Although there has been a focus on energy efficiency in commercial buildings for some years, the BEMS market can still be considered nascent. The landscape of new entrants, new technologies, and new methodologies is expanding rapidly, and even well-established market leaders are finding new ways to present and market their businesses. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
It’s a hot day and you agree not to jack up your air conditioner in exchange for a discount on your utility bill. Startups like Smart Grid Billing are developing applications to help manage this process, and the startup plans to launch a pilot next month. Read more »
A new startup called Gridium, which launched a couple months ago and is co-led by energy entrepreneur Tom Arnold, has developed software that can help industrial and commercial building owners tap into smart meter data to help lower their energy bills. Read more »
Comverge, one of the largest demand response providers in the U.S., announced on Monday that it has agreed to a $49 million buyout by an affiliate of private equity firm H.I.G. Read more »
For the occasion of Siemens’ swallowing eMeter, we have pulled together our recurring smart grid acquisitions list, including the new ones we have seen in recent months. Read more »
Half of successful VC-backed cleantech start-ups stumble along the way. Entrepreneurs who raise big financing rounds at sky-high valuations can end up shooting themselves in the foot. Read more »
The Federal Regulatory Energy Commission recently passed a new rule for frequency regulation to support emerging technologies that can provide quick bursts of power to the grid. We break down what this new rule means and who will benefit. Read more »
After the great market sell-off yesterday, stocks are rebounding slightly on Tuesday, including many of the greentech stocks that took a beating yesterday. But most of them are only up slightly. Here’s the latest: Read more »
Demand response company EnerNOC has one of the most aggressive acquisition strategies in the smart grid sector, and that doesn’t look like it’s slowing down. On Wednesday it announced that it has acquired Energy Response, a demand response provider in Australia and New Zealand. Read more »
California’s utility regulator has proposed rules on how home energy devices should protect smart meter data privacy — and whether the device is “locked” into one company’s platform or technology or not will be a big deal. Read more »
Nine-year-old energy-focused venture capital firm Braemar Energy Ventures is looking to raise $300 million for its latest fund, Braemar Energy Ventures III, according to an SEC filing. Read more »
EnerNOC spent a lot of money on acquiring companies in the first quarter, and it showed in the U.S. demand response leader increased revenues and growing losses for the first quarter. Read more »
The smart grid industry’s focus is now shifting to the true purpose of the smart grid movement: applications that will improve the efficiency, reliability and versatility of the electric grid. This report analyzes six key smart grid application trends that will help shape the industry landscape in the years to come: distribution automation, data analytics, demand response, carbon management, home energy management and electric vehicles. The applications that prevail in this new arena will define the smart grid experience for industrial, commercial and residential customers. Along the way, new business opportunities that arise from these applications will become available for the providers of software, systems, devices and services, and enhance customer awareness and control of energy consumption. Companies mentioned in this report include Echelon, Google, EnerNOC, ZigBee and Microsoft. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Is the greentech industry headed for a breakout year or is it retrenching for hard times to come? The first three months of 2011 provided evidence that could support both assertions, with a big rise in venture capital investment and a big drop-off in global energy financing. Solar power remained the largest green technology sector in terms of venture capital investment, while in the world of electric vehicles, GM’s Chevy Volt hybrid and Nissan’s all-electric Leaf — the first two mainstream plug-in vehicles — hit the showroom floors in significant numbers. Meanwhile the smart grid sector’s relative dearth of VC investment was more than made up for by the massive round of acquisitions. Companies mentioned in this report include NRG Energy, Microsoft, Silver Spring Networks, Tesla and BrightSource Energy. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Where do the worlds of smart grid and smart buildings overlap? Over in my weekly update at GigaOm Pro, I review how two big acquisitions last week shed light on just how muddy that line has become. Read more »
There have been so many acquisitions in the smart grid sector as of late; we’ve been updating the tally every couple of months. Since December there have been a couple more, so we’re updating our list once again. Read more »
A new rule giving demand response “negawatts” an equal price as megawatts of generated power on energy markets is meant to make the grid more efficient and power more affordable. But what if it backfires? Read more »
Entrepreneurs and investors have long believed water tech represents the next big market. ET Water Systems hopes to ride this wave and announced Monday that it had raised $2 million for a new irrigation control and management technology. Read more »
The federal grid regulator has ruled that the “negawatts” delivered by demand response companies deserve the same market prices as megawatts of generated energy — a ruling that could pay huge dividends for the demand response industry. Read more »
On Sunday, at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, EnergyHub, for the first time, plans to start offering its home energy device directly to a consumer beta group, and one day soon plans to start selling its product directly to consumers. Read more »
Will demand response move to the cloud? Lockheed Martin is linking demand response with a cloud-based smart meter platform for cooperative utilities, and EnerNOC is turning to Salesforce.com for smart grid-customer interaction. Read more »
Johnson Controls is buying up Campbell, Calif.-based EnergyConnect, one of the more interesting behind-the-scenes players in demand response software for the customer as well as the utility. Read more »
U.S. demand response leader EnerNOC took time during its Wednesday year-end conference call to defend itself in a market rules dispute with big customer PJM, saying the grid operator wants to “underpay” EnerNOC for its negawatts. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks might be the technical “Cisco of the smart grid” (well, before Cisco joined the space), but demand response company EnerNOC has the famous acquisition habits of the router giant. And this morning there was one more — here’s the tally to date. Read more »
EnerNOC is buying a piece of the agricultural demand response market with its purchase of Boise, Idaho-based M2M Communications. Will controlling irrigation pumps be a field of growth for the demand response industry? Read more »
Greentech marked its best year ever in 2010, and part of that is thanks to the wealth of activity across sectors during the fourth quarter. Global investment in clean energy surged, and while wind power remained the biggest greentech area, solar power saw the fastest growth. The energy efficiency sector appears to have more room for smaller players to make their mark amidst a rapidly maturing market. Meanwhile, China’s stance as a growing greentech giant continued to complicate its relationship with the United States. Companies mentioned in this report include General Electric, Intel, ZigBee, iControl, People Power and EnerNOC. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Startup EnergyHub is raising funds to help make the transition from small-scale utility pilots to commercial deployments over the coming years, and has also brought on a high-profile new independent director onto its board: EnerNOC President and Co-founder David Brewster. Read more »
There’s been so many acquisitions in the smart grid sector as of late, we’ve been updating the tally every couple of months. Since September there’s been at least six more, so we’re updating our list once again. Read more »
The demand response players continue rebranding. EnerNOC has launched its EfficiencySMART brand to tie together its building energy management, sustainability planning and energy procurement lines of business from building to enterprise. Read more »
Despite the fact that the demand response sector has been facing consolidation and disruption by new technologies, market leaders are still making money, at least in the near term. This afternoon demand response grandaddy EnerNOC reported a solid third quarter, but lowered its annual profit view. Read more »
Smart grid trade show GridWeek is wrapping up in Washington D.C., but the hard work of integrating all the hardware and software on display has just begun. Read more »
Comverge has rebranded itself as a provider of “intelligent energy management” services. What does that mean for the demand response provider’s future against big competitor EnerNOC and upstarts in the smart grid space? Read more »
In the building energy management sector, mid-size commercial properties like restaurants and stores are relegated to the industry’s untouched middle territory. But the right combination of low-cost and enhanced customer service could crack open this untapped ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Big buildings already have plenty of energy management technology, and household energy efficiency is the focus of dozens of VC-backed startups and IT giants alike. But who’s tackling the small and mid-size commercial building market, or the “mushy middle?” Read more »
New smart grid technologies promise to widen the reach of demand response, but what if that process works in reverse? Big demand response players are leveraging their middleman role between utilities and customers to bring their technology in as a “back-door” smart grid conduit between the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Big demand response players are leveraging their middleman role between utilities and customers to apply their technology in to fields traditionally defined as smart grid. Given the way the market is developing, they may have little choice. Read more »
Smart meters get all the attention, but smart distribution grid and substation projects are actually taking the lead in smart grid spending across the nation, and corporate giants are reaping the benefit. That’s the gist of a Cleantech Group report released by the DOE Thursday. Read more »
Adding digital intelligence to the power grid is a complex and unfamiliar task for utilities, and they’re going to need a lot of hand holding. That’s going to drive the “smart grid managed services” market to more than $4.3 billion in global revenue by 2015. Read more »
The smart grid is one of the best places to sell your startup. In the past few weeks Cisco has grabbed wireless networking startup Arch Rock and Constellation Energy said it plans to buy demand response provider CPower. Here’s the latest tally. Read more »
One of the oldest smart grid technologies out there is also one of the most ripe for M&A: demand response. And that’s not a coincidence. On Friday power company Constellation Energy announced that it plans to acquire demand response and energy management provider CPower. Read more »
