Google's Powermeter

This is a pretty exciting Google project I've come across:

http://www.google.org/powermeter/.

Google has built a web application that queries and displays your electric usage directly from your utility. You can view this from any Internet connected location via a web browser and it can evolve to to do much more than just monitor your usage to include, for example, control.

Google's new initiative shows a glimpse of where we are heading. It's not just your homes power system which is becoming communications enabled, we are on the brink of a new horizon; a horizon enabled by homes where virtually every device and appliance will be mashable and universally controllable. In the coming weeks, I'll be writing a series of articles for TMCNET which describe what the connected digital home is all about, the emerging mass market for home automation, smart power and why every service provider should be excited.