Home Energy Management Systems

Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) include any hardware and/or software system that can monitor and provide feedback about a home’s energy usage, and/or enable advanced control of energy-using systems and devices in the home. Often marketed through comfort and security lenses, HEMS ultimately have the opportunity to help provide deeper energy savings and harness the energy components of today to have the smart home of tomorrow.

Electric utility companies across the nation are working to modernize their infrastructure in ways that will reduce costs, improve customer service and reliability, and add a range of capabilities — some that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), including customer meters with two-way communication and real-time data collection, is a key part of grid modernization in our region and across the country.

Home energy management systems (HEMS) are an invention of the internet age. They are a 21^st-century by-product of the idea that when two-way communication between utilities and homeowners is paired with the proliferation of smart devices, the results are greater connectivity, control, and ultimately comprehensive energy savings.

Last we left Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), they were overseas playing a major role as Energy Continuity Systems (ECS) in Japan after the devastating Fukushima disaster disabled forty-eight of Japan’s fifty nuclear reactors. Rolling blackouts and sporadic outages plagued the Land of the Rising Sun years after the monstrous earthquake rocked the world, instilling a heightened awareness of energy reliability and a towering demand for homes equipped with HEMS.