As the smart home market heats up, digitalization, changing customer demand and innovation in home energy management technology have opened the door for electric utilities to get in on the game. While tech companies’ access to the home remains siloed to the device level, utilities have the power in the home — literally. Utilities own the missing piece of the smart home puzzle — real-time, whole-home energy data.

What can we learn from Walmart, Xcel Energy and the humble electric motor? In retrospect, big economic or technological shifts are often obvious — but they’re not always obvious as they’re unfolding. This episode focuses on how big businesses respond to external challenges in real time.

There is a widening knowledge gap between business and residential customers over the benefits of clean energy, according to a new report from Deloitte. Residential customers remain concerned about climate change, but are primarily motivated by cost. Those customers are less aware of the economic benefits of, or even the availability of, options such as solar-plus-storage pairings, compared to business customers.

Hawaii may have a solution for the energy efficiency industry’s perennial landlord-tenant split incentive dilemma. The problem: Landlords won’t reach into their own pockets for energy-saving improvements if their tenants are paying the utility bills; for their part, tenants aren’t likely to invest in energy-efficient equipment they could be leaving to another renter in a few years.

Anticipating a crush of new electric vehicles plugging into the grid over the next 10 years, Oracle Utilities says it is developing new technology that would allow utilities to detect the presence of EVs on their system, disaggregating the energy and analyzing daily charging patterns. The technology, which utilizes advanced metering infrastructure, aims to help utilities engage with customers and offer time-of-use charging plans.

An alliance of automakers, utilities and environmentalists called the 50x50 Commission released a set of policy recommendations on Tuesday that they hope will act as an “effective roadmap” to guide U.S. transportation infrastructure, said Brad Stertz, director of government affairs at Audi, a member of the coalition.