Google PowerMeter

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Former software project by Google

title: "Google PowerMeter" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["discontinued-google-software", "electricity-meters"] description: "Former software project by Google" topic_path: "general/discontinued-google-software" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_PowerMeter" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Former software project by Google ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Google_PowerMeter_logo.png" caption="Google PowerMeter logo"] ::

Google PowerMeter was a software project of Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, to help consumers track their home electricity usage. It was launched on October 5, 2009, and ended on September 16, 2011. The development of the software was part of an effort by Google to invest in renewable energy, electricity grid upgrades, and other measures that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The software was designed to record the user's electricity usage in near real-time. Google partnered with various companies during the project.

Description

Google PowerMeter was a software project of Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org. The software was designed to help consumers track their home electricity usage. It was launched on October 5, 2009. The software was designed to record the user's electricity usage in near real-time. In June 2011 Google announced the service would cease, which it did on September 16, 2011.

Purpose

The development of the software was part of an effort by Google to invest in renewable energy, electricity grid upgrades, and other measures that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It was hoped that this tool would raise the home-owner's awareness of how much energy they use and make users more energy efficient. PowerMeter was intended for use with smart meters able to track electricity usage in more detail than standard electric meters. Some other types of electricity meters and in-home energy use displays could also be used with PowerMeter.

Analysis

According to the company, if half of America's homes' energy use was cut by ten percent, it would equal the average energy used by eight million cars. According to Google, in 2009 there were approximately 40 million smart meters in use worldwide. By early 2009, approximately 7% of US homes had a smart meter installed.

Partnerships

In May 2009, Google announced that it had partners with smart meter maker Itron. In October 2009 Google PowerMeter announced their first "device partner", The Energy Detective (TED 5000), an energy monitor from Energy Inc then only available only in North America, and their first UK partnership which was with AlertMe. Also in 2009, Yello Strom customers in Germany were able to begin adding the PowerMeter widget to their iGoogle pages to track their energy usage.

In 2010 UK company Current Cost announced a collaboration with Google PowerMeter. San Diego Gas and Electric's Sempra Energy company announced plans to install 1.4 million smart meters in San Diego County and Southern Orange County by the end of 2011 and said that after they sent out 100,000 post cards to let consumers know they could use the Google PowerMeter service, about 6% had started to use it.

References

References

  1. Verne Kopytoff. (2009-02-22). "Google plans meter to detail home energy use". San Francisco Chronicle.
  2. (2011-09-16). "Google PowerMeter - Save Energy. Save Money. Make a Difference".
  3. (June 24, 2011). "An update on Google Health and Google PowerMeter". Google.
  4. (2009-02-12). "Google Power Meter Analyzes Home Energy Consumption".
  5. John, Jeff St. (2009-05-20). "Google Names Itron, Utilities as PowerMeter Partners".
  6. "Google PowerMeter's first device partner".
  7. "Google PowerMeter announce first UK partnership with AlertMe".
  8. O'Hear, Steve. (October 28, 2009). "UK launch for Google Powermeter via AlertMe - but please don't tweet your light switch".
  9. (2009-10-10). "Google PowerMeter comes online in Germany".
  10. (24 May 2010). "High Tech Google and Current Cost Collaboration Gives Brits Total Remote Electricity Control".
  11. (2010). "Monitor Your Home Electricity Use With Google PowerMeter". SDGE.
  12. (November 3, 2010). "Sempra Energy: Consumers are slowly embracing Google PowerMeter PowerMeter". GreenBeat.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

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