Google Power Meter vs Smart Meter

Energy efficiency has turned to be a relevant factor for the biggest companies all over the world. The IT sector is one of those sectors that are working in this matter and they are more active even than some utility providers. Recently we have seen many efforts in this issue, but Google brought us the surprise in the latest green innovations. Their Power Meter is the latest service that Google is offering to provide. The California based internet giant has revealed the news about their new software, but that brought also a lot of criticism. Still, Google announced that they will improve their software. The Power Meter is a product that shows the amount of spent energy for some individual appliances. Google also urges for more investments in the national program “Smart Network”, which will monitor and report energy consumption better. The Power Meter works by receiving information from smart meters and devices.
The basic principle is that the Google`s device is transmitting the information to the computers, but the contributed information is made with detailed account of the energy distribution. The researches show that when people have access to the data on energy consumption, they save from 5 to 10% of the monthly electricity bills. "Smart Network”, will lead the U.S. grid in the digital age and will help for introducing renewable energy sources such as solar panels. In the world there about 40 million smart meters with computer chips that can transmit information over the Internet to companies and consumers. The current grid requires a periodic reporting by the employees, but with the new Power Meter this will be done automatically. There are lots of critics and some of them are about the old smart grids, which compared to Power Meter look a bit unnecessary, but the experts claim without smart grid, smart meters cannot work properly. Despite the critics, Power Meter and smart grid improvements will be the best way for consumers to control their own energy consumption