Saying that it was "energized" by its first round of utility partners announced Tuesday, for the PowerMeter gadget, Google has expressed its gratification at the successful initiation of its plans pertaining to the roll-out of home energy monitoring systems.

The `smart meters'-dependent PowerMeter gadget, being touted as a means of `smarter power,' can indicate the near real time personal electricity consumption of the users on a home computer. PowerMeter and the "smart grid" technology together constitute one of the most rapidly-growing sectors of green technology, which is being widely promoted as a system of dealing with issues like energy independence and climate change.

The international list of Google's `limited' partners include - California's San Diego Gas & Electric; Texas' TXU Energy; Florida's JEA; India's Reliance Energy; Wisconsin's Wisconsin Public Service Corporation; Missouri's White River Valley Electric Cooperative; Canada's Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited; and Kentucky's Glasgow EPB.

Commenting on the rather wide-ranging roster of PowerMeter partners, Ed Lu - of Google's Engineering Team - wrote on the official Google blog that the first partners comprise "utilities with millions of customers as well as smaller ones. They are rural and urban, privately held and municipally run. They all have one thing in common - a desire to serve their customers by providing access to detailed information that helps save energy and money."