Smart grid technology startup, Tendril, has secured a third round capital injection of $30 million

from VantagePoint Venture Partners and Good Energies. The company plans to expand its hardware and software systems and develop additional partnerships with uitlities and appliances makers.
 

Tendril is the creator of the Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem (TREE) which allows consumers to view and control household energy consumption infomation in real time. The TREE system connects "smart" consumer devices like thermostats and outlets to utilities establishing a dialog between consumers and their engergy partners. TREE bridges the gap between consumers and engergy companies enabling two-way communication.
 

Tendril is unique becuase of its consumer utility company focus. Many smart meter and smart grid companies are only send energy consumption information back to the utility companies -- providing them with real time information on consumer energy consumption and demand which allows for utilities to respond faster to demand, redistribute power and mitigate the potential for brown outs and outages.
 

Tendril says a broad commercial rollout of their products won't occur until around 2011 -- until then the company is testing its technology in pilot programs in up to 40,00 homes.
 

Tendril products include the following:

• Vantage Web Portal - a browser-based internet portal enables consumers to monitor, manage and control energy consumption and each of the smart devices in your home.
  
  
  
   
•  Insight Monitor - tracks kilowatts and cost per hour of energy in real time as you use it.
                                                                                                        

• Volt Outlet - a 3-prong Zigbee enabled electrical outlet that can be plugged into a standard wall outlet to monitor the energy efficiency of any electrical appliance or device.            

• Set Point Thermostat - Zigbee smart energy compliant thermostat that communicates with with a variety of in-home devices, such as outlets and electricity meters.