Lowfoot founder Philip Playfair says that when smart meters were
introduced in Ontario, he had a revelation.
"I realized with smart meters we'd be able to measure when people were and weren't using power," he says. "And when you can do that, you can turn conservation into a tradable, viable commodity." His own background was in running a billing company, and he was going "stir crazy' in retirement after he sold it. So he recruited a partner and in 2009 Lowfoot was born in an office near the airport.
The company offers energy consumers reports on how much energy they consume and when, and offers them targets for reduction. When they exceed those targets, they get credits that are paid out in cash via PayPal. For now, Playfair says, the money "mostly comes from our bank account," and is generated through advertising and sponsorships. But down the road, Playfair says he expects most of his company's revenue to come from utilities themselves who will see real value through the energy reductions. A utility could spend hundreds of millions on new production plants, he says, or could instead spend substantially less reducing consumption to meet existing supply.
The service is active in Ontario, where consumers own the right to their own energy-usage information, and has launched for users of some utilities in Texas and California. Playfair says they are finalizing a pilot project in the Netherlands now. The idea is just beginning to take off. "We're moving from a culture of energy entitlement to one of efficiency," he says.
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Philip Playfair, founder, Lowfoot