Google Goes Greener, Launches PowerMeter API

Google's green energy plans are moving forward with a new push to spread its PowerMeter initiative even further. The company is now releasing an open API for its PowerMeter widget so that device manufacturers can build smart devices to measure electricity consumption at the plug level. This will allow people to get detailed data and see the exact consumption of any appliance.

"Today we're excited to introduce the Google PowerMeter API on code.google.com, for developers interested in integrating with Google PowerMeter. This API will allow device manufacturers to build home energy-monitoring devices that work with Google PowerMeter. We're launching this API in order to help build the ecosystem of innovative developers working towards making energy information more widely available to consumers," Srikanth Rajagopalan, product manager at Google, wrote.

The hope is that manufacturers will implement the API in their devices so that users can monitor them from the PowerMeter widget for the customizable iGoogle homepage. Consumers would be able to buy one of these meters and plug it into a socket to see how much electricity their TV, fridge or even their laptop eats up. These types of devices are common today, but they're not exactly user-friendly or provide very detailed data. Usually, they just indicate instant electricity consumption or the average over a period of time. With a PowerMeter-enabled device, people would get detailed graphs and various data points.

The PowerMeter widget is currently used with so-called 'smart meters,' but their spread is limited. Google has partnered with a few utility companies in the US and the UK and is running pilot programs with them. There is also the option to buy and install the TED 5000 smart meter, which also supports PowerMeter, but this route is for the very determined. By enabling PowerMeter functionality in small and affordable devices, a lot more people can take advantage of it, hopefully bringing down costs for the consumers and lowering emissions in the process too. Recently, Google has acquired an energy wholesale license in order to bring its own carbon footprint down.