Better Energy Management in Your Hohm: Cloud Computing for Energy Reduction

"It's analogous to financial applications… now you'd be hard-pressed to find a bank that doesn't export data to Quicken or another common format. We see energy going down the same route" said Troy Batterberry, product unit manager for Hohm.

Software Company Microsoft is rushing to take place in a burgeoning business as “Home Energy Management”. It has developed a web application that is called Hohm in order to guide consumers how to decrease their monthly electricity and natural gas costs. Initially, the application was based on participant based model in that consumers were entering data manually and then would be able to see their comparative analysis of energy usage with other houses in their neighborhood. As home base increases, consumers will receive better feedback from Hohm application. In time, Microsoft agreed with 10 utility companies, such as Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy, and connected to home electricity monitor called PowerCost Monitor. 

In contrast to traditional Smart Electricity meters energy consumption viewing I have always relied on, this combination of device and software simplifies this viewing process by using a WiFi or home broadband connection to gather data and lets people view home electricity from the Web or from the tabletop electricity monitor. Moreover, Microsoft designed Hohm as a cloud-computing application--built on the Azure online operating system and Bing search engine--so that users can tap into back-end data analytics for more tailored advice. Hohm provides tips based on models licensed from the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which were developed with years of data, according to Microsoft.

Another special feature of this application is that it can tell you how much power you load on your grid by switching on each device at your home. Combined with the distinctive feature as mobility of such PowerCost Monitor with regard to Kill-A-Watt that requires each device to be connected, consumers can get better energy efficiency data from Microsoft database. As consumers will continuously monitor their electricity devices at home, people will be prompted to conserve more. Since 2004, Blue Line Innovations has worked with 110 utilities on how PowerCost Monitor affects households and it found that families can save up to 18 percent on electricity.

Consequently, digital living room includes energy monitoring, too. Cloud based electricity reading is creating a new business model that will combine with traditional smart meter based data collecting models. However, Google also developed PowerMeter, which has already agreed with San Diego Gas & Electric, and this web based business model will depend on the power of network externalities. That is to say, as consumer base increases in one of the applications and thus induce other users to adopt it in order to get more relevant data about energy consumption patterns in their neighborhood, utility companies will prefer the owner of that application; in this example, either Microsoft or Google. We will see how this competition will take place and who will take over one part of digital living room.