Path to Smarter Power

Studies show that being able to see your electricity use makes it easier to reduce it. We want people to be able to do so throughout the day, but this sort of feedback requires either an advanced electricity meter, a "smart meter," or a consumer-owned electricity management device. Smart meters are being rolled out all over the world and there are a number of interesting energy management devices available.

Unfortunately, many of today's smart meters don't display information to the consumer. We consider this unacceptable. We believe that detailed data on your personal energy use belongs to you and should be available in a standard, non-proprietary format. You should control who gets to see it, and you should be free to choose from a wide range of services to help you understand and benefit from it. We're working with federal and state governments to ensure our energy policies encourage consumer information; read our comments (pdf) to the Department of Energy on smart grid investment in the stimulus, Edward Lu's testimony to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and our comments to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Google PowerMeter takes advantage of our scalable, secure IT architecture and our popular iGoogle platform to show you your detailed energy use (and it's free to both utilities and consumers). We're pleased to be working with a number of utilities to deliver Google PowerMeter to their customers. But when it comes to empowering consumers with better information, we don't believe there is a "one size fits all" solution - which is why we hope that there will soon be an entire ecosystem of energy information products and services.

Read more about what Google is doing.