The pilot project, conducted between July 2007 and Sept. 2008, was a collaboration between Milton Hydro, Direct Energy and Bell Canada. Households were given the ability to monitor their energy use through the Internet, as well as through BlackBerry-like devices, and to remotely control the lighting and operation of appliances in their homes.
An easy-to-use Web interface, designed by Toronto-based Lixar SRS, gave them a detailed view of how much electricity individual appliances were using at any point in time.
The results showed that one in 10 households given the control used 16 per cent less electricity over 12 months and 18 per cent less during peak periods.
Just 10 per cent of participants achieved the higher savings, which could be interpreted as a poor result. But the point of the pilot was to show what could be done, not necessarily what's likely to be done today.
The challenge now is to refine the technology alongside the introduction of energy conservation programs and policies that drive behavioural change.
Change is coming, and local utilities seem energized by the opportunity. Ontario passed its Green Energy Act last week, making conservation a priority as the province evolves its electricity system.
Also last week, Toronto Hydro announced that its first 10,000 residential customers will get shifted on June 1 to time-of-use pricing now that a substantial number of GTA homes have a smart meter.
The utility hopes to have all single-family homes on the new pricing by year's end, and since peak pricing is more than double off-peak pricing, you can bet that over time households will desire, if not demand, more control over their power consumption.
Energy management is also a major component of Burlington Hydro's GridSmartCity demonstration project, announced last week. Company president David Collie says local utilities are realizing that their businesses are no longer just about pushing electrons to homes. Utilities are morphing into multi-faceted energy companies that can influence change in a community, and enabling conservation is now a big part of the job.
There still exists, however, some skepticism in the market. Some energy executives downplay the new high-tech tools that give homeowners more control.
All the bells and whistles are overkill, they argue, adding that most people don't have the time to monitor their energy use or participate in demand-response programs.
There's an element of truth there, but only for those stuck in the present.
Don't believe it? Then ask yourself why Internet giant Google announced in February that it was entering the residential energy-management market with prototype software called PowerMeter? The software, which is expected to be distributed for free, offers the same kind of feedback on power use that homeowners got from the Milton Hydro trial using Lixar SRS's technology.
Google has also teamed up with General Electric on smart grid development.
It's about more than simply knowing how much power your home or an individual appliance is consuming. It's about tracking and analyzing historical use.
You can't improve it if you can't measure it.
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