GreenWave Reality CEO Greg Memo: Bridging the smart meter gap
Read this SmartPlanet interview of GreenWave Reality CEO, Greg Memo, discussing the GreenWave Reality platform and how it helps utilities deliver value from smart meter deployments to consumers. Click here to see the original article.
If the hype of utility companies is to believed, the smart meter will not only tell you your energy consumption, but remove your electricity bill altogether, green your house in one motion and cure cancer – all while efficiently doing your laundry.
The reality is far less rosy. The smart meter will indeed make it possible for the consumer to save on their energy bill, but it won’t help do that by itself. In fact, all a smart meter immediately does is helps utility companies get better readings on your electricity use – not the other way around.
But new companies are starting to bridge that smart meter gap – the curious space between utilities saving energy and money and consumers doing the same.
GreenWave Reality is one of them. (So is Cisco, Microsoft, Google and Intel. -Ed.) The Irvine, Calif.-based company is making its name in the home energy management market by partnering with utility companies and government agencies to help them deliver on the promise to consumers of a lower energy bill.
I spoke with CEO Greg Memo last month to discuss why consumers aren’t pleased with the nationwide smart meter rollout and why there’s a business case for utilities to help their customers lower their energy bills.
SmartPlanet: GreenWave sells gateways, power strips, displays and LED light bulbs. What’s your sales pitch?
GM: We’ve created a whole platform, and that’s the important point here.
One of the big differences is that we said, “We have got to be affordable.” The gateway plus the display is about $200 for utilities.
The EU has effectively banned incandescent [light bulbs] as of 2009. We’re seeing the rest of the trend spreading. And CFLs have a number of issues – most importantly, my wife hates them. In the closet, you don’t want a 30 second start-up time. So we’ve created an intelligent light.
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