Mauro Dresti, Manager New Program Development and Launch Mass Markets at Southern California Edison (SCE), answers several industry questions about issues that are currently affecting the energy management market:

What do you think is the most challenging issue for your company as it relates to the residential energy management market?

For our company there are several:

• Regulation and speed to adoption allowing timely participation
• Establishing and maintaining a dialogue with the customer
• Finding product delivery strategies that will work across the domestic US market increasing adoption and lowering cost

However, I think the most important issue is number three of this list.

What are the major challenges that your business must address in 2015? in 2020?

Our business must learn to be quick and nimble to follow and leverage technology as it develops and advances.

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

• Ease of installed and use
• Cost
• Interoperability after the initial purchase of a system with new products
• Education and marketing (i.e., what can this really do for me?)

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

The biggest opportunity exists in IDSM (Integrated Demand Side Management) and consists of energy efficiency and demand response. Products need to be:

• Smart enough to utilize energy more efficiently while not changing the lifestyle of the consumer
• Demand response products or their cloud must be connected to utility using a standard open-source protocol such as Open ADR to reduce communication complexity and create a domestic market and not just support a regional market.

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

Through other benefits provided by smart home solutions such as health, security, home automation, etc. consumers will be exposed to energy solutions. With this exposure along with increased automation of energy solutions consumers may realize energy conservation doesn't always equal reduced convenience.

Mauro Dresti will be speaking on the panel “Integrating Demand Response into the Smart Home” at 4:00 PM during Smart Energy Summit in Austin, TX, February 17, 2015. Other panel speakers include representatives from Comverge, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), EnergyHub, and Integral Analytics, Inc.

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

Next: Insights from EcoFactor’s CEO: Demonstrating Clearly the Value of Our Services Can Drive Adoption
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