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Greenbox Technology and Silver Spring Networks Partner With Oklahoma Gas and Electric to Help Consumers Reduce Home Energy Use

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 August 2008, 09:00 CDT

SAN BRUNO, Calif. and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenbox Technology, creators of energy management software for the home, announced today that they have partnered with smart grid infrastructure experts Silver Spring Networks to successfully deploy the Greenbox(TM) interactive energy management platform for Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E). The goal of OG&E's Positive Energy(TM) SmartPower program is to empower customers to better manage their energy consumption and control costs using Greenbox's intuitive Web-based interface. Silver Spring Networks provided the network infrastructure, data collection and integration with the Greenbox platform via its Smart Energy Network.

Consumers are increasingly aware of their home energy consumption and it is the first and most natural place for them to impact their usage by changing habits. Leading utilities around the country are currently in the process of upgrading their infrastructure and are exploring ways to help customers manage their home energy use. The trial deployment at OG&E will inform the market about the best ways to meet new consumer expectations for saving energy and inform utilities on how to implement programs with time-of-use rate structures and solutions such as those from Greenbox.

"Greenbox sets a new standard for energy intelligence in the home," said Jonathan Gay, Founder of Greenbox Technology and creator of Flash. "Just as Flash enables hundreds of millions users to experience multimedia on the Internet, Greenbox enables households to experience and understand their energy usage in ways never before possible."

Greenbox Technology brings an innovative Web-based approach to meeting the needs of both utilities and their residential energy customers. Greenbox provides utilities with a Web-based interactive energy management platform that delivers an insightful, consumer-friendly interface for their smart grid initiatives. For residential energy customers Greenbox provides the information and tools that enable customers to better manage their energy usage, control costs and reduce their carbon footprint by helping them understand how and when they are using energy through custom usage analysis, historical visualizations of energy use and email reports and alerts.

Greenbox educates customers on time-of-use pricing models and suggests ways to save money by reducing energy usage during peak periods. Greenbox even allows households to compare their usage to that of similar homes, and to understand their electricity-based carbon footprint. The product can also support monitoring of water and gas usage and be customized to meet the unique needs of each utility.

"Silver Spring Networks is pleased to be working with Greenbox Technology at Oklahoma Gas and Electric," said John O'Farrell, Executive Vice President of Silver Spring Networks. "Our advanced networking technology is the perfect enabling platform to support OG&E's efforts to give their customers the option to monitor and reduce their energy use using innovative technologies such as Greenbox's Web-based interface. The 2-way, real-time networking enables an immediate exchange of information that makes these customer programs so valuable."

Silver Spring Networks supports a full range of smart grid applications, including the advanced metering and home networking applications being implemented by OG&E. In addition, Silver Spring Networks provides an open, secure, proven, reliable networking platform that will enable OG&E to realize additional operational and environmental benefits in the future.

"This technology has the potential to change the relationship we have with our customers," said Ken Grant, managing director of marketing for OG&E. "It is the key to empowering our customers both with better and more timely information and with the tools they need to respond to this information to better manage their energy usage. When we put this technology into our customers' hands, they understand immediately the value they can obtain from the information provided."

Working with Silver Spring Networks for data acquisition via their Smart Energy Network, Greenbox Technology designed the web-based platform to receive, display and analyze 15-minute interval data for each home every day on a continual basis. Households simply need to log into the website via their browser to understand how and when they are using electricity.

About Greenbox Technology Inc.

Based in San Bruno, California, Greenbox Technology provides leading interactive energy management solutions for utilities and residential energy customers. Our products enable homeowners to conveniently track, understand, and manage their utility usage, reducing their environmental footprint while saving money. Through world-class human design and insightful analysis of home resource usage, Greenbox Technology empowers people to make informed choices about their utility use that are aligned with their values and priorities. For additional information, visit http://www.getgreenbox.com/.

About Oklahoma Gas and Electric

OG&E is Oklahoma's largest utility, serving more than 765,000 customers in a service area spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas. OG&E is a subsidiary of Oklahoma city-based OGE Energy Corp. , which also is the parent company of Enogex LLC, a midstream natural gas pipeline business with principal operations in Oklahoma.

About Silver Spring Networks

Silver Spring Networks creates the critical networking infrastructure for the Smart Grid, known as a Smart Energy Network. Based on the Internet Protocol (IP) suite, it addresses the challenges of running multiple applications and devices on a common networking infrastructure using multiple transport technologies, dramatically improving efficiency, lowering costs and ensuring the reliable delivery of services. This smarter, more efficient grid could cut the growth rate of worldwide energy consumption by more than half over the next 15 years and drastically reduce carbon emissions. Silver Spring Networks was named a Technology Pioneer at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and was a recipient of the GoingGreen and Brilliant Innovation Awards in 2007. For additional information, visit http://www.silverspringnetworks.com/.

Media Contacts: Christina Williams, Page One PR for Greenbox christina@pageonepr.com 503.206.7775 Matthew Smith, Greenbox matt@greenbox-inc.com 650.292.8270 x205 Gil Broyles, Oklahoma Gas & Electric broylecg@oge.com 404.553.3646 Lisa Magnuson, Silver Spring Networks lisamag@silverspringnet.com 415.531.9199

Greenbox Technology

CONTACT: Christina Williams of Page One PR, +1-503-206-7775,christina@pageonepr.com, for Greenbox; or Matthew Smith of Greenbox,+1-650-292-8270, ext. 205, matt@greenbox-inc.com; or Gil Broyles of OklahomaGas & Electric, +1-404-553-3646, broylecg@oge.com; or Lisa Magnuson of SilverSpring Networks, +1-415-531-9199, lisamag@silverspringnet.com

Web site: http://www.getgreenbox.com/http://www.silverspringnetworks.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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