A battle over smart standards: Compatibility, governance, and innovation in home energy management systems and smart meters in the Netherlands

In recent years, awareness and concern about global warming from fossil fuels have notably grown. This process of global warming can, in part, be circumvented by the usage of renewable energy technology in homes. Two protocols exist that can realize wireless communications between sensors and electrical appliances on the one hand and the smart meter (which connects to a visual interface) on the other hand; Zigbee and Z-Wave. When one of these protocols is chosen, a home energy management system can be realized, allowing monitoring of the devices that consume energy in the home. There is no standard, and these two communication protocols are in a battle for dominance. This paper aims to find which factors could affect the outcome of this standards war in the Netherlands, and determine which protocol has more chances to achieve dominance. The factors that were determined as most important are compatibility, big fish, current installed base, and complementary goods, whereas, counterintuitively, technology superiority is one of the least relevant factors. It appears that Zigbee has a higher chance to achieve dominance. The paper concludes by discussing these results in light of the standardization literature.