How can domestic electricity customers be motivated to use energy more efficiently, let alone make more efficient use of renewable sources? One possibility is to install electronic meters to measure the electricity consumed. In the RESIDENS project, scientists are examining how to get the best out of smart meters by simplifying their use.
energy usage
Worried that this summer is going to cost you in energy bills? ComEd has just rolled out a pilot program to help you with that in the future – or if you’re in one of the test communities, you could start seeing benefits now.
Starting today, ComEd customers in nine Chicago-area communities will be able to more closely monitor their energy use using the new smart meter. Once the digital smart meter is installed, customers can track their energy use online so that they can better manage their use. The smart meter passes information along to the site every 30-minutes so that customers can get an updated look at how much energy they’re using throughout the day.
via Saving Energy: ComEd introduces smart meters – HomesPlus.
Power users can now buy an innovative device that lets them see how much power they are consuming, either by checking a display in their home or by logging on to Google’s website.
The battery-powered device, made by British company CurrentCost, clips on to the wire leading out of an electricity meter and measures power consumption in real-time by detecting changes in the wire’s magnetic field.
IBM has announced it is working with energy consultant Hildebrand, who’s monitoring system enables real-time analysis of electricity usage.
Hildebrand received EU funding for a 30-month research project to enable stakeholders from local authorities, private businesses and universities to study energy monitoring and its effect on human behaviour. The idea is that through real-time analysis of electricity usage, even down to individual appliances, people will be able to make better decisions about energy efficiency in the home and minimize their environmental impact.
via IBM teams with Hildebrand to prove household power monitoring reduces energy use | Answer My Query.
An Israeli company said it had developed a high tech, power-saving (OOTC:TCPW) method to monitor home electrical usage, appliance by appliance, and control them remotely.
The Computerized Electricity System (CES), or smart grid, provides homeowners with real-time information about how many kilowatts of electricity the blender, refrigerator, stove or washing machine, or any other electrical appliance is drawing at any given moment, Lupu Wittner, CES co-founder and chief technical officer told Xinhua on Wednesday.
via Israeli company develops power-saving method to monitor home electrical usage.
The UK’s largest energy supplier, British Gas, has announced that it plans to step-up its smart meters installation programme and get two million of the devices in-situ in their customers’ houses by 2012.
British Gas say that this will allow more British households to take advantage of all the benefits that smart meter technology offers them, including real-time usage information, which helps to cut energy use and therefore reduce carbon emissions, and thus cut fuel bills.
via British Gas Steps-Up Smart Meters Installation | Gas Boiler Buyability.
npower is to launch the first smart-meter trial in Britain to offer a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) multi-energy service, providing customers with an innovative ‘single credit balance’ function and the ability to top up their credit directly via the in-home Customer Display Unit (CDU) or even via a text message.
Designed for customers using npower’s PAYGO tariffs, the new ‘Easi-pay’ trial provides a unique way to manage energy usage and cost when allied with advanced consumption information that a smart meter can offer. The trial forms part of npower’s smartpower programme, a roll out of intelligent products and services designed to help UK households start to reduce energy usage and lower their bills ahead of the full nationwide deployment of smart meters by 2020.
The 33,000 citizens of Erding, Germany, will benefit from the environmental advantages of GE smart grid technologies in a major step toward managing energy and water consumption. Stadtwerke Erding, the city’s public works department, is implementing a groundbreaking pilot installation that will consolidate and report data to homeowners on energy and utility usage, including electricity, gas, water and heating.
The smart grids are coming, and this elegantly designed box will be there to show you what an energy hog you’ve become. The box is called Vision, and it’s made by Tendril, a hot startup that’s developing its Tendril Residential Energy Management Ecosystem (TREE), a smart grid setup that lets you interact with your electric company and keep tabs on exactly how much energy you’re using.
via Vision shows you how much energy you’re wasting in real time | DVICE.
As more smart meter deployments are planned for the American west, utility executives worry about how to effectively and efficiently collect and analyze the avalanche of data that will eventually be generated by the smart electric technology.
Southern California Edison (SCE) has begun installing smart electric meters throughout the San Gabriel Valley, located east of Los Angeles, as part of the Edison SmartConnect program. Starting in Q3 of 2010, utility customers will be able to view their energy usage from a computer, cell phone, or other electronic device to track how much they use and how much it costs.
From the private homeowner to the business owner, the smart grid is not only a smart idea, it is increasingly becoming a necessary one as well. From reducing energy costs and usage to helping find newer and better energy solutions, the smart grid is going to eventually change the way that the world does business, one business at a time.
Privacy advocates are warning that “smart meters” intended to precisely measure and control home electrical consumption could erode the privacy of daily life unless regulators limit data collection and disclosure. In a joint filing this week, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to adopt rules to protect the privacy and security of consumers’ energy-usage information. The Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law drafted the comments for CDT.
via Privacy Protection Needed As Smart Grid Arrives | PogoWasRight.org.
BTi Energy Management announced today that they will be spearheading the commercial and industrial energy management metering and reporting business in North America in a new partnership with Wescon Technology.
The core of the BTi Energy Management offering is a leading edge multi-circuit electric meter with a built in web-server and more standard communication options then you will see anywhere else. The system scales easily from self contained systems on a closed network to nationwide deployments that allow head offices to compare detailed energy usage at all their facilities. Add automated reports sent out via email and the ability to consolidate data from multiple meters scattered all over the country connected by the Internet and you have a very powerful energy management solution.
Whether you are planning to live “off the grid” and free yourself from energy bills or just “kick back” and enjoy lower energy bills, the first step is always to understand your home’s energy usage and employ good old fashioned energy conservation techniques.
California’s big utilities have some tough deadlines to meet to give their customers the useful — if at times potentially unwelcome — energy usage data being collected by the millions of smart meters they’re deploying across the state. In a largely overlooked ruling, the California Public Utilities Commission said in December that Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric have until the end of 2010 to give their customers — and approved third parties, which could include Google, Microsoft or other makers of energy data portals — smart meter data that the utilities have collected in their back office servers.
via Cali Utilities: Get Ready to Give Your Customers Smart Meter Data!.
Do you want your fridge talking about you behind your back?
With the rapid adoption of a North American “smart grid” aimed at helping consumers conserve electricity, it’s also possible that smart appliances will be able to transmit information about their activities (and yours) through the power lines. Your electricity utility may not yet be able to determine when you snack, do laundry or shower, but privacy advocates are sounding the alarm that systems need to be put in place to guard details about a household’s electricity usage from prying eyes.
via CBC News – Technology & Science – Smart grid could turn appliances into spies, experts warn.
The EU has ambitious plans for more efficient energy usage across the continent that integrates renewable sources into a secure power grid that emits far less CO2. These goals, if they are to be reached by 2020, are heavily dependent on a successful smart grid deployment.
The smart grid will bring about a number of improvements to the power industry including the ability to include renewable sources. Consumers will have a far better handle on how they are using energy through the use of a smart meter or display unit and utilities will have much more visibility into the level of supply and demand with the networked smart grid architecture.
Thousands of area residents with electric meters that transmit usage data wirelessly soon will be able to examine their power habits online.
CenterPoint Energy, along with other distribution utilities and IBM, is expected to launch an online portal, www.smartmetertexas.com, this month that will allow customers to monitor usage in real time regardless of which retailer provides their electricity.
Smart metering, a key element of the so-called Smart Grid, has been touted as a great bright hope that will enable residential electric customers to cut their usage, thereby reducing greenhouse gases as well as their monthly bills. By providing immediate feedback to customers as to how much power they are using, what their annual bill is projected to be and how their usage compares to that of their neighbors, it is hoped that the meters will motivate ratepayers to adjust their behavior and their electronics so as to reduce overall load on the system.
via Will Consumers Get Smart with Smart Meters? |Triple Pundit.
More than 1 million U.S. households now receive reports on how their energy consumption compares with their neighbors as utilities encourage conservation, some with smiley faces for those doing well.
The reports — deployed by 25 utilities, including six of the 10 biggest — have resulted in households cutting energy use an average of 2% to 3%, says Alex Laskey, co-founder of Opower, which provides the reports.
via Do you use more energy than your neighbors? – USATODAY.com.
