People Power introduces open source energy monitoring

Gene Wang

Electricity monitoring startup People Power Co. is creating open source technology that would allow its residential customers to automatically control their electrical appliance use and monitor it in real time.

Gene Wang, CEO and founder of the Silicon Valley-based company, says People Power is based on helping consumers and utilities save money while going "green."

“Lord Calvin said, ‘What you don’t measure, you can’t control,’ and that’s really where we are with electricity today,” Wang says. “We don’t really measure down to the appliance level in real time how much electricity we’re using.”

Through a research collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University, the company is developing a device that will communicate wirelessly through an Open Source Home Area Network (OSHAN) and connect appliances and fixtures to a Web-based portal.

While other electricity monitoring devices exist that allow consumers to track electricity usage through a web-based portal, giving consumers automatic control sets People Power apart from others, Wang says. The company plans that its device will allow consumers to plug existing appliances into the device as well as purchase appliances, such as refrigerators, with the technology built in, he says.

People Power closed Series A funding from New Cycle Capital, Seraph Group and other angel investors to support commercialization of its inaugural product offering. The terms and specifics of the deal were not disclosed. The product is still in the development phase and no date has been set for the its release. People Power is Wang’s fifth startup, and his first to deal with environmental issues.