Microsoft powers down Hohm energy-tracking service

Microsoft is turning out the lights on its Hohm energy management service, citing "slow overall market adoption."

In a blog post on the Hohm site today, the company said it will discontinue the service on May 31, 2012, but plans to continue to tackle the "incredible energy and environmental challenges of the 21st century."

Here's an excerpt from the blog post:

"Microsoft Hohm has helped demonstrate the critical role of information in helping people and organizations improve how energy is generated, distributed and ultimately consumed. Microsoft will continue to focus on developing products, solutions and partnership that span a wide spectrum of industries, such as power generation, distribution grids, buildings and transportations systems.

Microsoft said it will focus its attention on other energy-saving initiatives and the potential of using cloud computing to reduce energy costs.

The company launched the free service in 2009 to help consumers track electricity usage at home and promote energy efficiency. (The name is a reference to 'ohm,' a unit of electrical measure.) Seattle City Light was one of the first utilities to partner with Microsoft, and the company had expected to sign up major utilities that would then pass along the monitoring data to customers. But, two years later, Microsoft had only signed a handful of utilities (fewer than 10, according to cnet) and was still in beta.

Read more in TechFlash.