Yellostrom Likes Google’s PowerMeter – And Microsoft Too

German utility Yellostrom will work with Google on testing its PowerMeter home energy monitoring software – but it is also working with Microsoft, which has its own rival home energy platform, on its smart meters.

Google announced its Yellostrom partnership on its official blog Tuesday. The two said they would work to bring energy data to the utility's customers through its Sparzähler smart meters, which it wants to deploy to its more than 1.4 million customers.

That adds a first European utility to the list of eight in North American that Google is already working with. It also adds a new meter to those of North American smart meter market leader Itron, which is working to integrate its meters with PowerMeter (see Google Names Itron, Utilities as PowerMeter Partners).

It may also be the first sign of a rivalry between Google and Microsoft when it comes to bringing energy awareness to the masses, given Microsoft's announcement last week that it had its own web-based energy portal, Hohm, in development  (see Microsoft Launches Home Energy Site, Sees Devices, Demand Management in Future).

Yellostrom's Sparzähler meters are using a communications module based on Microsoft CE, along with Microsoft technologies to manage the data those meters put out in 15-minute increments. The meters communicate with the utility over a TCP/IP network and bring data to customers' PCs through power line adapters.

Yellostrom has also discussed using Microsoft products as the basis of a customer web interface and software to display meter data on customers' PCs – though that was last year, before both Google and Microsoft launched new customer energy portals.

Microsoft also has its own list of partner utilities, including Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light, Xcel Energy and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

But Microsoft, unlike Google, also plans to open Hohm to consumers who don't have smart meters or other means to collect utility data, giving people the option of typing in estimates of their energy usage to help find ways to save power.

While Google has said it would look to devices beyond smart meters to provide data to PowerMeter, it hasn't said it would seek to deploy the platform without any source of digital data whatsoever (see Google Looks Beyond Smart Meters for Home Energy Data).

Rick Nicholson, vice president of research for IDC company Energy Insights, believes the Google-Microsoft energy monitoring rivalry – if it comes down to that – is likely to be one of the more closely watched battles in the crowded field of giving utility customers insight into their energy use.

Given the number of venture capital-funded startups – Tendril, Greenbox, EnergyHub, 4Home, Control4, and many others – hoping to offer the same services to utility customers, he likely won't be the only one keeping an eye on the two giants (see eMeter Intros Home Energy Platform).