» posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 12:22 pm by Woody Wilson viewed 154 times

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Now Available: GridPoint’s Home Energy Management Tool

By Katie Fehrenbacher

Posted December 9th, 2009 at 12:00 pm in Green IT, smart grid

Every smart grid company, IT firm and software startup seems to have the desire to build a home energy management tool these days. But one we’ve been waiting to see for awhile has just launched: Smart grid player GridPoint says that its home energy management tool, which partly uses software from the company Lixar it acquired back in June, is now available.

Consumers can only access the energy management software through their utility, and depending on the utility, it’ll most likely be offered for free. The tool enables consumers to monitor home energy consumption, sign up for utility energy efficiency programs, manage some smart devices remotely and receive tips about energy savings. That’s all pretty typical of other energy management tools (here’s a list of 10 companies offering tools). GridPoint counts utility customers Austin Energy, Duke Energy, Kansas City Power & Light, Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Xcel Energy.

While I’ve only seen this screen shot and haven’t tested out the service, I am eager to see how it compares to Microsoft’s Hohm, Google’s PowerMeter, Silver Spring’s Greenbox and eMeter’s home energy tool. Lixar got such fab reviews before GridPoint snapped it up, I’m interested to see if it still works so well (merging technology can sometimes be tricky). If anyone’s tried it out, leave your comments.