V. Rory Jones, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PlanetEcosystems, answers industry questions prior to speaking at Smart Energy Summit in February:

What are the major barriers impacting consumer adoption of energy related products and services?

The integration of data from across sources remains very immature, and until data is pulled together in a way that makes the customer experience very simple and highly automated, adoption will be limited and slow. Also, the ability of customers to choose from among several suppliers of utility services is, without doubt, absolutely critical in setting the pace of advancement with regard to energy-related products and services. Simply put, utility service suppliers are not sufficiently incented to improve their services under monopoly conditions; to truly understand the point, they need to ask a competitive business how important it is to provide new value to customers—it’s a completely different ball-game. The good news is that we are seeing customer choice accelerate in many utility territories across the US, and globally—whether by actual retail competition or other means, such as community-based alternative suppliers, like CCAs, etc.

What are the biggest opportunities for the smart home industry to work with the electricity industry?

Naturally, in line with the above, the greatest opportunity lies in combining usage and behavior information with home control and automation capabilities. With full integration, the scope for new high-value home services is truly unparalleled in history. PlanetEcosystems recognizes these opportunities, and is bringing the customers of its utility client territories to its smart home partners in collaborative, forward-looking partnerships.

What impact will smart products and smart home services have on consumer adoption of energy solutions?

By properly integrating the offerings and information across sectors, the solutions provided may finally breach the consumer effort vs. reward ratio—such that solutions are truly compelling and adoption will reach critical mass that has, hitherto, eluded the market.

V. Rory Jones will be speaking on the panel “Consumer Engagement Strategies: IoT and Energy Value Proposition” at 11:00 AM during Smart Energy Summit in Austin, TX, February 17, 2015. He will be joined by other company representatives from DR2, DTE Energy, and People Power.

For more information on Smart Energy Summit speakers, sessions, or topics, visit www.ses2015.com. Registration is still open!

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