How does Power Stoplight work?

Power Stoplight and Power Stoplight Mobile obtain and display relevant data from Smart Power Devices Ltd’s servers on the Internet.  These servers combine historical & existing raw data for consumers on their electricity grid & local environmental conditions with proprietary prediction algorithms, making the output both intelligent & easily understandable.

For select Regions in Power Stoplight’s database, Power Stoplight provides the newest available (from the utilities) Spot Price Data, Day Ahead Figure or a Smart Price Figure, a prediction for that region’s electricity services’ final applicable prices that is computed by Smart Power Devices Ltd’s servers.

For other Regions in the list, Power Stoplight displays Time Of Use Pricing data that is relevant for fixed-schedule dynamic pricing electricity programs available in some regions that power companies have created for environmental and monetary benefits. These prices and schedules are sometimes hard to follow for consumers, with multiple price points applicable at different times of the day or days of the week, so Power Stoplight can really help people to see when it’s a good time to use or generate electricity.

If a Region’s Time Of Use program has multiple pricing tiers (e.g., different rates apply to consumers above or below certain monthly usage levels) that follow a common Time Of Use schedule, Power Stoplight presents a Time Of Use Rating figure as a number from 1-10 (with 10 being worst or most expensive) that can be used as a guideline for consumers to follow their Region’s Time Of Use schedule.

Some other Dynamic Pricing programs aren’t quite in the Time Of Use or Real Time Pricing categories. Power Stoplight helps PG&E’s SmartRate customers (in and around San Francisco, CA) by letting them know when SmartRate days are in effect (i.e., higher priced from 2PM-7PM) and Ameren Illinois Utilities’ Power Smart Pricing customers (for Decatur and most of Southern & Central IL) know each day’s unique hour-to-hour prices.

In general, electricity grids are more heavily loaded on hot summer days, when many people are using air conditioning, the greatest drain of power in most homes. This balance between a limited supply and essentially boundless demand is hard to track for consumers on the many different Dynamic Pricing programs available in North America, as is knowing when a power generation system that they operate could be most useful. Power Stoplight fills that gap!

By using larger electrical devices (air conditioners, electric car chargers, dishwashers, clothes washers & dryers) at more optimal times as indicated by Power Stoplight (such as starting the dishwasher at 9 PM instead of 6 PM), users can save money.

Are you generating your own power through solar or wind systems? Power Stoplight gathers environmental data and tells you when it’s best to uncover solar panels and when it’s best to enable wind turbines. By intelligently managing their own resources, Power Stoplight’s users can ease the strain on potentially overloaded electrical grids, reduce overall carbon emissions into the atmosphere, and save on their monthly electricity bills.