Building Awareness Around Power over Ethernet Technology

Sensing fresh opportunity for Power over Ethernet (PoE), several companies with stakes in the low-voltage technology’s development are banding together to increase awareness and understanding of its benefits and breadth of potential applications.

Seven companies engaged in lighting, building automation, controls, software, microgrid, and energy storage have launched The PoE Consortium, a new industry organization focused on advancing PoE education and technological development with the goal of expanding its market penetration, notably in the emerging smart buildings arena. A news release describes the organization’s broad mission as “educating stakeholders on the sustainable benefits of PoE over traditional high-voltage electrical infrastructure.”

The group’s newly launched website features explainer articles, project calculators, and case studies, and over time, it will be built out to include training and qualification courses for installers and integrators. Organizers envision it filling a need for a company- and technology-agnostic hub for all things PoE, which they see as an answer to an array of emerging challenges in designing building infrastructure.

While awareness of PoE continues to grow, consortium founders (whose collaboration only involves the educational effort) say there’s a need for more in-depth understanding of how it can be applied and why it offers value.

“Education and centralized information are by far the largest needs in the industry whether you’re an owner, an architect, or a contractor,” says Tyler Andrews, CEO at PoE Texas, an Austin, Texas, PoE solutions firm. “However, the larger, long-term goal is to help build customer confidence that choosing PoE lighting and automation is a reliable strategic (as well as technical) decision.”

Kim Johnson, CMO at MHT Lighting, New York, says taking the market to the next level requires broader understanding of how it can be deployed, knowledge key players can deliver collaboratively.

“We are all seeing the market expand,” Johnson says, “but the biggest limiting factor is that this technology requires some changes in how to approach design and implementation. We think that by coming together, we can make a bigger impact than each of us trying to go it alone.”

Harry Aller, president at Innovative Lighting’s Genisys PoE Lighting Systems, Des Moines, Iowa, says with the groundwork laid by early adopters the time is now to provide the market with solid evidence of PoE’s value. With signs pointing to the market being on the cusp of an exponential growth phase, a more proactive marketing stance may be justified.

“There has most definitely been a change in the market; acceptance,” Aller says. “For the past eight years, we have been educating others, proving ourselves, and defining standards. Thousands of deployments have taken place and the market is thirsty to learn more, as they’re hearing of the benefits from those that have actually deployed and/or lived with PoE.”

With a growing focus on energy conservation and efficiency and sustainable construction in the growing smart buildings space, PoE could be a solution more developers entertain, consortium founders say. As it has grown more powerful and capable, the technology is seen more as a plausible alternative to some elements of traditional electrical infrastructure.

“Since PoE has higher power capabilities than ever before, and end devices are coming down in power requirements, more devices can be powered and controlled via PoE,” Johnson says. “It’s a convergence that is now allowing for entire buildings to be completely low voltage. To me, that’s the promise – can we design a building to be 100% PoE? It appears so, which means that PoE can fulfill all of the potential benefits we’ve been discussing for years.”

PoE, Johnson adds, is a good fit in a world where resource usage is being questioned, and net-zero energy building construction is taking center stage.

“PoE-based buildings use less physical material, so you have some immediate savings from the physical infrastructure side of it,” he says. “And PoE is DC, and green energy such as solar and wind is also DC. Using a low voltage infrastructure with green energy production on site is a great way to implement a smart building while achieving an incredible feat: net zero energy.”

If PoE’s advantages can be clearly communicated and understood, Andrews says, the door looks to be wide open for more deployments because it is particularly attractive in building remodels, an active market.

“Thousands of these mainstream projects happen every day in tenant finish outs and remodels,” he says. “The greatest potential for PoE is to finally make features like automated lighting, remote monitoring, and Internet of Things amenities available to that huge market of office spaces and retail spaces.”

Tom Zind is a freelance writer based out of Lees Summit, Mo. He can be reached at [email protected].