Smart Grid’s Expected 250% 5-Yr Growth Rate is Great News for Cisco, IBM, Accenture, EnerNOC
Posted under Electric Grid.
Bill Paul
Lux Research forecast last week that the global smart grid market will
grow some 250% over the next five years, reaching nearly $16 billion by
2015 compared with today’s $4.5 billion. Interestingly, Lux further
forecast that only a few select firms will take full advantage of this
looming largesse.
It’s understandable why the payoff won’t be widely shared. As regulated
entities (on the transmission and distribution side), electric
utilities have an obligation (specifically, the time-honored
“obligation to serve”) that effectively requires that they be
conservative when partnering with IT firms that can provide the
money-saving, blackout-avoiding technologies which are at the heart of
the smart grid. In other words, big is better.
This is why most of the more than $11 billion of new smart-grid-related
revenue that Lux expects to be generated over the next five years will
be pocketed by the IT beasts that already are pocketing the yeoman’s
share of the $4.5 billion currently being spent.
For at least one firm – demand response leader
(ENOC) — the potential payoff is life-changing, and only further
adds to my purely personal suspicion that EnerNOC is going to be
acquired at some point by a much larger firm.
Two logical buyers of EnerNOC would be
(ACN) and
The two are jockeying for leadership in the rapidly-developing
smart-grid analysis and services market, which Lux Research believes is
“poised for explosive growth” led by demand response applications.
Still another IT behemoth in line to gobble up billions of new
smart-grid revenue is
Systems (CSCO). Think of Cisco as the smart grid’s Mr. Goodwrench.
Whether it’s routers, switches or other equipment, Cisco’s goal is to
provide the IT components that utilities (with the help of consultants
led by Accenture and IBM) will fashion into a system that automates the
power industry from end to end – from generation to transmission to
distribution to consumption.
DISCLOSURE: No position.
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Bill Paul is Managing Editor of