A new Navugant study suggests that the market for ZigBee-enabled energy products is at a crossroads. According to the report devices based on ZigBee’s wireless communications technology have gained significant momentum in the energy sector over the past few years.
"Some leading U.S. utilities have deployed ZigBee-enabled smart meters, and have encouraged customers to purchase home area network (HAN) devices that can connect to such smart meters for improved energy management. ZigBee smart meter deployments are taking hold in other countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, as well.”
Navigant Research forecast that the worldwide installed base of ZigBee-enabled smart energy devices will grow from 39.5 million at the end of 2012 to 219.2 million devices by 2020.
Neil Strother, senior research analyst with Navigant Research says, “The forthcoming version of ZigBee, the Smart Energy Profile 2.0 software, is the first version to be Internet Protocol (IP)-based, allowing ZigBee devices to communicate with non-ZigBee devices, such as those using Wi-Fi or HomePlug. While this opens up a new world for ZigBee, it poses risks as other home networking technologies contend for relevance in energy management.”
Part of the issue is that the technology is not being fully implemented because a majority of North American utilities that have deployed ZigBee radios in smart meters have not yet enable the radios. Partly because few homes have HANs set up for the purposes of energy management and control and partly because utilities remain hesitant to become more active in providing products and services on the customer side of the meter.
The ZigBee for Smart Energy report analyzes the global market opportunity for ZigBee’s Smart Energy Profile, exploring key drivers and inhibitors shaping the market along with major technology issues.
