Homeowners soon find themselves managing their energy consumption through Cisco’s Linksys broadband gear. Cisco, the networking giant has disclosed a deal in which it will lead a $1 billion smart-grid infrastructure buildout for Duke Energy. It will mostly deploy its own smart-energy home hardware in the process (Linksys products and “homeplug” devices which will transfer data via power lines).

The Duke deal proves Cisco’s seriousness about developing energy management tools for the consumer. Even though Duke didn’t disclose the number of its customers who would have access to energy management tools, but it has about 4 million customers in the service area and pans to roll out smart meters to over 1.5 million of them.

A Jolt to Rival Silver Spring

Cisco will also provide an “end-to-end” smart-grid network solution to Duke. Cisco started working on the smart-grid space earlier this year and had few partners and deals such as rolling out smart meters to Florida utility FPL. Cisco wants to be a major network player in the $20 billion U.S. smart-grid market.

The Duke deal can be seen as a big win for Cisco and makes competitor startup Silver Spring worried about.

Related posts