A number of recent articles and initiatives that – thankfully – put the focus back on consumers as critical actors in the evolution of the smart meter-smart grid-smart market ecosystem. First, courtesy of Earth2Tech, a report that Google has released the API (application programming interface) for its energy tool PowerMeter. As the article notes:
“…Opening up the API means that gadget makers can now freely integrate with PowerMeter — previously Google had only been working with a small amount of select device manufacturers for PowerMeter like Energy Inc’s The Energy Detective.
Google had been planning on opening up the PowerMeter API since the energy tool’s inception a year ago, but the process often takes some time to make sure the tool is ready. Srikanth Rajagopalan, PowerMeter Product Manager, told me in an interview that the PowerMeter API has been ready for awhile but that the team had been collecting and incorporating feedback from the first device partners.
…Google’s decision to release its PowerMeter API is representative of a small number of companies that have moved into the home energy management space from the web and are looking to tap into the innovation of the Internet and the ecosystem of third party developers for energy. Microsoft released its software development kit for its energy tool Hohm to developers recently and is expecting to have the first Hohm-integrated devices this summer.
…Energy dashboard makers like Tendril are also offering open APIs that will enable third-party developers to make innovative applications based around energy data. At the AlwaysOn Going Green conference in mid September Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck briefly discussed a computer game that was being built around Tendril’s API that will use a character whose powers will be based on how much energy the players saves in his/her daily life. (Check out my article: The Developer’s Guide to Home Energy Management Apps, GigaOM Pro, subscription required.)
For Google, releasing PowerMeter’s API will hopefully bring in more end users via new gadget partners. PowerMeter only has “a few thousand users at this point” Google told us recently. And opening up the API will also allow third party developers to “innovate in the field,” as Rajagopalan explained it. The mantra of Internet development is that the developer community will be able to create innovation far beyond what the companies can do in house. It will be the same for innovating around energy data.”
Second, again via Earth2Tech, a look at the California Public Utilities Commission’s issuance of deadlines by which California’s big utilities must 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. As the article notes:
“…In a largely overlooked ruling, the CPUC 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.
But that’s not all — by the end of 2011, the CPUC wants the big investor-owned utilities to provide customers and approved third parties with “near real time” data from smart meters. Given that smart meters typically send their data back to utility offices in 15-minute to hourly increments and send it back to Web portals at least a day later, getting real-time data to customers could require turning on the so-called “home area network” connections that link smart meters to in-home devices via wireless networks.
Sounds like California utilities have a whole lotta work ahead of them over the next months. But, first off, remember the CPUC actually has yet to define the specifics of what it is demanding from California’s big investor-owned utilities. The commission proceeding at issue is ongoing, and the next step will be a workshop in San Francisco on March 10. Opening comments for those workshops are due March 5, and should yield some interesting reading — particularly on the potential definitions of “near real time” data.
However, for Google — one of the IT giants that’s jumped into home energy management with its PowerMeter platform — this CPUC process is “a hugely important proceeding that will determine how the ecosystem in this space evolves,” said Michael Terrell, Google’s policy counsel. “Just because smart meters are being deployed does not mean that people will have good access to the information generated by those meters.”
Of course, almost every smart meter deployment underway in California, and across the U.S., envisions two-way communications between smart meters and their customers. But there’s a big difference between promising it and making it happen in real-time in the real world…
Utilities Making Progress
Terrell pointed out that utilities like San Diego Gas & Electric, which has been testing Google’s PowerMeter with its customers and will soon launch Google’s tool to more of its customers, are preparing systems for porting data to customers and approved third parties. SDG&E will also launch its own energy web portal for customers some time in late 2010, and has plans for a “Customer Energy Network” (CEN) service to allow multiple third parties to access next-day energy data, starting with standards developed with third parties, and then migrating to an open standard when it’s defined. PG&E, on the other hand, has asked the CPUC to allow it to delay its own “Automated Data Exchange” clearinghouse until national standards are developed, Terrell noted.
Things are also moving a bit more quickly in Texas, where the state utility commission has asked utilities to create a common web portal and data repository to make next-day energy usage data available to customers this year, Terrell said. Because the state has a deregulated energy market, utilities that generate and transmit power have to allow customers to choose from many different retail power providers, putting more pressure on utilities to be able to share data more quickly. According to the Houston Chronicle, the portal, www.smartmetertexas.com, is set to go online this month.
Embrace the Customer
It could benefit utilities to provide real-time energy data and a wide range of tools to its customers, just for the sake of good relations. PG&E’s first experience with smart meter energy data and customers has been a sobering one — customers in Bakersfield, Calif. have sued the utility, claiming their power bills skyrocketed beyond reason after smart meters were installed. PG&E insists that hot weather and a newly implemented tiered rate structures are to blame, and the CPUC has ordered a third-party audit of the smart meter system.
There are signs that the smart meter backlash is spreading beyond California — Duke Energy is being ordered by Indiana regulators to justify the costs of an 800,000 smart meter deployment in that state, and Dominion Virginia Power is delaying a $600 million smart meter rollout to do more testing, after state regulators questioned whether the meters will cost customers more in increased rates than they will help them save in reduced energy usage. Better relations, more transparency can only help with those hurdles.
Finally, again courtesy of Earth2Tech, a report questioning whether the smart grid industry should be looking at a separate energy gateway for some or all of the home energy data that’s out there instead of smart meters. As the article notes:
“…Utilities are promising that the tens of millions of two-way communicating smart meters they’re installing across the country will eventually link up to home energy management systems, and the dozens of startups and corporate giants working on home energy interfaces are busy testing out these capabilities in pilot projects. But beyond those pilots, utilities aren’t turning on their smart meter-home communications just yet in any widespread way.
That slow pace is starting to get some pushback from regulators. California regulators have asked the state’s big investor-owned utilities to give all smart meter-enabled customers energy data by the end of 2010, and follow up with “near real-time” data by the end of 2011 — a timeline that could be challenging to meet. Questions of which standards will prevail in the so-called “home area network” field, as well as questions of smart meter data privacy and security, need to be solved to push these systems into the mainstream.
Of course, utilities are already transmitting data from smart meters back to their central offices in 15-minute to hourly increments, and that can be sent back to homeowners via Web interfaces or other means. But that data is being processed and delivered back to homeowners a day or more after the energy was actually consumed — useful for spotting wasteful behavior patterns, perhaps, but not for giving homeowners the real-time ability to spot and avert wasteful usage as it’s happening.
There are other ways to do that. Google’s PowerMeter energy interface is working with utilities and smart meter maker Itron, but is also partnering with in-home energy devices from Energy Inc. and AlertMe, which can be purchased and installed by homeowners. High-end home automation system maker Control4 makes a cheaper energy-specific product, available both through utilities and direct-to-consumer channels.
The problem with leaving the purchase of home energy tools to consumers, is cost — Energy Inc’s the Energy Detective costs about $200, while surveys indicate that most consumers are willing to pay little more than $50 or so to watch their energy use, if they’re willing to spend anything at all. There are less expensive ways for homeowners to energy-watch on their own dime — Blue Line Innovations has come out with its $99 PowerCost Monitor to beam signals from non-smart electricity meters into a home display unit, and is now selling it at Fry’s Electronics after years of selling through utilities. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show featured several new partnerships aimed at the consumer energy management market, including a General Electric partnership with digital home display maker OpenPeak. (For more on “Home Energy Management: Consumer Attitudes and Preferences,” check out GigaOM Pro).
One way to make energy management more affordable is to fold it into other home offerings, like smart appliances, home broadband services or home security systems. GE’s promised line of smart appliances — fridges, ovens and other household devices that can power down to meet homeowner or utility energy-saving needs — will be linked up with GE home energy management software and interface due sometime this year. Kleiner Perkins-backed startup iControl is working with broadband providers and home security firms to supply an energy management tool that could be bundled into the monthly fees that homeowners pay for those services. (See Broadband Service Providers Are About to Ride the Home Energy Wave, GigaOM Pro).
OpenPeak, beyond its GE partnership, is already supplying its home displays to telcos such as Verizon and Telefonica subsidiary O2, and OpenPeak CEO Dan Gittelman has hinted at a telco-linked energy monitoring offering to come (see Greentech Media). But, in a nod to the multiple pathways to home energy management, OpenPeak is also working with smart meter maker Itron.
In the meantime, emerging models for home energy management could add new options to the already bewildering array. Intel Labs has a concept gadget that could plug into a household outlet and monitor individual appliances’ energy use via their voltage signatures, and Apple has a patent for a home energy interface using Homeplug power line communications to carry energy data.
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