Home automation integration as a DSM incentive

Information technology (IT) has taken a definite step into households. Already, many appliances and devices contain powerful intelligence such as home computers and video recorders. The next step is to integrate these devices. But still, most devices are unable to communicate and they are not connected to an appropriate information infrastructure. These facts imply that most opportunities to integrate and, thereby to accomplish synergy effects, are lost. This is indeed the situation for utilities aiming at demand side management (DSM), since they need direct or indirect access to appliances inside the household. This paper mainly addresses a mass market approach and stresses the importance of a cooperative approach for utilities and other actors. The purpose is to elucidate that an overall and long-term perspective is needed if the actors on the home-IT market should have a real chance to influence the IT-development in the homes from the start. The paper is based upon several industrial case studies carried out at the department of Industrial Control Systems at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, covering Swedish actors active within the field of bringing IT into the homes.