break from college and sleeping on the pullout couch in her guest room. It’s 2 a.m., and I have awoken feeling quite warm and am unable to return to a peaceful slumber. That’s because my grandma has turned up the thermostat to 82 degrees. Her formative years were during the height of the Great Depression, and throughout the course of her life,...

Parks Associates held its eighth-annual Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer this week at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas. The annual conference included research presentations from the firm’s analysts, with industry leaders examining the expanding market for energy solutions and home controls and its impact on utilities, service providers, retailers, manufacturers, and consumers. During the event, Parks Associates held several contests for attendees and would like...

Alton Martin, Chief Evangelist at Trusource Labs, provided insight on several key industry trends for Parks Associates’  eighth-annual Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer , which was held February 20-22 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas: What do you think is the most challenging issue for your company as it relates to the residential energy management market? As a supplier to the providers of residential power, the biggest impact we see is the...