Google’s Decision to Axe PowerMeter

The two UK partners of Google’s recently axed PowerMeter online smart meter service have today insisted the move will have negligible impact on their customers and operations, stressing that their own smart meter services will continue.

Smart meter specialist AlertMe and energy supplier first:utility were hailed by Google as the first UK partners for the PowerMeter service in late 2009, with both companies agreeing to use the online portal to provide their customers with real-time energy use data.

Google pulls plug on PowerMeter

Google announced late last week it was cancelling the service, admitting that “our inability to scale has led us to focus our priorities elsewhere”.

AlertMe’s Jody Haskayne told BusinessGreen that while the partnership with Google had been significant at the time, the company’s own online customer user interface remained separate from the PowerMeter offering, and as such there would be little impact on the firm’s smart meter customers.

“Customers will still be able to access their data online,” she said. “PowerMeter was just another option for users to access energy data, but it was never a fundamental part of our service.”

Haskayne added that AlertMe’s online user interface was in fact “richer” than Google’s offering, providing customers with more data on energy use patterns and allowing them to take advantage of real-time heating control and home monitoring functions including sensors, cameras and ‘presence’ detecting keyfobs.

She also revealed that the company is currently testing an enhanced service that will allow households to track the energy use of specific applications such as fridges and washing machines, with a view to launching the new technology before the end of the year.

However, AlertMe declined to reveal how many customers had actually made use of the PowerMeter service.

Similarly, first:utility co-founder Mark Daeche issued a statement detailing how customers using the PowerMeter service will be able to transfer over to using the company’s own online portal to access energy data.

“First:utility are committed to providing customers with simple-to-access visibility of their energy use and have invested considerable effort into developing their own energy monitoring software over the past few months,” he said.

“All smart meter customers can log on to see a detailed and interactive record of their annual, monthly and daily energy usage, and we have a variety of exciting future developments underway in this area.”

He added that the partnership with Google had demonstrated that access to real-time energy data could help customers curb energy use.

“We are proud to have been the exclusive utility partner of Google PowerMeter in the UK, and our partnership has been a powerful one, with studies showing that consumers can reduce their energy use by up to 15 per cent by having simple access to energy information,” he said.

Google enjoyed initial success with its PowerMeter service, signing up a host of US utilities as partners, including San Diego Gas & Electric, TXU Energy, JEA and the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation. However, the company has been forced to admit that customer demand has failed to scale up as expected, with the mandated roll out of smart meters still several years away in many jurisdictions.