Honeywell's Golden Valley-based Building Solutions unit announced the establishment of separate "smart grid" division Monday that will help utilities and building owners better manage energy demand, save money and solve grid and equipment problems that lead to electrical brownouts.
The new stand-alone unit comes as demand global demand for electricity is expected to grow 40 percent by 2036.
Honeywell's new Smart Grid Solutions division is expected to generate fresh revenues by selling automated thermostat-control software and devices that reduce buildings' heating and cooling costs. Relatively new efforts were launched in China, Australia, India, the United Kingdom over the last 18 months and met with "big success," company officials said Monday, adding that the biggest market has been in the United States.
Smart Grid Solutions will be centralized in Golden Valley under Honeywell's Buildings Solutions business unit.
Paul Orzeske, president of Honeywell Building Solutions, said the idea is to make energy grid smarter and more efficient.
"The grid won't be smart until it allows utilities and [energy] users to work together to reduce consumption and boost stability," Orzeske said. "Honeywell is providing the applications and services that will make the energy infrastructure smarter and enable it to deliver benefits from the power plant to the consumer."
Smart Grid Solutions was created from several Honeywell divisions. As a new solo unit, it is starting with hundreds of millions in revenue and will grow from there, said Jeremy Eaton, Smart Grid Solutions general manager and vice president in a phone interview Monday.
Officials declined to discuss revenue, capital or job expectations from the venture. But if cross-selling opportunities are any measure, analysts said they expect the new focus should work over time.