Navigant Research today announced the launch of a new research service as part of its Utility Transformations program. The Internet of Things (IoT) Research Service provides independent and objective intelligence around IoT applications for utilities, commercial buildings, distributed energy resources (DER), and smart cities, covering changing business models affecting a variety of stakeholders.
“The IoT is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without any edge pieces. Hundreds of millions of connected devices are expanding rapidly into tens of billions in the coming decade,” says Neil Strother, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. “Communicating devices in the IoT traverse a wide range of industries and sectors—virtually all areas of life can expect to see some form of this connected world.”
The launch of the IoT Research Service also coincides with the quickly expanding market of Internet-connected devices that support a new digital foundation for the grid, which Navigant has defined as the Energy Cloud. The emerging IoT touches nearly all aspects of energy generation, transmission and distribution, and consumption. For utilities, the IoT helps utilities transition into new ongoing advisory and managed services relationships to gain better insight into customer loads and improve customer satisfaction. This new approach to customer engagement will direct behavior modification, load control, and conservation in concert to maximise reliability and resiliency of the grid.
Navigant Research is the dedicated research arm of Navigant Consulting, Inc. a specialised, global professional services firm.