NorCalSavant

Last week Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, announced a new tool called Google PowerMeter that would enable homes and businesses to easily cut their energy consumption by anywhere from five to fifteen percent.  Is it really what it is cranked out to be?  And, if so, how soon is it going to be a reality?

Google PowerMeter is a piece of software that will allow users to monitor their energy use in real time on a computer screen.  It would be available on the user’s iGoogle home page.  It will interface with smart meters, smart devices, and utility grids to present energy consumption information in a graphical form in real time.  It could also work with a device that attaches to a fuse box to measure electricity consumption.

Here’s an example graph from the PowerMeter:

Source: http://blog.google.org/2009/02/power-to-people.html

As you can see, you would be able to see in real time the power consumption spike when you turn your dryer on, for example.  For all those interested in reducing their electric bill, it would provide the energy consumption information in a nice visual format in real time.  To save money you could change the time you use the device to the off-peak time when the power is cheaper.  You could turn some devices off, or keep them unplugged.  Or, you could replace an energy guzzling device to an energy saving device.

It will also be good for the environment.  As the over all energy consumption will decrease, so would the production of energy and the accompanying greenhouse gases.

Google says that the PowerMeter is aligned with their mission of organizing information and making it useful and accessible, and they will provide this service for free to homes and businesses.  So, how could they monetize it?  Well, all this information could present an opportunity for targeted advertising.  For example, Google could know how many old TVs are in use in a geographic area, and then target ads there for newer energy-efficient TVs.

Now, let us look at some of the good, the bad, and the ugly along with the competition.

The Good

The good thing about the PowerMeter is that it provides very important data, which was not easily available so far, for free to homes and businesses.  It provides vital information to those who are motivated to reduce energy consumption for pocketbook or environmental reasons.

A picture is worth a thousand words.  A real-time graph showing energy consumption is a way better information delivery product and motivator than the monthly electric bill with numbers.

The Bad

The bad in this announcement is that the Google PowerMeter is not a complete package by itself.  It needs cooperation from meter and appliance manufacturers to feed it the information it needs.  Home electronics and appliance manufacturers will have to add hardware to their products to feed data to the PowerMeter wirelessly.  Utilities will also have to provide grid metrics to the PowerMeter.

Google plans on building partnerships with utilities and independent device manufacturers to gradually roll this out in pilot programs.  Fortuitously, the new stimulus package signed by President Obama includes money earmarked for smart grid and smart meter technologies.  Google says that the first pilot projects should go online sometime this year.

As for the PowerMeter itself, it is still being tested by Googlers, and has not been released to the public yet.  So, even if you did not want to wait for the smart meter from the utility, and wanted to attach an energy measuring device to the fuse box yourself, you would still not be able to try it out today.

Also, it also doesn’t look like that the PowerMeter includes the ability to remotely control any device or appliance.  Maybe, that will be a part of future upgrades.

Some statements by Google on its blog here appear to be highly optimistic and a little too promotional.  It says:

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.

A little too fast there.  That assertion is jumping from $ savings to energy demand reduction essentially equating them.  They are not the same thing.  A 10% reduction in electric bill is probably not the same thing as a 10% reduction in energy demand.  In fact, a lot of reduction in the electric bill would come from time-shifting device use from peak to off-peak hours.  The energy consumption in such a case would be essentially the same.

Anyhoo, there would be some demand reduction by a user turning off some devices which would otherwise have been left on, and by a user replacing some devices with more energy-efficient devices.  But, that is likely to be a smaller percent figure than the savings on the electric bill.

The Ugly

I can’t think of anything really ugly.  Google will have an opportunity to make money from targeted advertising, but that is how commerce is organized in a capitalist society.  As long as Google does not abuse individual user information and works within the bounds of acceptable privacy concerns, it should be all good.

The Competition

There are alternatives right now for consumers to measure electricity consumption by individual appliances/devices or by the entire home.  Watts Up and Kill-A-Watt EZ monitor the power consumption of individual appliances.  TED, The Energy Detective from Energy Inc., in South Carolina, and Agilewaves’ Resource Monitor monitor the power consumption by the entire home.  However, none of them are available for free like the PowerMeter is proposed to be.

Microsoft has also announced its own product called the Environmental Dashboard application for Microsoft Dynamics AX, which will allow its business customers to monitor their energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions.  It is not targeted to home users, and is probably also not available for free like the PowerMeter is proposed to be.

So, what do you think?  Is the Google PowerMeter a premature hype?  Do you think it will live up to its stated promise?

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