Sensus, the Raleigh company that makes two-way utility meters and smart grid technology, will become a little less visible in its home state thanks to a recent debt restructuring.

At the same time, Sensus expects to continue on the hiring trajectory that has doubled the company's size to 336 employees in the Triangle over the past two years.

It's a noteworthy trend for a company that has a low public profile in this state, since North Carolina is still a virtually nonexistent market for Sensus' flagship products in the smart grid field.

After several years of hype, North Carolina will debut a true "smart meter" this year that lets customers adjust thermostats from an iPhone or any other Internet portal.

Based on initial testing, the feature is expected to save the customers about 6.5 percent on their monthly power bills.

But to benefit from the interactive utility feature you have to be a customer of tiny Wake Electric Membership Corp., the state's first utility to offer this kind of smart grid feature for its customers.

This spring, Wake Electric will start offering its 34,500 customers in seven counties the Monitor and Manage Program. The utility -- which serves parts of Wake, Durham and Johnston counties -- will let customers operate major appliances remotely and also check their household electricity usage on a real-time basis.

Don Bowman, Wake Electric's manager of engineering, said the feature will let a customer adjust or turn off a water heater, or adjust heating or air conditioning, without getting out of bed, if the customer has a iPhone, iPad or other similar device.

"Anything you can do in front of the thermostat you can do remotely over the Web portal," Bowman said. "You can set comfort levels, preferences and times."

Sensus, a global utility meter technology company based in Raleigh, this morning reported second-quarter earnings of $20 million on sales of $203 million.

Further details will be provided tomorrow during an analyst conference. Sensus is not a publicly traded company but publicly issues quarterly earnings because it is financing its operations through borrowed money that is publicly traded in the form of corporate bonds.

Sensus is trying to ride the new wave of smart grid and smart meter technology, which is largely being financed by state and federal grants and subsidies, including rate increases approved by public utilities commissions.

Google, the online search engine that aspires to be the world's information clearinghouse, wants to help you manage your household energy use.

The company is now beating many power companies in smart grid development by offering a Google application that lets homeowners monitor daily energy use. Some electric utilities are responding to consumer demand and are cooperating with Google to offer the service, but many are reluctant to let the online search giant provide a service the utilities aren't capable of offering themselves.

Harry Wingo, Google's policy counsel, outlined the company's energy strategy in Raleigh this morning as the keynote speaker at an energy conference sponsored by the N.C. Energy Office. He spoke to some 800 people at N.C. State University's McKimmon Conference and Training Center at the meeting that runs through tomorrow and is titled "Sustainability: Moving Beyond the Federal Stimulus."

"Our mission is to organize the world's information," Wingo said, "and make it universally accessible and useful."