A new way to cut your %!@# power bill

Think of it as a kind of TiVo for electricity: A device lets you buy energy when it’s cheapest and store it for later use.

NEW YORK – In an age of flextime, when workers increasingly commute outside peak traffic flows, the delivery of electricity seems a bit, well, static. When you need it most, so does everyone else, imposing big costs and occasional brownouts on utilities and their customers. But a Washington, D.C., startup called GridPoint has a better idea. Starting this spring, GridPoint is selling a “smart box,” priced from $15,000 to $20,000, that will allow business owners to manage their electricity more intelligently – and cut down on power bills.

The system works thanks to “dynamic pricing” – a payment arrangement in which utilities charge customers more during periods of peak usage, such as dinnertime, and less when demand is low – say, 3 A.M. Though this option has been around for decades in some areas, it’s still available to only about 10% of U.S. customers – but that’s about to change. An energy law enacted last year requires that all utilities offer customers some form of dynamic pricing by February 2007.

Most utilities have been dragging their feet, because it’s expensive to fit homes and businesses with smart meters capable of registering the time electricity is used. But once those new meters are in place, prepare for a shock as utilities raise prices whenever demand rises. That is where GridPoint comes in.

“Our product will allow customers to trim their bills painlessly,” says CEO Peter Corsell. “Think of it as a kind of TiVo for electricity.”

Fortune