Mirroring the growth of home energy monitoring, the smart grid and “in the cloud” services, AT&T and E3 Greentech will jointly provide wireless access to a central unit, the E3 Intelligent Bridge, to help homeowners and property managers optimize their energy use by automatically reducing energy waste.

E3 Greentech's Home Energy Management System, a cloud-based services platform and intelligent software in combination with in-home energy optimization hardware, uses adaptive software and techniques capable of learning and dynamically optimizing energy use with the premise to match rather than control consumer behavior. According to the companies, the smart grid technology reduces energy waste, delivering energy savings of 15 percent or greater and reductions in peak energy demand of 25 percent or greater.

Late last year, AT&T acquired Xanboo. Its technology enables users to remotely monitor and manage their home’s security, lighting, thermostats and other devices via the Internet, cellphone and other communications devices. Xanboo intended to market its platform to third-party service providers but that acquisition and AT&T’s partnership with E3 Greentech may indicate a more direct relationship between AT&T and its homeowner customers through a bundled approach, possibly in a bid to keep up with Comcast Xfinity.