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Pike Research Forecasts Home Energy Management Systems to Surpass 40 Million Worldwide by 2020 (15/10/2012)

Until recently the market for home energy management (HEM) systems has been stuck in near neutral, with anemic customer adoption and a crowded field of struggling vendors. According to a recent report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant’s Energy Practice, that is starting to change, as consumers look for ways to save on their energy costs, utilities push to meet higher energy efficiency targets, and vendors deliver products with popular appeal and viable business models. Shipments of HEM systems, both standalone and networked, will rise steadily over the remainder of this decade, and the installed base of households with HEM systems will grow to more than 40 million in 2020, the study concludes.

“The HEM market is not going to be the land rush some foresaw five years ago,” says senior research analyst Neil Strother. “But there are increasing signals that the market will fulfill at least a portion of its potential in the coming years. The key factors to accelerating this struggling segment are convincing consumers of the benefits of the technology – slim savings of three percent to five percent may not be enough for them to change – and lowering the costs of HEM hardware.”

Ultimately, the question surrounding HEM is: does it actually help consumers reduce their consumption of electricity and therefore save money? The short answer is: yes it can, but recent studies have indicated that the savings, at least for the moment, may be too small to motivate large numbers of consumers. Nonetheless, as the industry moves to more sophisticated types of reporting, including in-home displays and networked HEM systems, the potential cost savings will be more dramatic (10 percent or more), according to the report. This should be encouraging news to vendors of HEM systems.

The report, “Home Energy Management”, examines global and regional home energy management trends as they play out along a continuum of five segments: paper bills, web portals, standalone systems, in-home displays, and integrated HAN/HEM systems. The study also explores the drivers and inhibitors shaping the market, plus major technology issues. It provides market forecasts through 2020, with breakdowns by these five segments and by world regions. Key vendor profiles, analysis of new players, and case studies are included as well. In addition to the supply-side analysis, results from a Pike Research consumer survey focus on the demand side of HEM as well, making for a complete market overview. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Pike Research website.

www.navigant.com/pikeresearch