Voice-assistant device platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant could give utilities a huge new opportunity to engage their customers – if they can answer questions about energy and bills with real personalized data, not just canned responses to check a website or call a customer service rep. At least, that’s the hope behind a partnership announced this week, featuring home energy management startup Tendril, utility Indiana Michigan Power and Google.

Continuing its efforts to encourage customers to rely on electricity instead of natural gas, thus reducing greenhouse gases, SMUD is partnering with national homebuilder D.R. Horton to construct 104 all-electric homes in two new neighborhoods over the next year or so. D.R. Horton is the first builder to actually start construction under SMUD's all-electric smart home program, but it probably will not be the last. The California utility expects to continue to enroll residential home builders in for many years to come.

The key will be for utilities and third-party providers to develop applications with easy-to-use software. Utility customers want real-time data on their energy use, but they worry about who handles their information on its way from their smart meter to their smartphone, according to a new survey on smart meter attitudes. Researchers with SECC surveyed about 1,700 U.S. consumers about their attitude toward smart meters and a series of products offered to help them save money.

Oracle Utilities announced last Monday that their Opower Energy Efficiency programs have led households to save a cumulative 20 TWh of energy internationally, after entering the market in 2008. In the last two years alone, the Energy Efficiency programs led to 9 TWh of savings, according to the company. The growth in savings comes from new customers and from expansions within existing customer accounts.

SDG&E, in collaboration with the U.S. DOE’s NREL, installed a microgrid in an area north of San Diego that’s prone to electrical outages. The microgrid is located in Borrego Springs, Calif., an area where monsoons, winds, and flooding often knocks out power. Microgrids are self-powered electric grids that can either operate independently or connect to the larger grid.

The declining price of solar power gets more press, but there are big things happening in wind technology too. And I mean big. The math on wind turbines is pretty simple: Bigger is better. Specifically, there are two ways to produce more power from the wind in a given area. The first is with bigger rotors and blades to cover a wider area. That increases the capacity of the turbine, i.e., its total potential production.