Silver Spring buys Greenbox's Web energy software

September 22, 2009 8:30 AM PDT
Silver Spring buys Greenbox's Web energy software
by Martin LaMonica Post a comment
Smart grid company Silver Spring Networks said on Tuesday that it has an agreement to buy Greenbox Technology, a home energy-management software company started by the makers of Flash.

The planned acquisition is a significant expansion for Silver Spring Networks, which makes wireless networking cards that are embedded in smart meters to broker communications between homes and utilities.

(Credit: Silver Spring Networks)Seven-year-old Silver Spring Networks is one of the most successful Silicon Valley green-tech start-ups. Its IP-based networking technology is being used in a number of smart-grid programs led by large utilities, such as Pacific Gas & Electric and Florida Power & Light. CEO Scott Lang said earlier this year that it plans to go public, although it has been considered an acquisition target itself.

Greenbox Technology's Web-based energy-management software is designed for consumers looking to trim their energy use. It allows people to see the electricity consumption of devices in the home and provides recommendations on how to cut use.

In-home energy-management software is a crucial piece of many smart-grid programs. By providing a dashboard to view data and an energy-management program--accessed either through a Web portal or stand-alone monitoring device--consumers can cut consumption by about 15 percent, according to initial smart-grid trials.

With the acquisition, the Greenbox software, already used by thousands of people, will be available to more consumers, said Matt Smith, the company's vice president of market. Greenbox Technology's product is aimed at utilities who offer the software as an "energy-management portal" to consumers in smart-grid projects, he said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Greenbox Technology, which was founded in 2007, was angel funded.

Right now, Greenbox's software pulls data from a smart meter to give consumers a read on their energy use. But the company is working on future versions of the software that can operate with a wireless thermostat to control the settings for a homes heating and cooling system, Smith said.

It makes perfect sense to have a home energy program matched up with a company that can deliver that data to a utility via the Internet. There are those who might say the easiest way to control home energy usage is to turn most things off when you leave. A few things, such as refrigerators, freezers, clocks, etc. that should probably be left on, but the rest can be turned off manually. The minimal cost of leaving my computer on to run the BOINC programs, Rosetta at Home, malariacontrol, and SETI - are my little donations to worldwide research. A little gift to humanity, if you will. I am one of 5 million people who make these little donations in order to move forward cancer research, in the case of Rosetta at Home. I have mentioned this project to a couple of School Board computer people, about using the schools computers after the kids leave school, but was told the School Board wants to save money now, and turns the computers off, instead of leaving them on 24/7, like they used to. I would think that businesses could be persuaded to participate too, if the research institutions paid the businesses something to help defray the costs. The research universities could forge agreements with other universities and community colleges too. There are millions of computers out there being under-utilized, that could make up the computing power of several supercomputers for basic science research.