Broadband and Energy Management

For those have not heard of this – AT&T is developing a home energy management service, which it plans to market to its wireless and wireline customers, according to AT&T Executive Director of Public Policy Jeffery Dygert, who made the remarks on a panel for the Broadband Breakfast Club in Washington, D.C. in November 2011. ( See Video Below at 5:00 )

This isn’t the first indication AT&T is getting into home energy and the digital home. In 2010,  AT&T acquired Xanboo, a decade-old firm that was one of the original home automation players which enables home owners to monitor security, energy consumption and digital media across devices.

Is it a model that can be replicated in the Asian context? In Singapore particularly, there had been no energy management packages offered by the Mobile Party of 3 – Singtel, Starhub and M1. There had been some rumors going around that Singtel is talking to a “Chinese Company” to offer energy management services ( Is there anyone that can verify that? ) but nothing concrete has been heard yet.

” We also work with a variety of third party consumer vendors in this space. When they need connectivity for their devices. Some of the company that do what the things OPower does -  have sim cards that provide connections embedded in their devices. We provide connectivity for that “

- Jeffrey Dygert, Executive Director Public Policy, AT&T

It remains very pivotal that Smart Grid Vendors works with these companies. Connectivity is of immense importance to companies that intent to march into the Smart Grid Industry. The Smart Grid is all about data and how fast/often/frequent they can be transmitted and processed into useful information. Data needs to be transmitted out to servers for data processing and how better to do it than collaborating with the Broadband Service providers?

The Broadband Partner will gain greater access and penetration into households while offering a value-added service which can be used to distinguish itself from its competitors, while the vendors gain traction and economies of scale when you implement the technology via a country-wide channel.

” The bottom line is we can’t have a 21st Century Clean Energy Economy with a 20th Century Grid”

- Nick Sinai, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Building a Smart Grid Company or forming up a piece of the Smart Grid Jigsaw can never be a one-party initiative – An Ecosystem has to be built along with 21st Century Smart Grid Ecosystem.