About ten years ago, my employer was a large investor-owned electric and gas utility in Denver. I was hired to manage the marketing of new energy technologies. Problem was, we didn’t have any new energy technologies. Not really. Our little team of two (plus a consultant) traveled to Minnesota to talk with Honeywell about smart gadgets, and then we flew to Manhattan for a trade show at the Javits Center to look at smart home networking. We hired a product ideation outfit out of San Francisco to test concepts in the newly re-structured electric market Texas called ERCOT. We met with Xanboo, a server-based web- and video-integrated home management company (err, start-up). Then it all tanked. Enron. The California power crisis. The utility dropped its pretense of interest in new energy technologies and decided to focus on ‘core offerings.’ Today, the interest in energy management has a lot more going for it. Investors and mentors, for one. Surge Accelerator out of Houston calls together entrepreneurs in energy efficiency software — among other energy-related technology — to convene for 12 week mentoring sessions: “Have you answered the call with a software solution that will manage and optimize energy consumption? We are looking for software entrepreneurs that are interested in making energy efficiency a worldwide reality with innovation.” Their key areas of interest in energy efficiency are home energy management, remote energy monitoring, and site energy optimization. The software design team of SnuggHome has answered the call and is participating in the current 12 week mentoring sessions. They are also delivering energy efficiency software solutions to that very same electric and gas utility in Denver!
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