Google’s plan to roll-out home energy monitoring systems took a step towards reality Tuesday when the company announced the first round of utility partners for its PowerMeter demand-side energy management software.

The pilot program for Google’s foray into smart grid and energy management infrastructure will be available to select customers at a group of eleven utilities that have installed—or are in the process of installing—smart meters.

By having real-time information about home energy usage on a desktop (running as a Google Gadget), those using the meter will be able to use their energy more efficiently, save money on their monthly bill, and be able to monitor/reduce household carbon emissions.

In the announcement at the Official Google Blog, Ed Lu, of Google’s Engineering Team writes that the first partners include “utilities with millions of customers as well as smaller ones. They are rural and urban, privately held and municipally run. Some are in the United States, others in Canada and India. They all have one thing in common — a desire to serve their customers by providing access to detailed information that helps save energy and money.”

For now, there are limited Google PowerMeter partners, but the company plans to expand their rollout later this year. The PowerMeter utility partners announced Tuesday are:

San Diego Gas & Electric (California)
TXU Energy (Texas)
JEA (Florida)
Reliance Energy (India)
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (Wisconsin)
White River Valley Electric Cooperative (Missouri)
Toronto Hydro–Electric System Limited (Canada)
Glasgow EPB (Kentucky)

Is your utility not on the list? Don’t fret. Lu also indicates in the announcement that Google is looking to partner with more companies that can enable the implementation of the software. Learn more about partner opportunities.

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechnica