Reported by Paul Baker

Carbondale, CO - With installation of smart meters in the U.S. rising nearly fivefold over the last 2 years and President Obama’s smartgrid emphasis, technologies allowing consumers to quickly and easily see the real time power and granular energy data for their homes and businesses has become a hot topic.

Contrary to what a recent announcement may have implied, Google was not the first to incorporate this technology or to harness the real time data. Numerous companies already offer this software, but certainly none with the marketing or distribution might of Google.
 
Two years ago, Carbondale-based InPower Systems released their flagship energy monitoring software solution, PowerView, to make energy data instantly visible thus saving their customers cash and carbon.  In addition to an installed base of single-site implementations, InPower has already begun implementing a cutting edge version for large-scale campus environments, such as the Aspen Skiing Company, which includes natural gas/fuel data and a variety of interfaces to engage the entire workforce. 
 
Highlighted by Outside Magazine in September, 2008, PowerView is a turnkey solution allowing InPower’s homeowner and business customers to see their energy profile and affect change now, regardless of where they live, what utility they are served by, or if that utility has implemented smart meters. The visible energy profile includes the structure’s real-time power draw, energy produced, consumed, bought and sold and similar statistics for carbon—all from any web browser, anywhere in the world.  While an installed base in high-end residential homes and businesses prove the demand for solutions like PowerView, more effort must be applied to meet the everyday consumer’s desire to have these capabilities. 
 
“We at InPower applaud the attention that Google has recently focused on energy monitoring and agree that this “eco-system” needs increased investment and development—based on our two-years of customer-site experience,” says Jim Raras, CEO of InPower Systems. “Today only 4.7% of all meters in the U.S.  are smart meters and while the acceleration of smartgrid technology is increasing, it’s not fast enough. The current price points of commercially available combined hardware and software solutions, such as PowerView, remain higher than the mass-market can afford. We must see further product development between the “clamps” and the remote web servers on the hardware side to reduce the cost of installation in order to make this technology, PowerView or Google PowerMeter, more widely available.”
 
Boasting the largest photovoltaic system in the industry and implementing PowerView this season, Aspen Skiing Company (ASC), which owns four mountains in the Aspen area (Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass, and Buttermilk) began their eco initiatives back in 1997 and has since become an inspiration to others. Aspen Mountain was recently named the greenest ski resort in the United States by the Ski Area Citizens Coalition.
 
“We’re using PowerView in three buildings—and eventually more—because there’s plenty of evidence that real-time feedback is key to saving energy,” says Auden Schendler, Executive Director of Sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company and Author of Getting Green Done: Hard Truths and Real Solutions from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution.  “Also, with aggressive carbon reduction goals, we need to know exactly what we’re using. And finally, we’re educating our guests. In fact, we’ve installed these systems in partnership with the Roaring Fork Valley non-profit CORE, Community Office for Resource Efficiency (www.aspencore.org), as a pilot program—we’re practicing cutting edge energy use monitoring, public education, and actual emissions reduction, all at once, and it’s a model for other businesses.”

“Aspen Skiing Company has initiated a number of innovative renewable energy programs, and CORE is happy to support their continuing efforts,” says Nathan Ratledge, Interim Director of CORE. “Within the ski industry, Aspen Skiing Company’s green programs have brought energy efficiency to a new level of awareness. With the installation of their PowerView monitors their environmental efforts are now easily visible to the thousands of visitors that come to Aspen each year.”

Making the Invisible Visible
PowerView is the energy dashboard for your home – the speedometer, the fuel gauge and much more. PowerView provides immediately intuitive information to the driver and the “passengers” in the home. Specifically, you can now see and experience your system’s production and your home’s consumption.  Now that you can see it, you can affect it. http://www.inpowersystems.com/product-overview-powerview.php
 
About InPower
InPower exists to provide our customers the absolute highest quality experience in exploring and improving their energy profile. We do this by acting as a specialized resource to the building and design community while developing a comprehensive understanding of the customer’s energy profile inclusive of structural, behavioral and productive components. For more information on InPower Systems and solar power systems, visit www.inpowersystems.com