Direct Energy CEO Badar Khan delivered the keynote speech at the Energy Thought Summit last month where he introduced his vision of the “energy bill of the future.” Forbes reports that the bill itemizes how much energy an electric customer consumes in specific applications or appliances like heating, cooling, lighting, refrigerators, and ovens – and the resulting cost of electricity. The dashboard allows customers to pull energy data from their Nest systems, which track use in these specific applications. Renewable Energy World explains that this will allow customers to identify opportunities to improve their efficiency. The full video of the speech is available on YouTube.
Although Khan’s dashboard would target the residential sector, much of this information is already available to businesses that employ energy management software. Companies like FirstFuel enable businesses to analyze usage from specific meter locations or power systems and visualize their usage from these systems. This helps companies to identify potential energy efficiency measures and other ways to reduce consumption, and ultimately cut energy costs.
The Energy Information Administration's Electricity Monthly Update for April 2015 noted that the number of advanced meters in service surpassed the number of automated meters in 2013, a trend that appears to be continuing. Automated meters simply provide remote reports of customer use data, whereas advanced meters allow signals to be sent remotely to customers (by utilities, demand response providers, or others) that help to manage energy usage. At the end of 2013, there were 51.9 million advanced meters and 48.7 million automated meters. Although the technology is now widespread, the ability to leverage the technology may be in its infancy. The Direct Energy presentation could provide a glimpse of what's coming next.
