Consumer-level energy management has suddenly become a hot topic. The Department of Energy has made it a major part of its stimulus spending, hardware makers from GE to Cisco have announced initiatives, and both Google and Microsoft have announced Web-based energy management software. The fact that these companies can enter the market just as it appears poised to take off is the result of years of work by various companies and consortiums, which have been pushing to have open standards adopted by everything from appliance makers to utility data centers. Those standards are what allow the latecomers like Google and Microsoft to enter the market with bigger bank accounts and higher brand recognition among consumers.

To get a sense of how companies in the energy management field are adapting to rapidly growing markets and the entry of large competitors, we talked to two companies with a history in energy management software:  Fat Spaniel, which focuses on photovoltaic systems, and Tendril, which makes smart grid software for everyone from individual consumers to entire utilities. The general impression they gave is that open standards are too important for their business to avoid simply because of the threat of competition, and that they both see ways of staying out of the way of their larger competitors.