Viewing posts tagged "Alertme"

Microsoft Turns Sacramento Onto Hohm

Microsoft turned on the data feeds to its Hohm home energy monitoring platform at a third utility on Thursday – the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

SMUD has 1.4 million customers, and all will now be able to see their monthly power bills through the Hohm web-based platform, Microsoft planned to announce Thursday morning at the utility's Sacramento, Calif. headquarters.

Microsoft has already enabled similar functionality at two other utilities – Xcel Energy, with 3.4 million customers, and Seattle City Light, with about one million customers (see Green Light post).

The monthly data – which doesn't require a smart meter to be delivered to customers – can be linked with information customers can input themselves about their household energy use. Hohm merges it all to give homeowners tips to help save energy (see Microsoft Launches Home Energy Site, Sees Devices, Demand Response in Future).

It's a model a bit more like energy efficiency tip websites, though Microsoft would like to see more frequent smart meter data incorporated into the system as it becomes available.

That's the route most other home energy management platforms are taking.

That includes Google, which has signed up about 10 utilities, smart meter maker Itron, and home energy gear makers The Energy Detective and AlertMe to provide data to its web-based PowerMeter platform (See Green Light post and Google, British Gas Help AlertMe Launch Home Energy Control).

Google and Microsoft have other differences in how they approach the home energy management market (see Green Light post for a list).

Of course, there are also dozens of startups such as Tendril, Control4, OpenPeak, EnergyHub, Onzo, and many others attacking the home energy management space. Two notable ones, Greenbox and Lixar, have been acquired by richly funded smart grid startups Silver Spring Networks and GridPoint, respectively, and meter data management software maker eMeter has launched its own platform as well (see Green Light post, Silver Spring Swallows Greenbox and stories here, here, here and here).

Itron Enlists Sequentric as Newest Partner

Itron has picked a new partner to link its older, one-way communicating electricity meters to utilities – North Carolina-based home energy networking startup Sequentric Energy Systems.

The idea is to capture data that's sent out by those "drive-by" meters – so called because their encoder receiver transmitter (ERT) radios send out signals meant to be captured by utility workers driving by with digital readers – and carry it back to the utility via another communications channel.

At the same time, Sequentric will display the energy usage information, which comes about once every 15 seconds or so, to the homeowner via an interface, which could be a stand-alone panel or a Web or mobile device display, CEO Daniel Flohr said.

There are about 67 million Itron ERT meters in the field today, making them an attractive target for utilities that can't justify replacing them, but still want to make them more capable of two-way communication.

Sequentric joins a long list of partners involved with Itron on that effort, including Tendril Networks, OpenPeak, EnergyHub and Ambient (see Green Light post).

But Flohr thinks that his company's starting price of $59 for a home energy management hub that links to Itron's ERT meters might well beat the prices from the competition. Adding a smart thermostat and a few other sensors attached to appliances or home circuits could be done for less than $150, he said.

Keeping prices low will likely be critical to capturing the home energy management market. Studies indicate that most homeowners don't want to spend much more than $50 to $100 on such a system, and utilities will be pressed to justify to regulators the costs of delivering systems across their entire service territories (see Utilities Mull Price Points, Policies for Home Energy Management).

At the same time, Google and Microsoft have come out with home energy platforms that are free for consumers to use, although they would need smart meters or in-home energy measuring devices to get more detailed real-time energy usage information (see Green light posts here and here).

Unlike some companies making home energy management systems, Sequentric doesn't see itself selling directly to customers, Flohr said.

"We're not suggesting this is something the homeowner goes out and buys," he said. "Our customer is, and likely always will be, the utility company. That's to us how the smart grid gets deployed."

That is, he sees these gateways as a way for utilities to control demand response – turning down air conditioners, clothes dryers, pool pumps and other power-hungry appliances.

To link its devices and gateway, Sequentric uses a proprietary wireless network in the 433-megahertz spectrum. That could make it a hard sell to utilities that are expected to deploy smart grid systems that use standards now being developed by the federal government (see Smart Grid Standards Roadmap Unveiled).

But Flohr said that Sequentric's gateway could come with a bridge device to allow it to communicate via ZigBee, the protocol that's emerging as a leader in North American smart meter deployments, or other standards-based wireless technologies such as WiFi (see RF Mesh, ZigBee Top North American Utilities' Smart Meter Wish Lists).

Sequentric is piloting its system with a number of utilities, Flohr said. Sources have told Greentech Media that one of those partners is Duke Energy, though neither Duke nor Flohr have confirmed that fact (see Sequentric Working on Duke Pilot Project).

Google’s PowerMeter vs. Microsoft’s Hohm: A Scorecard

Ever wanted to know the difference between Google's PowerMeter and Hohm, the energy management console from Microsoft, but never had the time? Me too. Luckily, VentureBeat has done it. Some of the differences are pointless; some are interesting. (Disclosure: I'm rooting for the several startups in this market and not for either one of these guys.) Here are some of the highlights:

• Hohm provides users with more general conservation recommendations, like window caulking, installing a programmable thermostat, other home weatherizing techniques. Google doesn’t do this. Something of a plus in my book.

• Google doesn't plan to charge for it. Microsoft won't charge consumers directly. Instead, it will sell ads and ultimately charge utilities for the service. Again, advantage Microsoft. If Google really wanted to be generous, it can start giving out stock options or sharing its ad revenue with publishers. Just a thought.

• Hohm will track gas consumption too. PowerMeter will not. A huge plus for Hohm.

• Google's name is better.

• Google is working with AlertMe and The Energy Detective. No thermostats in Hohm's court yet.

• Google let's you access information from your iGoogle page. Microsoft makes you log in.

Microsoft Hohm: First Seattle City Light, Now Xcel Energy

Microsoft's Hohm home energy platform will soon be able to deliver monthly energy use data for all of Xcel Energy's 3.4 million customers across eight states, all without smart meters. The two companies plan to announce the news on Friday at an event at Microsoft's campus in Fargo, N.D., a Microsoft spokesperson said Thursday.

Xcel is the second utility to link customer data to Hohm. Last month, Seattle City Light started offering its roughly one million customers a data feed of their utility bill information via the web platform.

That monthly billing data can be merged with information customers can input themselves about their household energy use to help better pinpoint ways to save energy (see Microsoft Launches Home Energy Site, Sees Devices, Demand Response in Future).

Xcel and Seattle City Light were two of four named utility partners for Hohm back when Microsoft launched it in June. The others were Puget Sound Energy and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, though they haven't yet said they're making billing data available through the home. Microsoft has said it is in discussions with  more utilities.

Monthly billing data can be delivered to customers without smart meters, which may give Hohm a larger audience at this stage. Home energy management startups such as Tendril, Control4, AlertMe, OpenPeak EnergyHub and many others may have to wait several years for utilities to start linking smart meters to home energy management systems at a scale beyond pilot projects, industry observers say (see Green Light post).

As for how Hohm differs from the many websites that allow homeowners to input information about their homes and get back tips for energy saving, Microsoft points to the advanced algorithms it uses, which were developed by the Department of Energy and its Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Microsoft also has said Hohm eventually will be supported by real-time data from smart thermostats and smart plugs it expects to see rolled out by various hardware partners in the coming year.

Google, which launched its PowerMeter home energy interface effort in February, has shied away from asking homeowners to input their own information.

Rather, it has signed partnerships with a number of utilities, as well as smart meter maker Itron, to find ways to bring data from smart meters to customers. At the same time, it has announced partnerships with in-home energy monitoring equipment startups AlertMe and The Energy Detective, and has said it is seeking more such partners (See Green Light post and Google, British Gas Help AlertMe Launch Home Energy Control).

AlertMe to Pilot Web, Mobile Thermostat Control With British Gas

AlertMe, a British home energy management system maker, is getting a chance to test its mobile phone thermostat control technology with one of the United Kingdom's biggest natural gas utilities.

British Gas New Energy, the low carbon and energy efficient products and services branch of British Gas parent company Centrica, will test out the Cambridge-based startup's technology for turning home temperatures up and down from any Web-enabled device, the two announced over the weekend.

It's AlertMe's first utility trial. The company jumped into home energy management by way of its existing wireless home security business, and started selling its SmartPlug devices - wireless wall socket adapters that can be shut on and off remotely – in March.

In June AlertMe raised £8 million ($12.8 million) in Series B funding from Good Energies, Index Ventures, SET Venture Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners. That's on top of a £5 million ($10.35 million at the time) round in November 2007 (see AlertMe Raises £8M for Home Energy Management).

That makes it a fairly recent entry to the crowded home energy management field, which includes dozens of startups – Tendril Networks, EnergyHub, Energate, Control4, Greenbox Technology, Onzo, OpenPeak, Current Cost, Sequentric, 4Home, Agilewaves are some of them – as well as big players like Google, Microsoft and Cisco (see The Smart Home, Part I and stories here, here and here).

Almost all of these contenders are looking toward utilities to help them get their hardware, software and wireless networks into customers' homes, with many pilot projects underway.

Others, like AlertMe, have a direct-to-consumer business plan as well, and others are looking to telecommunications companies as a gateway into the home (see The Telco Home Energy Invasion).

The hoped-for end result is a home that can power down when the utilities are facing excess demand for power, as well as cut down on wasted energy in general.

One neat way to do that would be through a cell phone or other Web-enabled mobile device. Imagine shutting your house heating or cooling system down as you leave for work in the morning, then restarting it on your way home so it's toasty warm - or nice and cool - for your arrival.

That appeal makes mobile control a near-universal future offering from all the companies making gear and systems for home energy control (see Green Light post). AlertMe didn't reveal details on the size of its British Gas pilot, though it did say it could be available to the utility's customers by late 2009.

As for which of the home energy management startups will survive, much may depend on how well they can be integrated, not only with utilities plans, but with the smart appliances and other systems promised in the years to come from "white goods" manufacturers like General Electric and Whirlpool (see GE's Smart Appliances: Smarter With GE Home Energy Manager). 

4Home, Sensus in Home Energy Trials With Southern Co., Cleco, Other Utilities

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based home energy management startup 4Home and major smart meter maker Sensus announced in January that they'd be working together to bring home energy management to the masses (see Green Light post).

In a Thursday interview with the Cleantech Group, the two revealed that they are testing that proposition in pilot projects with utilities including Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) subsidiary Alabama Power and Louisiana's Cleco (NYSE: CNL).

Those are among six contracts the partners hope to deliver product for by September, with deployments in the 500 to 15,000-device range, Sensus's Jon Rappaport told Cleantech Group.

That isn't as many as rival home energy management company Tendril, which has trials with more than two dozen utilities and (see Tendril Lands $30M as Growth, Consolidation Loom in Smart Grid).

But it does place 4Home squarely in competition with others in the growing number of venture-funded startups aiming at bringing energy management hardware and software into people's homes (see The Smart Home, Part I).

While some are focusing on getting consumers to buy their products directly, others are focusing on getting utilities to make the push into customers' homes by linking their systems to smart meters being installed by the millions around the country – a path that 4Home would appear to be taking.

While the company also sells home entertainment and security systems, it intends its 4Home Energy management systems to connect with utilities through Sensus's smart meters.

4Home has raised about $7.5 million from investors including Pond Venture Partners and Parker Price Venture Capital. It has also demonstrated its system using devices and technology from smart meter maker Echelon, SMC Networks and Radio Thermostat Corporation of America.

That may put it in a position to work with Sensus and Radio Thermostat in the U-Snap Alliance, an effort the two have backed to make home energy devices that can be outfitted with modular communications devices (see U-SNAP: Modular Home Energy Communications).