Tendril Smartening Up Victorian Energy Users  

The Daily Camera reports that US smart grid software company Tendril is celebrating signing a contract with Origin Energy to provide their applications to Australian customers - Joe Biden touts renewable energy, Boulder's Tendril at NREL speech.

In addition, Biden lauded Boulder-based Tendril, a company that specializes in smart-grid and home-energy technology, for its investments in helping Americans and citizens worldwide consume less energy.

Tendril on Friday announced it signed a contract with Origin Energy, an Australian firm that plans to deploy Tendril's application suite -- used by consumers to gauge, modify and learn about energy use -- to thousands of its customers in the second half of 2011.

Under the contract, Tendril's products potentially be deployed across Origin Energy's entire 4.5 million customer base, Ivo Steklac, Tendril's chief operating officer, said in an interview with the Camera on Friday afternoon.

Origin Energy says it will conduct what it describes as Australia’s first large scale Smart Home pilot, with new technology to be tested in 5000 homes in the second half of 2011. The company has partnered with Colorado-based Tendril, which will supply in-home displays that will allow customers to monitor energy use via web, mobile, paper, and home area network devices and advanced application development for future programs such as solar, smart appliances and electric vehicles.

Origin says the Tendril device will provide customers with easy-to-use tools to engages in energy efficiency and accelerate participation in new programs, pricing and active home energy management, and can be adapted for smart meters, smart appliances and new technologies such as solar. The pilot is to be held in Victoria, where smart meters have already been installed.

“The pilot of the Tendril program is a very exciting development for Origin, the leading Australian energy retailer, as it signals the beginning of a very different relationship between customers and their energy retailer,” said Phil Craig, the general manager of Origin Retail. “Origin will have the potential to better engage with our customers and deliver a range of new, more targeted products and services to help customers better manage their energy consumption and power bills.

Origin says its own research suggests Australians are confused about the impact they can have on their bills and the environment, and more than half struggled to make the correlation between their behavioural changes and their impact on the environment.