Two separate announcements from close rivals are demonstrative of the beginning of a trend that might displace a number of companies in the smart metering, smart home, and smart grid sectors. It’s a feature-creep that might never materialize, but be warned, it’s definitely on the cards – as Amazon’s Alexa finds a home in Presciense’s Polaris in-home display (IHD) for smart meters, and Google’s Nest bypasses the need for professional installation with the Nest Thermostat E. Initially, the Polaris IHD will just display the data supplied by the smart meter, in the same fashion as a conventional IHD. However, the Amazon Alexa functions let the user say things like “Alexa, Ask Prescience Energy how much did I spend on energy…