The power industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by efficient home appliance design, improved customer awareness of, and participation in, demand-side management (DSM) programmes and growing importance of technologies such as smart meters, smart home appliances and smart lighting. In the last three years alone, there have been over 439,000 patents filed and granted in the power industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Internet of Things in Power: Home automation network power management.

However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.

Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.

90+ innovations will shape the power industry

According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the power industry using innovation intensity models built on over 83,000 patents, there are 90+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.

Within the emerging innovation stage, EV conductive charging, smart grid remote monitoring, and self-organising networks power optimisation are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Smart batteries, renewable energy integrated microgrids, and smart lighting system are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas are home automation network power management, and prepaid electricity metering, which are now well established in the industry. 

Innovation S-curve for Internet of Things in the power industry

Home automation network power management is a key innovation area in Internet of Things

Home automation network power management is the process of controlling and managing the power consumption of devices on a home automation network.

GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies.  According to GlobalData, there are 30 companies, spanning technology vendors, established power companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of home automation network power management.

Key players in home automation network power management – a disruptive innovation in the power industry

‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.

‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.

Some of the major players in the global smart home energy management system market include LG , Samsung Group , Lutron Electronics and Alphabet . 

Samsung Group is one of the largest players in the home-energy management systems. SmartThings Energy, a new service within Samsung Electronics’ Internet of Things (IoT) app, allows users to take control of their energy consumption by providing real-time information on where and how energy is being used within the home. 

Other key patent filers in the home automation power management include Sony Group , ABB , Panasonic , Tendyron and Haier Group . 

To further understand how Internet of Things is disrupting the power industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Internet of Things in Power (2021).

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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.

GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.

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