More than half a million homes and businesses in Sacramento, Calif., will be equipped with smart utility meters by the end of 2011, promising consumers sophisticated tools to manage energy consumption and helping the local public utility deliver power more efficiently.
Sacramento is just one example of how billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds are jump-starting smart-grid investments.
via Federal Stimulus Grants for a Sacramento, Calif., Utility and Others Spur Smart Grid Activity.
Two start-up companies armed only with prototypes came to the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA) Line Shows event intent on helping consumers lower energy consumption and their energy bills with simple plug-in solutions.
The PicoWatt Smart Plug is a Smart Grid-compatible Wi-Fi device.
The Modlet uses Zigbee wireless technology for scheduling.
via ‘Vampire Power’ Under Fire From Two Start-Ups – 2010-06-23 20:10:08 | TWICE.
Approximately 70% of Americans are not familiar with the phrase “smart grid,” according to a new survey conducted by EcoAlign.
But once consumers were given a definition, the EcoPinion survey found strong levels of consumer good will and expectation in anticipation of the smart grid rollout. A majority of Americans (55%) believe that the smart grid will be of significant benefit to them. One half of all respondents find the ability to review their own energy consumption to be extremely or very appealing.
“Consumers conceptually like the idea of smart grid,” Jamie Wimberly, EcoAlign’s CEO said.
via Americans Don’t Know What a Smart Grid Is, But They Like it.
Earning energy independence is no longer the headache of the statesmen alone. The masses are equally interested to learn about the ways in which they can reduce energy consumption and cut on their energy budget.
In a recent survey, international research firm Parks Associates (News – Alert) has pointed out that, more than 80 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in learning about how to cut their energy costs, 50 percent of U.S. households are very interested in an energy-monitoring device, and 80-85 percent of households are willing to pay $80-$100 for cost-saving equipment if they are guaranteed to save 10-30 percent off their monthly electricity bill.
via Watteco Unveils New Software to Ease Home Energy Management for Consumers.
Salford University is launching a research project to test the psychology behind domestic energy consumption.
The university will be home to the world’s first Energy House – a traditional pre-1920s-style terraced house, similar to those seen on ITV soap opera Coronation Street, built in a sealed-off chamber and subjected to a wide range of advanced energy experiments.
The university hopes the house will provide important data on how the 4.5 million UK homes built before 1920 consume energy, by testing insulation and using a climate system that will be able to generate wind, rain and solar conditions.
via Energy efficiency to be tested in Coronation Street-style home – 28 May 2010 – BusinessGreen.com.
Microsoft says its Hohm website will help you understand the energy consumption of your home.
(Get it? “Hohm”?)
But what’s the business model? What’s in it for Microsoft — and how will this really help the smart grid?
I spoke with Hohm project manager Troy Batterberry about how the Redmond, Wash.-based company’s new site is like Mint.com for home energy consumption — and why underneath it all, it’s really the seed of a new cloud computing platform.
via Hohm: Microsoft’s Mint.com for energy consumption, plus more – SmartPlanet.
Google’s PowerMeter is making huge strides in leapfrogging the lumbering smart meter installation process, with utilities slowly integrating them into the nation-wide smart grid upgrade. For a quick refresher: the smart grid is an electric grid that is wholly connected, from energy source to end user, so that everyone who participates in the grid can be more effective in minimizing energy consumption. On the consumer’s end, a smart meter enables a dialogue between the utility company and the building, allowing for real time pricing and detailed feedback on consumption habits. However, despite the fact that several utilities are racing to install the latest hardware in homes and buildings, could Google be making the effort a waste of time? It’s a question being asked as the company lands partnerships with more device manufacturers that consumers can get ahold of and use without waiting around for utility companies to get their act together.
via Does Google’s PowerMeter Make Smart Meters Irrelevant? : TreeHugger.
The State University of New York’s strategic plan for the next 10 years will reduce the institution’s energy consumption, shrink its carbon footprint and attempt to make SUNY a leader in energy efficiency and sustainability both throughout the state and across the country.
With 22% of the globe’s energy consumption, the US is the largest energy consumer and lowest energy producer of any developed economy in the world. The result? It is the most CO2 intensive nation in the world with a daily consumption of 6 gallons of oil per person per day or 19 tons of carbon dioxide per capita annually. This is 80% higher than Europe and 94% higher than Japan.
In a letter to President Barack Obama, top-echelon companies involved in energy management technology urge the administration to help give Americans access to information about their energy consumption through the use of connected technology.
The letter—written by such influential companies as Google Inc., www.google.com, Mountain View, Calif., General Electric, www.ge.com, Fairfield, Conn., and Best Buy, www.bestbuy.com, Minneapolis, Minn., among dozens of others—states, “By giving people the ability to monitor and manage their energy consumption … via their computers, phones, or other devices, we can unleash the forces of innovation in homes and businesses. At the same time, we can harness the power of millions of people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—and save consumers billions of dollars.”
Major companies are pushing the White House and Congress to secure in-home consumer energy efficiency by making smart technology more accessible to the public.
Meeting at the Google D.C. Office on Tuesday, representatives from The Climate Change Group, Google Inc., General Electric, Intel, Whirlpool and others discussed strategies for giving households “the ability to monitor and manage their energy consumption,” as outlined in a letter sent by 47 businesses and green groups to the Obama administration on Monday.
via Browner Promises Answers On Smart Technology — Energy Section.
President Barack Obama should set a goal of giving every U.S. home and business the ability to “monitor and manage” energy consumption over the Internet, a group of companies and advocates including Hewlett-Packard Co. and Google Inc. said today.
Providing consumers with “direct feedback” on their electricity use “via their computers, phones or other devices” could save them $46 billion a year by 2020, the group said in a letter to Obama.
via Google, HP Want Internet Controls for Electricity Use (Update2) – BusinessWeek.
These days, it seems there’s nothing that can’t be accomplished by the use of online social communities. Even lowering energy consumption.
That’s the approach taken by GroundedPower, a Gloucester, MA-based startup that produces a system that monitors consumers’ real-time energy consumption and spurs them with goal-setting and online community engagement to lower that consumption over time.
Energy conservation in the home and business just got a lot easier thanks to Empower Software’s release of their SmartHome energy management software. As experts in usability and design of energy monitoring, Empower provides user friendly access to the smart grid with a user interface that every consumer can understand. This industry-leading technology lets consumers see their appliance and total household/building energy consumption in real time by Day, Week or Month via an in-home Zigbee network.
via Empower Software Gives Smart Energy Management To The Consumer.
Viridity Energy, a smart grid company that transforms large energy consumers into virtual energy generators, and Drexel University’s College of Engineering announced their joint participation in a panel discussion today highlighting their work together. “Sustainability: Beyond a Buzzword to a Better Bottom Line” is a special breakfast seminar to discuss the economic benefits of sustainability initiatives. Viridity and Drexel are working on a project to transform—and ultimately optimize—the university’s energy consumption system. This breakfast seminar is a precursor to the Drexel Advanced Energy Leadership Conference that will be held at Drexel University April 8-9.
Technology available today can be employed to create viable, sustainable, smart cities. That will be the message that Bob Gilligan, vice president–transmission and distribution for GE Energy Services, will deliver to delegates at the Chatham House conference, “The Future of Cities.”
via GE Smart Grid Technologies Build Sustainable 21st Century Cities – MarketWatch.
Consumers do not know how much energy they have been using until they get the bill that usually surprises them at the end of every month. Although a bit expensive, smart meters can be one of the answers to this problem and to the energy capacity distribution.
GE is introducing an energy information panel for the home that will grant consumers insight into how they are using energy and the control needed to properly manage energy consumption. The multi-function unit is designed for the home consumer.
Whirlpool Corporation ( WHR) is presenting a smart grid-compatible clothes dryer demonstration unit during the International Builders’ Show (IBS) in Las Vegas January 19-22, 2010. The Whirlpool smart dryer demonstration illustrates how smart grid-compatible dryers will operate in consumers’ homes, reacting intelligently to peak-demand signals from a smart electrical grid and automatically modifying energy consumption.
Apple, like Google, has a habit of causing major waves throughout the markets it enters. Could the master designers behind the iPhone, iPod, iTunes and Mac, one day revolutionize the way consumers manage the energy consumption of their gadgets and even homes? In effect, can Apple do what it did for digital entertainment and cell phones, for the energy of computing?
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