Cisco has shut down its Smart Connected Buildings program, according to a blog post by Laura Ipsen, Cisco’s SVP of  Global Policy and Government Affairs. The program was Cisco’s household energy management offering,  and was mostly based on technology developed by Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence – a company the networking giant acquired last year.

eWeek Europe gave an overview of the product:

“This device was dubbed the Network Building Mediator, and was designed to tap into Cisco’s networking expertise and enable building managers or home owners to monitor and measure energy systems throughout the building. The idea was that they would use the information to institute various energy-saving programmes.”

The Network Building Mediator shutdown follows similar steps taken by Microsoft and Google in late June. These two companies also had a foothold in this market (the former’s Hohm and the latter’s PowerMeter offering), but they too pulled the plug on them for some reason. Early analysis suggests that it may just be as simple as a lack of demand: not enough people are accustomed or willing to invest their time in developing more efficient energy consumption plans.

The Network Building Mediator is not the only thing Cisco is axing.  As a part of its restructuring, which probably had a hand in the termination of its energy management business, the networking behemoth, it also said it will lay off 79 workers in its Rancho Cordova, Sacramento facility next Friday.

While certainly significant, this announcement is only the latest – and by far not the biggest – layoff round the company carried out lately. The company said last month it will lay off 15 percent of its total workforce or 11,500 people.