Demand Response just keeps coming — and the markets and potential just keep growing. I read this Forbes post by Aaron Tilley, a Forbes staff writer (who lives at the intersection of energy and technology, a great residence indeed) complements of Frank Maricic’s, Director of Sales & Marketing at Joule Assets post on LinkedIn’s Commercial Automation Group.
Tilley captures the impact well enough: “Honeywell doesn’t release the number of thermostats it has installed but the company tells me that it sells millions every year. The company currently works with more than 60 utilities in the US and around a dozen in places like the UK, Australia, India and Hong Kong.
Demand response projects are expected to double from this year by 2020, according to a report by Navigant Research. A big part of that growth is to deal with the onslaught of renewable energy, which generally doesn’t produce electricity at a consistent rate (wind, for example, comes and goes unpredictably) and that also creates a strain on electrical grids. Demand response can smooth out renewable energy’s inconsistent energy production.” Click here for complete article.
With this update, Honeywell is obviously hoping to position itself to capture a big part of this growth in demand response from utilities. Competitors such as EcoFactor, Opower and Nest are also hungry for big business with utility companies.”
This post gives us an interesting take-away: The evolutionary progress of Demand Response is a visible thing, traveling at the speed of a passenger-freight train, taking on all boarders with a seemingly friendly promise of reward with no consequences. Is everyone but you (and me) on-board yet?
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As a heads up, Honeywell and Opower are partners in the space and have been for more than 2 years. Honeywell is competing with Johnson Controls, Radio Thermostat, EcoFactor, Energate, Nest, and many smaller players in the thermostat market.
With regards to the modern integration of thermostats into the utility, you have to look at the emerging trend involving “bring your own thermostat” that is aggregating thermostats from different manufacturers into a single demand response system (Autogrid at Austin Energy, EnergyHub at a variety of utilities). The market is much more dynamic and varied than a article this short can get into. I would suggest a bit more googling around these topics and companies to get a wider picture of what is happening in the space.
Great input Ben. Thank you. Would you be interested in either being a guest on ControlTalk Now or sharing your knowledge in a blog post?