How would you like to have a washing machine that automatically stopped running during peak electricity hours to save you money?
Or a screen in your home that would show you how much electricity was hour by hour?

Last week Emily Elzer and I attended the GridWise Expo in Santa Clara, California, and learned these are just some of the things consumers can expect when the Smart Grid is deployed.
The Smart Grid is essentially transforming the existing, outdated electrical grid into a system monitored by sensors online so energy can be used more efficiently. The grid can be regulated using the Internet and allow for two-way communication between consumers and their energy providers to foster conservation.
At the weeklong conference, tech company Sensus, which provides data collection and metering solutions for utilities, presented software that would allow consumers to communicate with the grid infrastructure by logging onto an account from a computer or television.

On the expo floor, Sensus representative Jon Rappaport showed us the interface that would allow homeowners to see their energy consumption and so they could in turn lower their energy bills.
The Sensus software demo looked like this:

A system like this would allow a customer to click through a dashboard screen to see how all of their home appliances are functioning each day and how much energy, including gas, water and electricity, they are using.
The Sensus home management system would also show the price of electricity that corresponds to the time of day, as well as the individual customer’s overall energy savings.
And customers could also see how their daily energy usage fluctuates using the Sensus program:

Just some of the technological advancements that could make it into your home as the grid gets a digital makeover.