Competition Touted at Google Event on Unleashing Innovation in Home Energy Use

At a Google policy discussion this week focused on “unleashing innovation in home energy use,” several speakers touted competition as a key ingredient to enabling consumer benefits through smart meters and energy management.  Others cited the barriers to technology innovation posed by continued monopoly protections for incumbent utilities.

Innovation is a “key component” of competition, said Reliant Energy President Jason Few. The Texas electricity market that Reliant competes in is “extremely competitive,” Few noted, citing more than 60 different retail service providers offering a variety of products.

“The reason things are moving so fast in Texas is because of the competitive market,” said Adrian Tuck, Tendril Networks CEO.  Tendril finds market entry for its smart grid and energy management products is much easier in Texas and other competitive markets outside of traditional monopoly-protected utility regions, Tuck said.  Without a solution to the barriers posed by monopoly protections, “then the technology will founder,” he warned.

Tom Catania, vice president, government relations for Whirlpool, complained of a conversation with a utility CFO who, when approached about Whirlpool’s energy-saving smart appliances, said that such technology transformation should be “revenue neutral” for utilities.

“It’s not fair to assume utilities are going to innovate.  Their incentives aren’t to innovate,” said Nick Sinai, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s energy and environment director. “Let’s have a competitive market,” he said.

The “unleashing innovation” event came one day after Google, General Electric, Whirlpool, Tendril and more than forty other companies, associations and environmental groups – including COMPETE members AT&T, Comcast, EnerNOC, Itron and Johnson Controls – sent an open letter to President Obama asking for the administration’s support to “unleash the forces of innovation in homes and businesses” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and “save consumers billions of dollars.”

Ed Lu, who heads Google’s PowerMeter project, noted there are more than 200 start-up companies looking to cash in on innovative home energy management technology and services.  And those entrepreneurial start-ups are jostling with more than 100 large established companies in the smart grid/energy management space.  But the success of these efforts will require that “consumers are brought along on the journey,” Lu said, anticipating a day when consumers will demand access to information on their energy use.

Amy Davidsen, U.S. executive director of The Climate Group, joined Google and others in calling for “timely energy information for all households.”  Without an “energy information revolution,” Davidsen said, “we can’t transform energy.”

“With choice comes innovation,” Reliant’s Few said.  “Competition could easily be part of making this [energy technology] transformation real,” he said. Joel Malina | April 8, 2010