We’re aware that almost all our news stories in the 24 hours have been about ruddy Google, but if the search engine giant keeps on innovating, we’re duty bound to report the news!
The latest news is that the company have partnered up with first:utility, a small, independent electricity and gas supplier in Warwick with a penchant for displaying their name in the tres modern all-lower case style.
The utilities company will be offering Google’s PowerMeter to their customers. In case you haven’t heard of this, it’s a software tool that displays detailed information about a household’s electricity usage on a personalised iGoogle homepage.
PowerMeter grabs data directly a customer’s first:utility Smart Meter, and provides near-real-time information on how much electricity is being used in the house, providing a handy way to see who the energy hogs are.
The stats can be be accessed from any Internet-enabled device, so you’ll be able to see who’s gorging on the power juice when you’re away.
Ed Lu, Google PowerMeter’s lead engineer wanted to share the love:
We share a vision with first:utility of providing consumers with access to information about their own home electricity use that will help them save energy and money.
We need the help of innovative utility companies like first:utility to get Google PowerMeter into the hands of consumers, and we are delighted about this very first UK utility partnership.
The service is due to go live on first:utility in early November, with 30,000 customers being the first in the UK to wallow in the glory that is the PowerMeter service.
