|
|
|
|
|
When it comes to energy, growing public concern for the environment and climate change is fueling a more engaged consumer. Consumers want to have more control over their energy usage and monthly utility bills. A range of innovations — including automated smart meters that allow you to view your home energy usage in real-time via the Internet — will give homeowners the power to make decisions and actively manage their energy consumption and costs.
IBM is implementing these energy innovations with top U.S. and Canadian utilities. Watch these news stories to learn about Smart Energy and how you can benefit.
- The impact “smart energy” can have on your gas & electric bills.
- How “smart energy” can help conserve energy.
- What is a “smart meter” and how much will they save.
- How to more actively manage home energy use and reduce your carbon footprint.
Learn more about Smart Energy:
What is Smart Energy?
- It’s about the buyer of electricity knowing their usage on a daily basis and uncovering waste. Currently the consumer does not have this information.
- Smart meters will allow you to view on the Internet how much energy you’re using on a daily basis, giving you more control over usage and cost.
- Household appliances will be working on your behalf to save you money.
- Today, the only way your energy provider knows if there’s an outage is if you call. With smart energy, your utility will be able to pinpoint where the problem is, dispatch a crew to fix it and call YOU to let you know when service will be restored.
Why do consumers want these “Smart Energy” technologies?
- Consumers no longer want to be passive. They want to take an active role to control their energy use and costs.
- IBM found through a survey of over 1,800 consumers, across 6 countries, that they want to be more active in their energy decision-making.
- 57% would change their energy-consuming behavior if electricity prices were cheaper at night
- 61% would change their energy-consuming behavior if it would result in a positive impact on the environment
- almost 2/3 of people surveyed would like the option to buy “green power”
- Smart energy will save you money! Recent Dept of Energy study in Pacific Northwest found that consumers saved 10% on their electricity bills.
One of these new technologies even allows us to control our home energy use through the Internet. How will this work?
- Like checking your bank statement or credit card bill online, you’ll log on to a secure website, and go to a screen where you can control your home’s energy use.
- You can turn down your thermostat, turn on your air conditioner, and even set preferences about when you run household appliances.
- Just as you can now use your cell phone to find out how many minutes have been used, you’ll be able to use the Internet to find out about your home energy usage.
Tell us about one of these new Smart Energy breakthroughs we will start seeing in our homes?
- Household appliances will become even “smarter,” as utility providers use things like sensors and smart meters to create two-way communication with your dishwasher, laundry machine, and water heater.
- Imagine on the hottest day of the summer, you’re running a load of laundry through the dryer. With smart energy, your utility provider will be able to literally communicate with your dryer and tell it to stop putting out heat for a brief period so that the energy supply in your neighborhood continues to flow.
- You’ll also be able to control household appliances like the dishwasher, as well as your water heater over the Internet, and run them when costs are low.
- Smart energy makes it possible for you to make informed decisions on when and how you are using energy. Literally putting the power in YOUR hands.
Will we be seeing service restored faster after a power outage?
- With smart digital technologies, your energy provider will know immediately when the power is out and know exactly where it’s out.
- Utility providers will be able pinpoint who should be restored to service first, based on this information.
When will Smart Energy be more widely available and how much will it save?
- Within 20 years, almost all of U.S. will have some sort of smart energy technologies.
- Over a 20-yr period, smart energy could save $70 billion on spending for power plants and infrastructure. That translates to avoiding need to build equivalent of 30 large coal-fired plants.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
