How energy data will impact the smart grid

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Introduction: Data meets the smart grid
  3. Data and home energy management
  4. Big data and building energy management
  5. Energy data and the utilities
  6. The future of energy data and the grid
  7. Conclusions: The state of investment
  8. Key takeaways
  9. About Adam Lesser

1. Summary

The deployment of smart meters combined with the growth of cloud computing infrastructure has created opportunities to build business models around the volume of emerging energy data. Estimates indicate that when smart meters are fully deployed, they will generate 1,000 petabytes of data a year, about five times the amount of data on AT&T’s network.

That said, challenges remain in terms of dealing with utilities as business customers, getting consumers interested in their own energy behavior, standardizing protocols for effective device-to-device communication, and providing a compelling ROI case beyond just energy efficiency. Energy efficiency plays that use data to solve customer problems and leverage decades of software development and advances in big data will attract investment dollars.

Key highlights of this report:

  • The bias toward software development over hardware development in cleantech investing creates a positive environment for a value-oriented energy data startup.
  • Emerging business models in home energy management are taking advantage of cloud infrastructure and channel partners to sell products and services in the home market.
  • The future of building management systems (BMS) is effectively integrating systems with the smart grid to participate in revenue-generating programs like demand response.
  • Utilities are facing key pain points and also have primary concerns when deciding which big data software tools to pilot.

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