NRG Energy finished its $2.8bn acquisition of Vivint Smart Home, Inc. this month and has officially become a player within the IoT space. It’s curious that an energy provider would step out of generation into the IoT world, but in doing so, NRG has embraced Vivint’s Smart Home portfolio as its own, including its Smart Lighting offerings.

Quoted by US Lighting Trends, Jim Nye (Vivint Chief Product Officer) stated, “Smart lighting has been one of our top requested categories and we’re thrilled to bring this experience to customers. In developing Vivint Smart Lighting, our goal was to create the most user-friendly and effective lighting solution that overcomes common pain points and integrates seamlessly with the Vivint platform. We’re excited to bring this new category to the Vivint suite and to continue expanding the power of our smart home ecosystem.”

What isn’t said in the US Lighting Trends piece is the reasoning for NRG to make this move. But, given the increase in demand response programs within utilities and energy providers in the US, it makes some sense. Smart thermostat programs have been made available through utilities’ efforts to better manage demand by controlling customer thermostats prior to a peak. It will be interesting to see what sort of data or combined programs could be created because of NRG having smart home offerings within its portfolio over the coming years.