Google Announces First Utility Partners for New PowerMeter

May 20th, 2009 by Timothy B. Hurst

Google’s plan to roll-out home energy monitoring systems took a step towards reality Tuesday when the company announced the first round of utility partners for its PowerMeter demand-side energy management software.

The pilot program for Google’s foray into smart grid and energy management infrastructure will be available to select customers at a group of eight utilities that have installed—or are in the process of installing—smart meters. With the move, Google will be making the company’s first significant play in energy-use data, an entirely new dimension of consumer data for the company.

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By having real-time information about home energy usage on a desktop (running as a Google Gadget), those using the meter will be able to use their energy more efficiently, save money on their monthly bill, and be able to monitor/reduce household carbon emissions.

In the announcement at the Official Google Blog, Ed Lu, of Google’s Engineering Team writes that the first partners include “utilities with millions of customers as well as smaller ones. They are rural and urban, privately held and municipally run. Some are in the United States, others in Canada and India. They all have one thing in common — a desire to serve their customers by providing access to detailed information that helps save energy and money.”

For now, there are limited Google PowerMeter partners, but the company plans to expand their rollout later this year. PowerMeter utility partners announced today Tuesday.

San Diego Gas & Electric® (California)
TXU Energy (Texas)
JEA (Florida)
Reliance Energy (India)
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (Wisconsin)
White River Valley Electric Cooperative (Missouri)
Toronto Hydro–Electric System Limited (Canada)
Glasgow EPB (Kentucky)

Your utility not on the list? Don’t fret. Lu also indicates in the announcement that Google is looking to partner with more companies that can enable the implementation of the software. Learn more about partner opportunities.

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Tags: demand-side energy management, ed lu, Google, powermeter, smart meters

About the Author

Timothy B. Hurst is the founder of ecopolitology and the executive editor at LiveOAK Media, a media network about the politics of energy and the environment, green business, cleantech, and green living. When not reading, writing, thinking or talking about environmental politics with anyone who will listen, Tim spends his time skiing in Colorado's high country, hiking with his dog, and getting dirty in his vegetable garden.

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http://redgreenandblue.org Timothy B. Hurst

Chris, you’re absolutely right. It’s all about demand-side monitoring and control. Let us see how much energy costs and when. Even with some sort of carbon tax, let us pay the true cost of our energy use and let us see it. I guarantee you we can use less without sacrificing our standard of living.
http://redgreenandblue.org Timothy B. Hurst

Chris, you’re absolutely right. It’s all about demand-side monitoring and control. Let us see how much energy costs and when. Even with some sort of carbon tax, let us pay the true cost of our energy use and let us see it. I guarantee you we can use less without sacrificing our standard of living.
http://redgreenandblue.org Timothy B. Hurst

Chris, you’re absolutely right. It’s all about demand-side monitoring and control. Let us see how much energy costs and when. Even with some sort of carbon tax, let us pay the true cost of our energy use and let us see it. I guarantee you we can use less without sacrificing our standard of living.
http://redgreenandblue.org Timothy B. Hurst

Chris, you’re absolutely right. It’s all about demand-side monitoring and control. Let us see how much energy costs and when. Even with some sort of carbon tax, let us pay the true cost of our energy use and let us see it. I guarantee you we can use less without sacrificing our standard of living.
http://blog.mapawatt.com Chris Kaiser

The Google power meter is a huge step in the right direction, but it is only going to be available to a select number of people, mainly those whose utilities are installing smart meter.

Everyone else will have to rely on other methods of whole home monitoring, but they are fairly easy to find. I’ve written about several on the Mapawatt Blog.

Whether you are able to use the Google Meter or not, monitoring is one of most vital steps to getting control over your home energy use.

Having one the most respected technology companies in the world realize that speaks volumes!
http://blog.mapawatt.com Chris Kaiser

The Google power meter is a huge step in the right direction, but it is only going to be available to a select number of people, mainly those whose utilities are installing smart meter.

Everyone else will have to rely on other methods of whole home monitoring, but they are fairly easy to find. I’ve written about several on the Mapawatt Blog.

Whether you are able to use the Google Meter or not, monitoring is one of most vital steps to getting control over your home energy use.

Having one the most respected technology companies in the world realize that speaks volumes!
russ

To the best of my knowledge Reliance Energy in India is a generator – not a utility servicing the end customer.
russ

To the best of my knowledge Reliance Energy in India is a generator – not a utility servicing the end customer.