Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Microsoft Jumps into Energy Monitoring

Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday that it has create a new, online application for helping consumers understand their energy usage, Microsoft Hohm. According to Microsoft, the new online application uses analytics from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy to provide consumers with personalized energy-saving recommendations; the new firm said it would work with uility industry firms Puget Sound Energy, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy to help those utilities serve their customers, possibly allowing uploads of energy usage data to the service in the future. The new energy software effort follows a similar program from Google, called Google Power Meter, which uses utility meter data to help consumers track their energy usage.