BOULDER, Colo. — The home energy management (HEM) market has struggled to gain traction, but today that is starting to change, and over the remainder of the decade momentum is expected to build. According to a new report from Pike Research, global annual shipments of standalone home energy management systems will grow from a quarter million in 2011 to nearly 4.7 million in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.3 percent. Combined revenue for all home energy management segments will grow from a base of $93 million in 2011 to more than $2 billion in 2020, the firm forecasts.

“The home energy management market will make steady progress over the coming eight years,” said senior analyst Neil Strother. “It will be driven by government mandates, utility programs, and a growing number of consumers looking to manage their energy bills. Also, a combination of consumer desire to be more ‘green,’ home construction and retrofits with energy management objectives, and new technologies surrounding plug-in electric vehicles will help stimulate the market.”

Home energy management products can be viewed in five groups, or segments, along a continuum that moves from paper bills (a mailed statement from the utility showing a customer’s energy usage as it compares to households nearby), through standalone home energy management systems, which include some device-level tracking and automated device control capabilities, up to networked home energy management, comprising auto-pricing response capabilities, demand response (DR) load control, and home automation controls. Of these, networked home energy management revenue will see the strongest growth (76.8 percent CAGR), as utilities attempt to drive volume sales of networked systems in order to make DR and time-of-use pricing schemes feasible.