APAC Will Be Building Automation Systems Growth Engine as Demand Response and Financing Become Critical

​Global revenue for building automation system (BAS) products, solutions and services will top $32 billion this year, growing to about $37 billion by 2016. North America and Europe are the largest markets to date by far and will remain so in the coming years, growing in alignment with their respective GDP growth rates.

However other regions are active as well. Australia, for example, as part of its National Strategy on Energy Efficiency, has set up a National Buildings Framework to work towards consistency in how buildings are assessed and rated for energy efficiency. This framework applies to new and existing commercial buildings and will steer demand for BAS equipment and services to meet the increasing minimum performance standards being developed.

ABI Research industry analyst Kelvin Chan notes, “Emerging markets such as Asia–Pacific will see the highest growth rate over the next few years, but this region is starting from a small base. With China’s announcement that energy efficiency will be a key part of its economic plans in its12th Economic 5-year plan, building efficiency will be vital to meet its targets.” 

Practice director Sam Lucero adds, “An important evolving market is demand response (DR), where intermediary companies incentivize building owners or occupiers to enable their properties to be connected and controlled for DR. A key player in this market is EnerNoc, which targets commercial, institutional, and industrial organizations with its energy management offerings. Its recent acquisition of Energy Response, a major demand response provider in Australia and New Zealand has given it a strong foothold in the Pacific’s DR markets.”

Johnson Controls, a traditional building management system (BMS) vendor has also just finalized its acquisition of EnergyConnect Group, a provider of smart grid response services and technologies. Likewise, Honeywell made a similar manoeuver with Akuacom in 2010.

ABI Research’s “Energy Management and Commercial Building Automation” study analyzes the BAS market on a global basis, including the significance of financing schemes in building efficiency. It examines the emergence of demand response, and of smart grid’s impact. Also central is an examination of trends in the use of wireless sensor networking technologies. Market forecasts are provided through 2016.

It is part of two ABI Research Services, Wireless Sensor Networks and Clean Energy.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 40+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.