New Cell Phone Charger gets "Smart" Label

Whatever you call it, most people have begun to realize that our electronics are costing us more and more dollars on utility bills. Each new gadget comes with a new charger and they all stay plugged into the wall sipping precious nickels and dimes 24 hours a day. As consumer awareness grows, so does the demand for a product to let will us plug in and forget it.

First to the party is AT&T who is introducing a new cell phone charger in May called the AT&T Zero. The phone charger has the ability to sense when a phone is plugged into it. So when the phone gets unplugged it can stop drawing power from the wall. Keep in mind that it will be sold separately for around the same price as a traditional charger. It would probably be difficult to realize any savings if you purchased a new charger, but if you happen to misplace your old one you should look for this innovate, first-of-its-kind wonder device (I tried to use as many buzz words as possible).

Up to now all chargers (phone or otherwise) continue to draw electricity as long as its plugged into the wall. The amount of electricity it takes drops when a phone gets unplugged, but you might as well being paying rent  on that real estate in the wall.

To learn more about the AT&T Zero, here's an article from the New York Times Gadget blog.

Calling on Developers

Keeping track of your home's energy usage is something all Power Smart Pricing customers understand the value in. Lowering your consumption as the price goes up provides a unique money saving opportunity. A lot of big companies see the demand for this type of information on the horizon. In preparation, the software giants of the day, Microsoft and Google are making sure they're prepared.

Microsoft's Hohm and Google's PowerMeter represent two exciting entrants into energy management software. Over a period of a couple weeks both companies opened their programs to a trusted group of software developers to create applications and enhance their energy saving techniques.

It will take a long series of trial and error to really measure the effectiveness of these devices. In fact, the it is almost entirely up in the air as to where this software will be used. Ultimately the industry is getting flushed with tons of new data and this new data represents another way to make money (and save money for the consumer... for a price).

To learn more about Microsoft and Google's recent announcements, click here.

Instant Rebates on Appliances in IL

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (commonly known as the "stimulus"), the US Department of Energy has provided the State of Illinois $12,379,000 for a Cash for Appliances program. The money is available as an instant rebate for ENERGY STAR rated appliances from participating vendors for:

• Refrigerators
• Freezers
• Clothes washers
• Dishwashers
• Room air conditioners
• Gas storage water heaters
• Gas tankless water heaters
• Heat pump water heaters
• Gas and propane furnaces
• Gas boilers
• Central air conditioners
• Air source heat pumps

It's hard to imagine a vendor not participating in this offer because their customers will receive a discount with the US Government footing the rest of the bill. You can also receive an additional mail-in rebate with proof that your old appliance was hauled away when the new one was delivered.

The first phase of the program began on January 31 and is available for for water heaters and heating and ventilation products. The second phase will launch around Earth Day and will last until there's money left.

For more information on qualifying appliances, click here (pdf).

Free E-Smart Thermostat Coverage is Expanding

There has been tremendous interest among Power Smart Pricing customers for the free E-Smart Thermostat. For more information you can find our previous post here. The rollout of the new device has not quite matched the demand, but we recently received word that Ameren is widely expanding the eligible customer geography to the following zip codes:

Peoria - 61525, 61615, 61614, 61528, 61523, 61548, 61571, 61550, 61603, 61604, 61554, 61568, 61535, 61606, 61536, 61547, 61607, 61568, 61616, 61611, 61564, 61539, 61552

Champaign -  61815, 61853, 61878, 61873, 61802, 61821, 61820, 61801, 61874, 61880, 61822, 61875, 61884, 61856, 61830, 61855, 62501, 62554, 61818, 62535, 62501, 62573, 62521, 62526, 62521, 62522, 62537, 62551, 62514, 62532, 61925, 62549


Bloomington -   61701, 61702, 61704, 61705, 61761, 61772, 61736, 61732, 61745, 61748, 61776, 61725






Metro East -  62001, 62002, 62010, 62012, 62024, 62025, 62034, 62035, 62040, 62046, 62049, 62059, 62060, 62062, 62087, 62088, 62095, 62201, 62202, 62203, 62205, 62206, 62207, 62208, ,62214, 62215, 62216, 62218, 62219, 62220, 62221, 62222, 62223, 62225, 62226, 62230, 62231, ,62232, 62234, 62236, 62239, 62240, 62242, 62243, 62244, 62245, 62248, 62249, 62254, 62255, ,62256, 62257, 62258, 62260, 62262, 62263, 62264, 62265, 62269, 62275, 62277, 62278, 62279, ,62281, 62282, 62285, 62289, 62293, 62294, 62295, 62298

Please keep in mind that the rollout of this device has to do with ensuring that the technology receives the pager signal required for the thermostat to work properly.

Historical Price Annual Update

On our website we keep track of the average Day Ahead hourly price broken out by month, quarter (3 months) and year. If you haven't had a chance, take a look at Day Ahead vs Standard Prices for the breakdown. It is important to note, that this type of detail weighs each hour equally, but clearly when it comes to managing your electricity usage 4pm is more important than 4am.

The first 3 years of Power Smart Pricing has given us a great amount of data to examine. If we look first at the annual average, you can clearly see how significantly low the prices were in 2009. At 2.682 cents per kWh the average is far lower than 2008's 4.744 and 2007's 4.428.  A down economy for the first half of the year dropped Commercial and Industrial demand for electricity, a cool Midwest summer lowered Residential demand and no major service or storm related damage all factored in keeping prices low.

Representing a first in the history of Power Smart Pricing we did not send a single High Price Alert (an alert sent out when at least one hour during the following day is higher than 13 cents per kWh). In fact, many of you called in thinking something might have been wrong and that you were missing them. Well, once we reassured our callers that everything was in order they were more than happy to hear about the low prices. The highest single hour price was only 7.993 cents (3pm-4pm on June 24). There were also only 5 hours all year over 7 cents. 

A month by month breakdown shows which months had the highest impact on the low 2009 prices. While each month in 2009 had a lower average than its 2008 counterpart, the summer months represented the most significant drops. For example, July 2009 was more than 4 cents lower than July 2008.

We can safely assume that we won't see a year like 2009 again (in many ways...). From our small sample of 2010 prices, it looks to be closer to 2009 than 2008, but only time will tell. So before we get ahead of ourselves, let's be thankful for some low prices and big savings in 2009.  Whether you realize it or not, your success is expanding the opportunity for other communities around the country to take advantage of real-time electricity pricing. Great work by all!