Westborough, MA, June 7, 2007—National Grid has launched a pilot program with Blue Line Innovations to test the PowerCost Monitor™ -- a device that measures real-time electricity usage for residential customers. The pilot began this month with a sample group of 300 National Grid customers in Massachusetts.

The PowerCost Monitor allows customers to see how much electricity they are using and what they are spending on electricity. By using the hand-held device, customers can determine which appliances are more expensive to run and the effect of turning them on and off. This information may help customers make informed decisions about reducing their in-home electricity use.

“We know that energy efficiency, reducing costs, and helping the environment are important to our customers, said Robert H. McLaren, regional president for National Grid in Massachusetts. “Through this pilot, we hope to learn whether the monitor is an effective electricity conservation tool that ultimately can be added to our award-winning energy-efficiency programs and made available to all residential customers.”

The PowerCost Monitor connects to most residential electric meters and wirelessly transmits data to a calculator-type receiver that in turn displays electricity usage information.

The PowerCost Monitor was awarded "Outstanding Energy Efficient Technology Deployment of the Year" by the U.S.-based Association for Energy Service Professionals (AESP) and was a finalist in the Stars for Energy Efficiency, a program sponsored by The Alliance to Save Energy, based in Washington, D.C.

National Grid, through the transmission and distribution of electricity and natural gas, serves close to 4 million customers across 29,000 square miles of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island.

Blue Line Innovations offers innovative conservation and demand-side management solutions to the energy sector. Key divisions of Blue Line Innovations are involved in product development, marketing, systems engineering and manufacturing. Blue Line is the only developer and provider of this innovative technology in Canada.