The easy access to home energy data is a serious constraint to smart grid innovation.
But you would never know it from the success of Google’s PowerMeter, the online software that lets homeowners monitor their power consumption.
Forty-six percent of PowerMeter users check their energy use three times a day or more, says Google's Edward Lu
The growth in the use of the free product is high and consumers find it “sticky,” says Edward Lu, program manager of advanced products at the Internet search titan.
Eighty-six percent of users view their energy use once every three days, Lu said at GreenNet conference in San Francisco. Forty-six percent look at it three times a day or more.
Lu said Google has partnerships with 10 utilities, but expects more from the online product. New features are being tested, including a way to interface with electric cars. Google doesn’t yet have a business model in mind, but that isn’t holding back development, says Lu.
Despite its success, Google is quick to say that the incomplete access to consumer data is slowing its innovation, just as it is constraining development at the more than 100 other established companies and start-ups developing software, home displays and other products for the emerging home energy market.
Lu acknowledges that there is a mismatch between the speed of companies, such as Google, and the slower pace of utilities and regulators. By next year, companies may expect to see the data, he says, but it is likely to be another before many states and utilities finally open the gates.
Other innovators view the landscape in a similar manner. Access to consumer data is a key constraint, says Adrian Tuck, CEO of the smart grid display company Tendril. “Without it, the market will not flourish.”
Tuck says that only 10 of the 50 U.S. states are moving in the direction of open access. On the list are California, New York, Texas, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The others are not.
At Microsoft, the company hopes to sidestep some of the restraints. Last month it struck a deal to put its Hohm home energy management software inside Ford’s electric Focus.
“We see this as a business” selling services to utilities and selling online ads for consumers to see, says Troy Batterberry, product unit manager. More auto partnerships are on the way, he added.
Posted by TechPulse 360 
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