Changing collective energy consumption patterns

Building a smarter grid on open standards is sexy!  It will allow developers to build grid applications just as developers build apps for the iPhone.

Armed with Genability’s comprehensive database for energy tariffs, for example, developers will be able to create apps that tell the dishwasher to wait for the price to fall below a certain level, and the air conditioner will turn itself off when the price goes up.

Innovations like these are especially exciting for the collective behavioral changes they bring about. As Malcom Gladwell elegantly points out in The Tipping Point, social epidemics can and do happen, and they can be harnessed.

Indeed, huge and seemingly intractable problems can sometimes be solved in the most unexpected and unlikely ways.  Gladwell suggests there are several common maxims that we can glean about social epidemics:

1. There are a few exceptional people out there that are capable of starting epidemics.  All you have to do is find them. (The Law of the Few)
2. There is a simple way to package information that will make it irresistible.  All you have to do is find it (Stickiness)
3. Behavior is a function of social context (The Power of Context)

At Genability, we want to harness all three.  And we know that the first step is empowerment.  We aim to empower the average energy consumer (ie. you & me) with information that will allow real energy choices.

The Climate Group estimates that application of digital technologies to enable smart grids and buildings has the potential to avert 3.71 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent global emissions by 2020, delivering some $464-billion in global energy cost savings to businesses and consumers.  At Genability, we are making it a reality.