Too much information

If a company with the Midas touch when it comes to tech innovation can't make home power management work, who can?

The news that Internet giant Google was laying to rest its Google Health and PowerMeter applications came as a shock given it had spoken of expanding the offering as recently as April.

Google announced the retirement of its PowerMeter service like a dismayed teacher reporting on a failing student, saying the energy monitoring tool didn't “catch on the way we would have hoped”.

The search titan said on its blog that, while PowerMeter was an “influential model” for consumer access to electricity data, it will watch its last watt on 16 September.

Google introduced PowerMeter two years ago, offering it in collaboration with utilities and manufacturers of electricity monitoring devices.

Both applications “were based on the idea that with more and better information, people can make smarter choices, whether in regard to managing personal health and wellness, or saving money and conserving energy at home,” says a disillusioned Google. What was it thinking?

With a wistful nod to the momentum behind making energy information more readily accessible, and other players “driving innovation and pursuing opportunities”, Google bows out of the game with a “so long and good luck”.

It's not only Google that's struggled to expand energy monitoring beyond hyper-conscious home owners, however. Microsoft has plans to tweak its Hohm application from a focus on the home to electric car charging, by partnering with Ford, due to a similar lack of uptake.

So what gives? Do people find keeping track of home energy use boring or pointless? Are more practical tools offered by their utilities? Or is there something more subversive at work? An inversion of the old “measure to manage” mentality, with ignorance justifying inaction: 'If I don't measure it, I don't have to manage it...'

As Google dejectedly points out, PowerMeter was aimed at raising the importance of giving people access to data surrounding their energy usage. It even cites studies in its defence, which show that having access to such information helps consumers reduce their energy use by up to 15%.

Say what you want about knowledge being power, or that consumers would jump at the chance to be given greater control over their monthly bills. The thing is, most people just don't care. Not even in an antagonistic way, it's just there's so much else to worry about without having to spare a thought for the invisible currents charging through the house all day long.

Yes, energy is getting more expensive, but generally it's easier to moan about how pathetic Eskom is, or the lights blazing in car showrooms at night, than to turn down the heater a notch, or the TV, or stove, or tumble dryer, or dish washer, or gaming console or towel warmer or...

Maybe PowerMeter didn't “scale” the way Google thought it would because it overestimated people's capacity for change.

Lezette Engelbrecht, online features editor, ITWeb

Once people start seeing all the ways their household is guzzling energy, day in, day out, it puts the impetus on them to reduce where they can, which means changing habits, which means Google PowerMeter isn't so fun anymore.

Maybe PowerMeter didn't “scale” the way Google thought it would because it overestimated people's capacity for change. The thinking was “be better informed so you can make better decisions”, but what if these decisions are too inconvenient?

Google says that since the introduction of PowerMeter, there's been a greater focus on giving people easy access to data, as well as more installations of smart meters worldwide. But this movement sees the resistance to energy monitoring play out in a different way.

While many may welcome the meters and enjoy greater insight into their energy consumption, others remain suspicious of the meters, citing inaccuracy, security and even health concerns as potential problems.

Residents in areas where smart meters have been installed often complain of inaccuracy and high bills. California's roll-out of smart meters, for example, has drawn widespread criticism, with some claiming health risks from the radio frequencies used in wireless communication, to others who fear third parties will be able to access their usage information.

Yet, an independent test of the meters found the only inaccurate ones were the electromechanical meters being phased out. The reason behind the high bills ended up being a combination of factors, one of which was a heatwave in the area. Aircons were running high, and so were accusations.

Unlike other relationships between service provider and customer, the one between the utility and home owner isn't personal or chatty. Most people don't want to spend day and night engaging with their municipality over what they use at which time, they want the lights to go on. Period.

But it doesn't take much to spot the flaw in this mentality. If energy costs keep rising, as they will, then no device or utility, no matter how intelligent or well-run, is going to be able to replace the need for behavioural changes.

The problem isn't that smart meters get it wrong. It's that people don't like what they're saying. Technology wouldn't be technology without the occasional glitch, but it wouldn't be the first time hardware was blamed for humans' inefficiency. Before home energy devices, consumers found other ways to avoid having to manage their consumption, by citing faulty meter readings, identity mix-ups and the like (the mess at City Power serves as a glaring exception- there's not a trace of “smart” near the place).

Joburg aside, however, now that real-time monitoring provides a way to ensure a greater degree of accuracy, a new scapegoat for rampant energy consumption must be found.

It's the old science versus society narrative, where technology brings to light facts people don't feel comfortable with, or changes to the status quo. Fair enough, often the ones implementing the changes have made a dismal attempt to explain what it means to those affected, but it stands to reason that when dealing with something complex that hits people's pockets, knee-jerk reactions come easy.

Of course, there's the bigger picture; that changing an energy infrastructure and billing system that's taken decades to develop is never going to be simple or quick. In SA in particular, we were used to cheap, readily available electricity, without having to give much thought to how often and how much of it we used. Home energy monitoring, smart meters, and the larger smart grid mark massive changes not only to the technical functioning, but behavioural components of the energy system. The growing pains will be significant, as Google learned first-hand.

But as energy concerns grow, we cannot continue to shoot the messenger. Sooner or later, the message will overshadow even the most vehement of objections. And by that time, the ability to control any access to energy may be a far greater luxury than we realised.