Electricity Policy

Thermostat + cloud database yield energy saving plans

EnergyHub is making smart thermostats smarter by hitching them to a large database.

The residential energy company today announced a software system that works with connected thermostats in people’s homes to optimize settings for energy savings. Called Mercury, the software is aimed at broadband providers, utilities, and thermostat manufacturers, which will offer the service to consumers.

Programmable thermostats are one of the most effective ways to lower energy consumption, but many consumers don’t own them or don’t take the trouble to program them. With EnergyHub’s software, people will be able to program HVAC systems through a Web site or a smart phone application with a far simpler interface, according to EnergyHub CEO Seth Frader-Thompson.

Efficiency Vermont, ‘model program,’ seeks savings

Efficiency Vermont kicked off a new initiative to reduce the energy consumption of the state’s leadingbusinessesand institutions by 7.5 percent during the next two years at the Energizer plant in St. Albans, Vt., last Tuesday.

Stephen Valla, director of engineering and sustainability at Energizer, said the statewide conservation program had provided valuable technical support in St. Albans and the company’s other plant in Bennington for the past 11 years.

Save energy, win a Chevy Volt

GRID 21, a non-profit organization committed to engaging electricity customers in using a new generation of tools and technologies to better manage their electricity consumption, announces the launch of The Biggest Energy Saver^SM Consumer Contest. This first-of-its-kind contest challenges Texas residents whose electricity is delivered by CenterPoint Energy’s electric operations business and by Oncor to reduce their electricity consumption through the use of smart meter data.

Could uncertainty boost microgrids?

Will spikes in oil prices drive the adoption of electric vehicles? Will drops in the cost of and increases in the efficiencies of solar photovoltaics and batteries drive their adoption? Will more and more neighborhoods, universities, hospitals and military bases find greater reliability and a positive business case to develop their own microgrid? Will towns and cities adopt their own energy policies, as Washington dithers?