California-based GridX and Massachusetts real-time home energy intelligence company Sense are collaborating to translate smart meter data into meaningful benefits for users and the grid.

The integration should give users more insight into, and control over, energy usage and costs in real time.

According to Guidehouse, the global penetration of smart meters will climb from approximately 44% at the end of 2020 to 56% by the end of 2028, resulting in over 1.2 billion devices globally. However, utilities have struggled to make sense of and capitalise on the data these meters provide.

That is poised to change with the latest meters being deployed. Using grid edge intelligence to identify where and when energy is consumed in the home, and applying real-time pricing signals, it’s now possible to unlock and reveal the best clean energy choices for consumers. This not only helps stabilise the grid, but also saves users money and reduces their carbon footprint.

“The evolution of smart meters into a grid edge application platform enables real-time device level intelligence,” said Chris Black, GridX CEO. “This is instrumental in understanding how consumers are using energy, and Sense is the established leader in providing this intelligence through embedded software in the latest generation of smart meters. And now, the partnership with GridX has solved the energy cost part of the equation. Increasingly, the problem isn’t how much energy we all use, it’s when we use it. The price of energy changes radically throughout the day, so understanding where you are using energy is no longer enough, you must understand how much it costs when you use it.”

Electric vehicles (EVs) provide a compelling example of this approach in practice. EVs are growing in popularity but it’s difficult to know if a user has purchased one. With Sense, the presence of a new EV is identified quickly after it’s plugged in, allowing owners to understand immediately the impact to their energy use.

With that knowledge, Sense can engage the user through their mobile app and use GridX’s real-time localised, dynamic pricing data to show how EV charging will impact their bill, suggest different rates, and provide pricing insights down to each device.

Sense can provide this visibility to utilities as well, allowing them to optimise grid infrastructure investments by shifting EV charging out of the peak, which also saves the consumer money on their bills.

“Sense is empowering people to make their homes more efficient and helping to reduce the infrastructure spend required to decarbonise,” said Mike Phillips, Sense CEO. “By adding a scalable dynamic pricing information, we can now encourage even greater consumer action, including the adoption of automated controls of key loads, helping us achieve our decarbonisation goals and ensuring everyone is enrolled in the optimal rate. This partnership with GridX brings together the ideal combination that will change the way utilities optimise the grid and help people better use energy in their homes.”

GridX partners with utilities and energy suppliers to transform their businesses and accelerate the clean energy transition. The company’s enterprise rate platform helps these organisations develop products and business models to achieve clean energy goals; quickly operationalise new offerings in their billing and settlement processes; and better engage with their customers for broader programme adoption.

Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning to provide real-time insights on device behaviour, even for devices that are not smart. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.