According to Fierce Telecom, the FCC has hired Nick Sinai of Polaris Ventures, a former venture capitalist, to be the energy and environmental director as well as establish a National Broadband Task Force, which aims to analyze the United States’ communications system to pave the way for establishing a smart energy grid.

The FCC plans to establish a set of rules for utility providers that will use broadband and wireless technology to gather data on energy consumption.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm and Verizon have agreed on starting a joint venture that aims to facilitate machine-to-machine wireless communication (designated as M2M) and begin establishing the use of smart services in a variety of markets. Although the joint venture hasn’t been given a name yet, the goal is to enable utilities to connect to items such as circuit breakers, sub-station equipment, and transformers and make them more interactive. By 2012, utility companies project that there will be more than 85 million connections around the world.

Verizon and Qualcomm plan to include cloud computing in order to provision devices automatically, monitor power usage, and manage equipment. Some other capabilities planned to be set up include applications that are specific to certain products, new performance monitoring tools, data collection, and OEM white label applications.

The market research firm Frost & Sullivan released a document that will allow building owners to see a list of challenges presented when it comes to automating buildings as well as how automation and IT systems can help owners have more control over energy demand while maximizing the amount of available space and keeping environmental impact to a minimum. The white paper, titled A New Facelift for Existing Buildings,  also serves as a plan for achieving the next level of control networking and information gathering.