Are you up for a challenge? Tendril Works with Grid 21 to Sponsor Biggest Energy Saver Campaign Launched Today at White House Event

June 13, 2011

Today, I’m joining smart energy executives from around the country at the White House Grid Modernization event, where President Obama has challenged energy service providers and technology companies to unleash entrepreneurial efforts to bring new products and services into the homes of the American consumer so that they can better manage their electricity consumption (If you want to learn more about what is going on at the White House today, there’s a live feed online) .

At today’s event, Grid 21, a new non-profit organization committed to engaging electricity customers in using a new generation of tools and technologies to better manage their electricity consumption, announced it is partnering with Texas-based utilities Oncor and CenterPoint Energy, as well as San Diego Gas and Electric in California to launch the Biggest Energy Saver Campaign.

In addition to Oncor, CenterPoint and San Diego Gas & Electric, founding partners of the campaign are Itron and Landis+Gyr. IBM is a collaborator on the campaign. I am proud to announce that Tendril is one of the prize sponsors for the Biggest Energy Saver Campaign.

The campaign is the largest of its kind in the country and will jumpstart the market for customer-friendly energy management tools, while demonstrating to consumers the benefits made possible by using information from smart meter technology.

The Biggest Energy Saver Campaign will feature a customer-savings contest sponsored by Grid 21.  The campaign will also drive the creation and use of customer-friendly tools for managing home energy consumption. By giving customers easy ways to access and utilize the data provided by their smart meters, the Biggest Energy Saver Campaign will help customers make more educated decisions about their energy consumption and control their energy costs.

The campaign will also include a nationwide call to create applications that will enable customers to better monitor and lower their home energy usage.  Software application developers will be vying for prizes totaling up to $150,000.

I’m excited to see the results of the campaign both in the savings consumers achieve and in the apps that get developed.

I’ve blogged previously about 2011 being a big year for the smart energy industry and for consumers.  Today’s events at the White House and the launch of the Biggest Energy Saver Campaign reinforce this belief.   Steve Hauser, Executive Director of Grid 21 captured this sentiment well when he said earlier today:

“There have been dozens of pilot programs involving smart meters across the United States, and consistently customers have reduced their energy usage and controlled their costs. Now the time has come to move beyond pilot programs and into full implementation because customers deserve it.  Customers are the most important component of any business and what electric utility customers are telling us is that they want the ability to better manage their energy consumption and cost. The Biggest Energy Saver will introduce tools and capabilities to customers who can then use them for the contest and in their daily lives.”