TORONTO – Ontario residents may soon have a better way to manage their energy consumption.
Minister of Energy Chris Bentley announced a new province-wide initiative called Ontario Green Button Wednesday, which uses digital technology to track how much energy you are using.
“One of the reasons that our system recovers as quickly and effectively to stresses on it – whether they’re heat or adverse weather conditions – it’s not just the courage and determination of the crews, but the fact that they are using more and more sophisticated information on the system,” said Bentley during a press conference.
“Smart meters and the digital information that they provide is at the heart of that.”
The Green Button Initiative will allow customers to check their daily usage through a smartphone or computer, as well as control electronic devices in their home such as their air conditioning or heating unit.
“It’s about your information returned to you in a way that you can use most effectively,” said Bentley.
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“Turn off your air conditioner at work by the means of your mobile device – why not. All this can be enabled by software and the software needs a common platform of information and the green button platform will provide that platform of information.”
The initiative, which the province will work on with innovation centre MaRS, is aimed at encouraging app developers to create new programs to better help customers.
Though some may think an app that allows you to turn off your lights or adjust the temperature of your home remotely is futuristic, there are currently many third party apps on the market that already use this technology.
Take for example the Belkin WeMo. This device allows users to virtually control anything in their home that can plug into an outlet using only a switch and a free remote app.
The switch can be plugged into everything from kitchen appliances, to televisions and connects to your home Wi-Fi connection to receive a signal.
A Kickstarter project called Elphi, designed for iPhone and Andriod platforms, also allows users to control their appliances, but uses a power activity monitor to see when things are turned on and off.
The technology would allow users to see what time a light was turned on in the home, for example. If used to monitor energy consumption, this may help customers to monitor what appliances they use during peak hours.
So far there is no expected timeline as to when an app for the Green Button initiative will be released.
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