For years, residential energy flexibility has been discussed through the lens of individual devices.

A battery can charge when electricity is cheap and discharge when it is expensive. An EV can shift charging into lower-cost hours. A heat pump can pre-heat a home or hot water tank before a peak period. Solar can reduce grid demand or export excess generation. Each of these assets is valuable. But the next major energy asset is not any one of them.

It is the connected home.

A home with solar, a battery, an EV charger, a heat pump, a smart meter and an intelligent control layer is no longer just a consumer of electricity. It becomes a coordinated energy system: able to respond to prices, forecasts, grid constraints, customer preferences and market signals automatically. This shift changes how utilities should think about residential flexibility.

The battery was only the beginning

Batteries are often seen as the obvious flexibility asset because their purpose is easy to understand: store electricity, then use or sell it later. But in reality, the most valuable flexibility often comes from coordinating multiple household devices together.

A battery on its own can optimise around price. But a battery connected to a solar system, an EV charger and a heat pump can do much more. It can decide whether stored energy is best used for the car, the home, heating, export or later consumption. It can avoid charging from the grid when solar is expected. It can preserve capacity for an upcoming price spike. It can support comfort, mobility and market value at the same time. The asset is no longer the battery. The asset is the decision-making layer across the whole home.

Homes are becoming distributed energy systems

The modern home is starting to look less like a passive endpoint and more like a small energy system.

It can generate electricity through rooftop solar. 
It can store electricity in a battery or EV. 
It can shift demand through heating, cooling and charging. 
It can respond to dynamic tariffs. 
It can potentially participate in flexibility and trading markets.

But this only works if the devices are connected, controllable and coordinated.

Without orchestration, each device optimizes in isolation, or worse, competes with the others. The EV charges when the battery should be saving energy. The heat pump runs during an expensive period. Solar is exported when it could have been used more efficiently inside the home. The connected home solves this by treating the household as one flexible portfolio, not a collection of separate devices.

The real value is coordination

Residential flexibility is not just about turning devices on or off. It is about making the right decision at the right time, across many constraints.

A good home energy system needs to understand:

– electricity prices 
– weather and solar forecasts 
– household consumption patterns 
– battery state of charge 
– EV charging deadlines 
– heating and hot water preferences 
– grid or market signals 
– customer comfort limits 

That is too complex for a customer to manage manually. It is also too important to leave to disconnected apps. This is where software becomes the value layer. The connected home needs an operating system for energy: one that can translate market complexity into simple, automated outcomes for the household.

From device ownership to energy outcomes

For customers, the appeal of the connected home is not flexibility as an abstract concept. Most people do not want to think about kilowatt-hours, imbalance markets or optimization windows.

They want outcomes.

• They want a warm home. 
• They want their EV charged on time. 
• They want lower bills. 
• They want to use more clean energy. 
• They want confidence that automation will not make their life harder.

This is why the connected home matters commercially. It turns residential flexibility from a technical capability into a customer proposition. Instead of asking households to become energy managers, utilities can offer smarter energy services: comfort, mobility, savings and sustainability, delivered automatically.

What this means for utilities

For utilities and energy retailers, the connected home creates a new kind of asset base.

Historically, customer relationships were built around supply contracts. In the future, they will increasingly be built around managed energy outcomes. A utility that can optimize a connected home can do more than sell electricity. It can reduce exposure to peak prices, improve dynamic tariff performance, create flexibility revenues, increase customer retention and support grid stability. This is especially powerful when scaled across thousands of homes. One household may look small. A coordinated portfolio of connected homes can become a significant flexible resource. The challenge is that this requires more than device connectivity. It requires reliable control, forecasting, optimization, customer preference management and market integration.

Why Podero focuses on the whole home

Podero’s role is to help utilities turn connected devices into controllable, revenue-generating flexibility.

That means optimizing across assets such as EV chargers, batteries and heat pumps, while respecting customer needs like comfort, charging deadlines and hot water availability. It also means connecting household flexibility to energy markets, so utilities can capture value beyond simple bill savings. The E.ON Next Gen Home project is a good example of this direction. The proposition combines low-carbon technologies – including solar, batteries, heat pumps and EV chargers – with smart energy management and ongoing support in a bundled energy-as-a-service model.

In that setup, Podero does not optimise one device in isolation. It coordinates multiple devices around prices, forecasts and household preferences, making the home itself the flexible asset.

The connected home is the next energy platform

The energy transition will not be powered only by large-scale infrastructure. It will also be shaped by millions of homes that can generate, store, shift and trade energy intelligently.

But that future depends on coordination.

• A battery is valuable. 
• An EV is valuable. 
• A heat pump is valuable. 
• Solar is valuable.

Together, controlled through software, they become something much more powerful: a connected home that acts as a flexible energy asset. It represents is the next phase of residential energy. Not just smarter devices, but smarter homes. Not just individual assets, but coordinated systems. Not just consumption, but participation.

The next big energy asset is not sitting in the garage or on the wall. It is the connected home itself.

FAQs

Why is the connected home becoming an energy asset?

Because a connected home can generate, store, shift and optimise electricity across multiple devices. When solar, batteries, EV chargers and heat pumps are coordinated by software, the home can respond to prices, forecasts, customer preferences and market signals, making it more valuable than any single device on its own.

Is a connected home more valuable than a home battery?

A battery is valuable, but its value increases when it is coordinated with the rest of the home. For example, software can decide whether stored energy should power the EV, support heating, reduce grid import, be saved for a price spike, or be exported. The real asset is the coordinated system, not just the battery.

What does this mean for utilities?

Utilities can move from simply supplying electricity to managing smarter energy outcomes. A portfolio of connected homes can help reduce peak exposure, improve dynamic tariff performance, increase customer retention, and create new flexibility or trading revenues.

How does Podero support connected homes?

Podero helps utilities optimise connected devices such as EV chargers, batteries and heat pumps through one control and trading layer. It coordinates household flexibility around prices, forecasts and user preferences, turning connected homes into scalable, revenue-generating energy assets.