Smart Meters Open Market for Smart Apps

October 7, 2008, 4:19 pm
Smart Meters Open Market for Smart Apps
By Erik Olsen

"Part of the allure of smart metering is that consumers can use their computers to monitor their minute-by-minute energy usage — and adjust their habits accordingly. Companies are now lining up to provide the software for that interface."

As Matthew Wald wrote back in August, the power grid in the United States is in dramatic need of overhaul. But the needed improvements to load management and energy efficiency go well beyond upgrades to the network cables, transformers and power stations that make up the system’s gross anatomy.

Indeed, embedded in the promise of an improved, 21st-century “smart grid” are “smart meters,” which are quietly gaining ground in American households as utilities replace aging meters with high-tech, networked versions.

The units provide real-time, two-way communication between customer and power company — on the theory that consumers might be more likely to, say, tolerate a bit of balminess if they are able to monitor their air conditioner’s energy consumption in real time. With a Web-browser interface, a customer can access colorful graphs and charts that display exactly how much the appliance costs — and at what time of day it costs the most.

That last point is also a boon to utilities, as they can use smart metering to more closely link customer pricing with market principles of supply and demand. Energy, after all, is typically more scarce, and therefore more expensive, when households are humming with activity — in the mornings and evenings, say.

In the middle of the night, when demand for power is low, it is comparatively cheaper.

Smart meters are, of course, not new. Given the rate of current smart-meter deployment in Europe, the Swedish business research firm Berg Insight estimated recently that more than 80 million smart meters will have been installed across that continent by 2013.

Smart meters have been slower to take hold in the United States, but programs are underway in several cities. Southern California Edison, for instance, recently announced plans to install some 5.3 million meters between 2009 and 2012 at a cost of $1.63 billion.

And as the smart-meter market grows, so too does the demand for networking, software and hardware tools to make it all work. Tendril Networks’ TREE system, for example, creates an in-home wireless network linking appliances and electrical outlets to either a stand-alone monitoring unit or Web interface.

And Oklahoma Gas & Electric, a utility serving 765,000 customers in Oklahoma and western Arkansas, has recently teamed up in a pilot program with Silver Spring Networks, a network hardware and software provider specifically marketing to utilities, and Greenbox, a company based in San Bruno, Calif., that provides the Web-based energy monitoring software.

According to Matt Smith, the vice president of marketing at Greenbox, the system so far has helped 24 households to lower their monthly bills 15 percent to 20 percent. “We want to educate people about their energy usage,” Mr. Smith said.

Last week, Mr. Smith showed me a live demo of the system — which currently runs on a 15-minute delay (an enhanced, real-time version, which will require the installation of a router in the home, is planned for release in November.) A typical chart display from the Greenbox Web application is shown here:
ChartsCharting electric usage. (Image: Greenbox)

The names of residents were changed, but I was able to not only see how much energy the home was drawing and at what cost, but by selecting the “community features” option, I could also compare the home’s consumption with that of its neighbors.

Can a “tsk-tsk” feature that might allow residents to chide their power-gluttonous neighbors be far off?