Smart Grids, Smart Consumers

"Smart grids" are an important technological innovation, developed in the hopes of encouraging responsible energy use, efficient public planning and sustainable environmental and energy policies. Smart grids involve an upgrade to established utility services, offering a two-way transfer of information so that energy consumption data from the home can be sent to a utility company and visa versa. Smart grids allow appliances can be set up to operate at "off hours", for example, and through this and other responsive mechanisms, both consumers and utility companies can analyze data about energy consumption and use energy wisely.

Last week, over forty-five major companies and organizations, including Google, AT&T, General Electric, The Climate Group and the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined together to send an open letter to President Obama calling for federal support for giving consumers access to information about their energy consumption and giving technology companies the ability to build applications utilizing the information. The letter tells the President that "By giving people the ability to monitor and manage their energy consumption, for instance, via their computers, phones or other devices, we can unleash the forces of innovation in homes and businesses. At the same time, we can harness the power of millions of people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- and save consumers billions of dollars."

There are many challenges that stand in the way of these and other "smart grid" programs. In a world where "real-time" data is becoming increasingly important, utility companies have been slow in responding with both information about energy pricing and energy consumption patterns. Information that comes once-a-billing-cycle, once a day, or even even once-an-hour is no longer sufficient. Utilities have been slow to move on programs to implement smart grid technologies, arguing that they aren't certain consumers will want to foot the bill for major changes.

The letter that the major companies sent to President Obama last week asks for federal pressure to help implement smart grid and similar technologies. The letter argues that by making information about energy consumption more readily available to consumers -- either directly from utility companies or via applications on their computers and smart-phones -- that this information can be leveraged to make more intelligent energy consumption decisions, and in the end, to help curb wasteful energy consumption.

Smart grid technology can work with appliances to make sure, for example, that the washing machine doesn't run at peak times or to bill at higher rates if the washing machine does run then. But there is lots of room for additional innovation, particularly if smart grids can be harnessed alongside other social media services. There are social networking sites where you can tout how many miles you have run and where you can compare your progress with your friends. Perhaps social media, and the social feedback provided from these networks, can be another tool to help encourage sustainable energy consumption.