Smart Grid Blog

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.

In the smart-grid arena, Google is taking a more overtly commercial position by introducing its own product. To gain broader acceptance for PowerMeter, it is creating a partnership program for hardware manufacturers, utilities, and government agencies. A company that makes a smart meter or in-home display for energy usage could, for example, make its information available in an Google gadget format or build a specialized application using PowerMeter.

Sending ripples

via mileagemagazine.com » Blog Archive » Google crashes the smart-grid party.

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.

Google PowerMeter now in prototype, will receive information from utility smart meters and energy management devices and provide anyone who signs up access to her home electricity consumption right on her iGoogle homepage. The graph on the right shows how someone could use this information to figure out how much energy is used by different household activities.

via Google PowerMeter Review.

Will Google’s tools one day help you monitor and manage the energy consumption of appliances like your washer and dryer? The company said yesterday afternoon that it’s partnered with chip maker Microchip to work with developers in order to create embedded devices that are compatible with Google’s energy tool PowerMeter. Microchip says the relationship means that it will offer Google’s recently opened API (application programming interface) to its developer community.

via Google PowerMeter Moving Closer to Smart Appliances.

Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP 28.71, -0.36, -1.24%) , a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced the result of its strategic partnership with Google PowerMeter–the first Reference Implementation of the Google PowerMeter API for embedded developers. Designers now have a quick and easy way to enter the global energy-conservation market, by creating products for the measurement and monitoring of energy usage with Microchip's Google PowerMeter Reference Implementation and its broad portfolio of 16- and 32-bit PIC(R) microcontrollers, energy-measurement ICs, Ethernet controllers, and radios for ZigBee(R) and embedded Wi-Fi(R) wireless networking.

via Google and Microchip Partner to Enable Easy Development of Google PowerMeter Designs for Smart Energy Monitoring – MarketWatch.

In a bid to encourage integration of its technology by home developers and manufacturers of a range of electrical devices, Google has released a new PowerMeter API.

The code, which is available here, is intended for manufacturers of electrical devices, from refrigerators and washing machines to other appliances, that have built-in energy monitoring technology. It also works with other smart meter devices.

via Seeking Smart Grid Market Share, Google Launches PowerMeter API · Environmental Leader · Green Business, Sustainable Business, and Green Strategy News for Corporate Sustainability Executives.

Google’s PowerMeter tool is taking a bite out of the slow progress we're making toward a smart grid by jumping over utilities that move at the speed-of-molasses and putting energy data in front of users right away, including creating an easy-to-use energy monitoring platform and partnering with home power monitor companies like The Energy Detective. They’ve just made another smart move to speed things along by opening up their application programming interface (API) so that developers can start creating tools to interface with PowerMeter. Now developers can create devices and tools that can talk to PowerMeter, making it that much easier to have a whole-house energy monitoring system for a much lower cost, and much sooner than if we wait for a fully developed smart grid to provide it.

via Time for Developers to Go Nuts on Energy Efficiency – Google Releases API for PowerMeter : TreeHugger.

Learning how smart grid technology works is important but even more significant is figuring out what the technology will do for people. As a way to monitor power demands and reallocate resources there are many companies adopting smart grid technology. The recent buzz around this technology is not only about preventing blackouts and blowouts but also about the human benefits that comes from smart grid. With the evolution of the smart grid, companies have been creating a channel of communication, clearly highlighting the positive aspects of smart grid. Considering the current influx of interactive microsites, YouTube videos and pricey commercials, companies have become highly invested in communicating to the consumer that the smart grid, is a good thing.

via Are There Human Benefits in Smart Grid? | BuildIntel.

FutureDash Corp., an innovative start-up business-to-business (B2B) software company, announces today that GreenDash™, a new software product allowing manufacturers of consumer networking and electronics equipment to quickly and easily add real-time energy monitoring capabilities to their products, now integrates with Google PowerMeter using the newly announced Google PowerMeter API.

via Newswire – PR / FutureDash Unveils Support for Google PowerMeter™ – Software – FutureDash Corp. | NewswireToday.

Google has released an API for its PowerMeter application in a move which the search giant hopes will help to popularise home smart meters.

Late last week, Google announced that it had released the Google PowerMeter API in a blog post. “We’re launching this API in order to help build the ecosystem of innovative developers working towards making energy information more widely available to consumers,” Google stated.

via Google Releases PowerMeter API | eWEEK Europe UK.

Internet search engine and global tech giant, Google Inc., has officially entered the electric utility game, although don’t expect to be writing a monthly check to Google for your electric bill any time soon.

In a unanimous vote the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved a request by Google to buy and sell electricity, granting Google “market based rate authority.” But like many new ventures the Mountain View, California-based tech giant embarks on, they don’t exactly know where they’re going with it, or what they’ll do with their newfound authority. But not knowing where things are heading has never stopped Google before.

via Google Electric Co? Search Giant OK’d to Sell Electricity.

Google is making it tough to keep up. There is so much innovation in so many areas that tech journalists have been complaining they can’t digest it all. As an entrepreneur I’m trying to see where there is opportunity to dive in and where there is a higher likelihood to get crushed (been there, done that… GoTo).

via Google Energy: It’s about the grid.

There is no doubt about it but Google is a disruptive company.

First Google disrupted search, then advertising, then video (with their acquisition of YouTube), and then Office applications with the launch and continued development of Google Apps for Domains. Most recently Google has disrupted the mobile phone industry, first with the launch of their Android operating system and just a couple of days ago with the launch of their Nexus One mobile phone.

via Google Energy to start disrupting the utility industry?.

Google has joined the IPSO Alliance, a consortium of technology vendors promoting the use of the Internet Protocol for “smart object communications,” once referred to as “the Internet of things.” The vision of this group is that everything from appliances to cars are plugged into an IP network and can communicate via private networks or over the Internet.

… According a press release issued by the IPSO, Google’s interest in the organization is to equip devices so that they can participate in Google’s PowerMeter application, which tracks power usage.

via Google joins IPSO Alliance to help consumers be green citizens | NetworkWorld.com Community.

“What gets measured gets managed.” You may have heard that one at work… numerous times. It applies at home, also, and numerous products exist to help you measure your electricity use, and manage it in a more efficient manner. You may have used a Kill-a-Watt, or read about Google Power Meter with anticipation. Yesterday, a handful bloggers got on the phone with Ron Dembo, CEO of Zerofootprint, to discuss their upcoming answer to smart energy management: the TalkingPlug.

via Plug-in Smart Metering: Zerofootprint’s TalkingPlug | Green Business | Reuters.

On Wednesday of last week, first:utility, a UK energy company, announced that it had become the first UK partner for Google’s PowerMeter. As we covered in a previous blog, PowerMeter is an application that allows users to see a near real-time display of their energy

first:utility is a new residential energy supplier, having launched into the sector just over a year ago. It now has 30,000 customers and claims to be the only UK energy supplier to provide free smart meters, which it is rolling out across the UK. Currently, customers can get energy usage patterns from a Home Display Unit or usage and cost information online from the first:utility web site. PowerMeter is an alternative means to view and manage energy consumption. The PowerMeter service will be free and is due to go live this month.

via Google Powermeter comes to the UK.

AlertMe, the award-winning home energy management service, today announced the launch of AlertMe Energy, giving consumers the ability to monitor their home energy usage online and act on that information to reduce their bills and carbon footprint. AlertMe Energy includes easy-to-install hardware and an online service that can be accessed from any Web browser. It is also tightly integrated with Google PowerMeter, making it easy to track energy consumption live from an iGoogle home page.

via AlertMe Energy Launches with Google and British Gas | Reuters.

Energy dashboards were a big subject at West Coast Green this year. But the buzz wasn’t as much around new devices on the market as it was pondering how energy dashboards – and the simple fact of making energy consumption data available to consumers – can change our habits for the better, for good. Not just a novelty anymore but something making their way into our daily life, energy monitoring dashboards have a big role to fill, but still have room for improvement. From panels with key players like Google PowerMeter, PG&E and IBM to un-panels made up of smart meter enthusiasts, there were some big ideas about how energy dashboards will revise the way we interact with our homes and energy sources.

Energy Dashboards Are The Next Major Tool for Energy Efficiency

In a panel on connecting smart buildings to the smart grid, the main focus was on how the end user of electricity can participate in energy efficiency. Andrew Tang, Senior Director, Smart Energy Web at Pacific Gas & Electric stated that we’re a short 12 to 24 months away from power meters being a commonplace item on shore shelves that people pick up regularly to install in their homes and monitor their energy consumption.

via West Coast Green 2009: Can Energy Dashboards Change Behavior, Permanently? : TreeHugger.

One of the biggest hurdles standing between Google and wide adoption of its home energy management system PowerMeter — a service that makes your electricity consumption and pricing data available on the web — is that it depended on the broad roll out of smart meters (advanced meters capable of transmitting data to utilities and customers in real time). With only asmall percentage of smart meters in the field, this won’t be a reality for a while.

But today, Google announced a new partnership with Energy Inc., a provider of home energy measurement devices that negate the need for smart meters. Now homeowners and businesses that want to use PowerMeter to keep tabs on how much energy they are using won’t have to wait for their local utilities to install smart meters. Instead, they can buy one of Energy Inc.’s monitoring devices called the TED 5000 (short for The Energy Detective), for $200. This monitor makes the data you want available via any internet browser and any computer, all for free after initial purchase.

via Google lands energy device partner, doesn’t have to wait for smart meters | VentureBeat.