About 100 days ago, a small, very enthusiastic and very tired team here in Redmond launched our Hohm beta website.  This was the first public step in a journey that we started on over two years ago,  one that began with a vision on how we could help consumers around the world save energy and money.  It’s a big vision, and one we on the Hohm team are thrilled to pursue with you.  The early consumer response to the Hohm beta website has exceeded our expectations (thank you!), so we thought it time to share a bit more about our vision and why we feel what we’re doing is so important for our planet.

Imagine for a moment that you’re driving a hybrid car.  With a glance at your in dash display, you know exactly how much of your power is coming from the battery and how much from the gasoline powered engine.  You can watch your battery recharge in real time as you brake.  You know your MPG up to the minute and how far you can go before your next fuel stop.  In fact, with a little experimentation in driving styles, you can make your car more fuel efficient.  It’s remarkable that the right information delivered at the right time can have such an impact on our actions. It’s equally remarkable that we’re starting to take this for granted with our cars.

Walk into most homes today and, even with the lights on, we step into the dark when it comes to understanding our energy usage.  Most of us receive a monthly bill where we see our total energy usage and our total cost.  Typically, we can compare that month’s total energy use to prior months, but that’s about it.  We can’t see where the energy has gone in our homes.  Until recently, there hasn’t been an easy way to determine what steps we can take to save the most energy or money.  It’s historically been a black box.  So we just pay the ever increasing bill, try to remember to lower the thermostat (because programming it is as fun as a teeth cleaning) and remind the rest of the family to turn off lights when they leave the room or power down their gaming system when they are done.  It isn’t surprising that consumers are frustrated.

There are signs things are going to change.  We saw a major indication of this last week when President Obama announced $3.4 billion in stimulus funds to build out of the nation’s smart grid.  The 100 utilities who received these funds will match them with their own funds and work will begin on creating a next generation electric grid that integrates clean energy sources like solar and wind and encourages and empowers consumers to save money.  This funding comes at a crucial time for our country, as growing demand for electricity is expected to trend higher well into the foreseeable future.  Peak demand is increasing at twice the rate of supply.  The convergence of growing demand with green government policies is changing the way electricity is generated, distributed, sold, and consumed, and these changes will end up affecting all of us.  There’s a wealth of opportunity that arises out of these changes, and new developments in information technology can help address them while enabling everyone to reduce their overall energy costs.

For consumers, we’ll be the beneficiaries of useful information, automated tools, and connected appliances that help us optimize our energy usage.  We’ll be able to finally see exactly where the energy in our homes goes, and make easy, informed choices about whether we should be upgrading an old furnace or investing in more insulation.  The energy consuming appliances and electric vehicles within our households will all be securely connected to each other across our own private home energy networks.  Based on our individual preferences, presence information, and a wide variety of other data, appliances, lighting, and other devices will automatically adapt to save money or optimize for green energy supplies.  Each of us will be in firm control of our own energy consumption through tools that perform the mundane tasks on our behalf.  We won’t have to guess at when the cheapest time of day is to charge the car- our network will know and respond accordingly.  We won’t have to remember to turn off the lights or run the dishwasher because our network will sense when it should do that.  And yes, the days of manually programming that clunky old thermostat will end.  Not only will we know more about our energy usage, our network will help us easily do something about it. 

Consumers are ready to be empowered. Utilities, faced with increasing energy demand and limited clean energy sources, are interested in helping their customers reduce energy consumption.  Numerous studies show that if consumers were simply aware of their energy consumption they would reduce energy use by up to 10% in residential homes – that translates to over $16 billion in electricity savings a year in the US.  Add in the smart grid and the right tools and services, and the savings could be even larger.  The best part is that providing the right tools and services can be done at substantially less cost than spending hundreds of billions of dollars in electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and storage assets which are rarely used.

Today, our Hohm beta is geared towards helping consumers save energy and money through conservation.  With our easy to use tools and recommendations, you can shave hundreds of dollars off your electricity bill and make the world a better place by cutting your energy use.  As we move forward, we will be working closely with our utility partners, thermostat makers, appliance makers, auto manufacturers, systems integrators, retailers, and government policy makers to offer you better, more advanced, but still easy to use tools that will help manage and automate your energy usage.

We know this is a journey, and we know we have a long way to go.  We’re excited about what the future holds and what we can accomplish with all of you and our partners.  We’ll keep you updated on what we’re working on, and we’ll be listening for your comments, feedback, and guidance.