Google’s Power Meter provides near real-time energy use information. Google’s initiative to allow people to monitor their energy use on their computers took a step forward on Wednesday, as the company announced partnerships with eight electric utilities that will be the first to use its “Power Meter.”
Essentially, the secure software gadget will interact with the intelligent metering devices currently being installed by utilities for their customers. The software will “show consumers their home energy information almost in real time, right on their computer,” the company says.
Googlers testing the device, which includes a graphic-rich, Web-based interface, have reported learning which appliances cause the largest spike in home energy use — causing them to make changes like ensuring that an energy-intensive dishwasher or washing machine is fully loaded.
“One of my colleagues learned that her pool pump had been operating for years,” said Dan Reicher, the head of climate change programs at Google.org, with whom I spoke last month.
Another time, he said, while monitoring his own home’s energy usage from afar: “I called up my daughter and said, ‘I think you may have left the lights on in your room.’”
Google cites studies that suggest consumers could cut their electricity bills by 5 percent to 15 percent if they had access to information about how much electricity they are consuming.
The eight electric utilities include one in India and one in Canada, as well as six in the United States.
(These are: Glasgow EPB in Kentucky; TXU Energy in Texas; San Diego Gas & Electric in California; White River Valley Electric Cooperative in Missouri; JEA in Florida; and Wisconsin Public Service in Wisconsin.)
SDG&E, one of the largest participating utilities, says that its smart-meter customers should be able to view their energy-use profile on Google’s Web site by the end of the year.
Hal Snyder, the utility’s vice president of customer solutions, said in a statement: “This is about choice, control and convenience for our customers.”
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