[CivicAccess-discuss] Google's PowerMeter, their entry into the smart meter game

[zara]

A few excerpts :

"(...) smart meters need to be coupled with a strategy to provide 
customers with easy access to near real-time data on their energy usage. 
We're working on a prototype product that would give people this 
information in an iGoogle gadget.

(...)

Google can do this because many national and state governments have 
begun to mandate  smart meter programs. Most of us will probably have 
one on the side of our house pretty soon (especially if the stimulus 
bill speeds things up). Smart meters improve on their predecessors by 
automating meter reading, reporting consumption in intervals (typically 
15 minutes), and they can send "last gasp" failure notifications in the 
event of power outages.

But, just like their dumb ancestors, they will be owned by the utility. 
This means that the data generated will ultimately be under control of 
the utility and hosted in their systems. The meter will talk to a 
utility data collector and from there its data will enter the utility's 
MDM system. The MDM will do a bunch of stuff with the data. However, 
from the point of view of you, the consumer, it will primarily send it 
to the billing system which will now be able to account for time of day 
pricing.

(...)

What should be apparant by now, is that the government is mandating a 
good idea, but they are mandating it from a utilty-centric rather than 
customer-centric point of view. There is naturally some overlap between 
utility and customer interests, but they are not identical. The utility 
is concerned about managing capital costs. They look at the interval 
data and the customer portal as a way to influence your time-of-use 
behaviors. They really don't care how much power you use, they just 
don't want your demand to be lumpy. On the other hand, we just want our 
bills to be low.

So, Google's initiative offers to take your data from the utility, 
combine it with data coming from devices in your home, and visualize it 
much more you-centrically. There offering will do a better job than the 
utility's portal illuminating structural efficiency problems in the home 
as well as usage pattern problems once utilities start implementing 
variable pricing. In short, while the utility is attempting to influence 
your "when I use it" decision making, Google is offering to help you 
make better "what I plug in" decisions along with the stuff the utility 
cares about.

So, what's not to like?"

Read the full article at :

<http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/02/googles-powermeter-its-cool-bu.html>


-- 
Catherine Roy
http://www.catherine-roy.net
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: multipart/alternative
Size: 1 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.pwd.ca/pipermail/civicaccess-discuss/attachments/20090217/8726ab95/attachment.bin>
-------------- next part --------------

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com 
Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.10.23/1953 - Release Date: 02/14/09 18:01:00