Google tool helps consumers reduce energy usage
Reuters is reporting on a new Google tool helps consumers reduce energy usage.
On its official company blog, Google said it is developing a smart grid tool called Google PowerMeter that will show home energy consumption almost in real time on a user’s computer.
Google PowerMeter is currently being tested by employees and is not yet available to the public.
In a blog entry “Power to the People“, the Google team explain their concept.
Imagine how hard it would be to stick to a budget in a store with no prices. Well, that’s pretty much how we buy electricity today. Your utility company sends you a bill at the end of the month with very few details. Most people don’t know how much electricity their appliances use, where in the house they are wasting electricity, or how much the bill might go up during different seasons. But in a world where everyone had a detailed understanding of their home energy use, we could find all sorts of ways to save energy and lower electricity bills. In fact, studies show that access to home energy information results in savings between 5-15% on monthly electricity bills. It may not sound like much, but if half of America’s households cut their energy demand by 10 percent, it would be the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road.
Best of all, Google understand that data is no use without interpretation, visualisation and layers of privacy and digital rights management.
[D]eploying smart meters alone isn’t enough. This needs to be coupled with a strategy to provide customers with easy access to energy information. That’s why we believe that open protocols and standards should serve as the cornerstone of smart grid projects, to spur innovation, drive competition, and bring more information to consumers as the smart grid evolves. We believe that detailed data on your personal energy use belongs to you, and should be available in an open standard, non-proprietary format. You should control who gets to see your data, and you should be free to choose from a wide range of services to help you understand it and benefit from it.
How it works
The Google strategy revolves around a simple Analyse, Save and Share strategy, not dissimilar to Carbon Planet’s own Measure, Manage and Minimise strategies for carbon management. By getting better information about your own use patterns, you get the feedback you need to optimise your own behaviour and thus use less power, and save more money. It’s a bit like driving a Prius; the feedback systems let you moderate your activity and, in a Prius from my own experience, you can extract a further 20% or so of fuel economy if you pay attention.
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.
Simple, elegant and goodness what a lot of new data to mine for Google. It frightens me sometimes to think of what would happen if Google fell into evil hands. — DS