In Smart Metering, Watch Out for Tendril

Twenty.

That’s the number of major utilities that are experimenting with the TREE (Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem) from smart metering start-up Tendril. Fifteen of the utilities are engaged in lab tests with the Boulder-based company, four are preparing field pilots and another will kick off a commercial rollout to consumers in the next few weeks. Collectively, these these utilities serve 56 million customers, according to CEO Adrian Tuck.

It’s a notable achievement and, in the increasingly crowded field of smart metering and automated energy management, it is the sort of metric that will underscore who is winning and who is falling behind.

Why? Utilities will be the key players in this field for the next several years. In automated energy management, homes are outfitted with intelligent thermostats, power supplies, light switches and other pieces of electrical equipment that connect to each other and ultimately their power-supplying utilities via a series of wireless and wired networks. The electrical appliances in a home can then be throttled back to conserve power. Depending on the contract and relationship between the utility and the customer, the utility can control the system, or the customer can set up his or her own rules.

The utility is the lynchpin because, in most cases, the utility will pay the bill and install the equipment. Most people can barely program their digital thermostats and they aren’t going to rush out to Home Depot to replace them with new equipment. Thus, you need utilities to thrive. Comverge and EnerNoc, the early leaders in the field, did so through relationships with utilities.

Tendril seems to be growing largely by being cooperative. The company’s equipment is tuned to work with the most popular standard protocols, such as Zigbee. (Tuck actually worked on the low-power wireless standard.). The company also allow customers to set their own rules regarding energy consumption or leave that job to the utility.

Tendril’s Insight, a home control and information panel, provides homeowners with a constant, visual tally of how much electricity they are paying at any given moment. When the rate goes higher, the thermostat flashes red. The Insight also provides data on how much power you are consuming compared to similarly situated neighbors. Thermostat and power consumption settings can all be set from a PC. Granted, many other companies such as Threshold and Agilewaves tout similar features, but Tendril has put it together in a fairly smooth fashion.

Almost every appliance in the house can thrive on less electricity, said Tuck. Garage freezers, for instance, can be put on a five minute on/five minute off rotation without risking a bout of botulism or freezer burn.

The company charges around $1 per month per consumer to the utility. The actual hardware costs an additional fee, but you can plug in non-Tendril hardware into the system.). Consumers save around $100 a year threw lower energy consumption, said Tuck. Utilities can potentially save more; if enough customers sign up, it obviates the need to fire up peak capacity plants.

The company, which started the year with 17 employees, will probably pass 100 in the near future, said Tuck.