Guess It Had to Happen: The Utility Company Is Moving to the Internet
The latest bright idea to come out of the Idealab incubator is a company that combines two growing trends: widespread Internet usage and utility deregulation.
Utility.com, which is billing itself as the first Internet utility, today will begin selling electricity on the Web at https://www.utility.com.
The 10 million Californians currently served by Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric are eligible to become the company’s first customers. Utility.com plans to sell electricity generated by wholesale providers in eight states by the end of the year, said Chris King, chief executive of the Albany, Calif., start-up. (Most people served by municipal utilities such as L.A.’s Department of Water & Power aren’t yet able to choose their electricity provider.)
Earlier this year, Southern California Gas launched Energy Marketplace (https://www.energymarketplace.com) to let Web surfers shop for electricity and natural gas online. Utility.com goes further, requiring customers to sign up, pay their bills and get customer service on the Web. That reduces the company’s costs and allows customers to save as much as 15%, King said.
To monitor customers’ energy consumption, Utility.com will install meters made by San Carlos, Calif.-based CellNet Data Systems that transmit readings using a wireless radio connection. Customers must pay $3.99 monthly for three years to use the meters.
King, a five-year veteran of PG&E; and high school classmate of Idealab founder Bill Gross, said he expects Utility.com to sign up 80,000 customers by the end of the year. But Abhi Chaki, a Jupiter Communications analyst in New York, said it will probably take longer than that for online utilities to make money.
“Right now, I don’t think there’s enough customer interest in this to really be profitable,” Chaki said. “But as the energy sector gets deregulated over the next two to three years, we’ll see more progressive companies embracing the Web.”
