Google Inc. (GOOG) said Wednesday utilities in the U.S., Canada and India have started to use software it launched earlier this year to track home electricity use.

The Internet giant said its first eight partners include Sempra Energy's (SRE) San Diego Gas & Electric, Energy Future Holdings Corp.'s TXU Energy, and Integrys Energy Group Inc.'s (TEG) Wisconsin Public Service Corp. Google is working in India with Reliance Energy and Canada with Toronto Hydro-Electric System Ltd.

Google also said it's partnering with electric meter and data management company Itron Inc. (ITRI) to work on putting the software in place.

In February, Google announce it was testing the new on-screen software known as Google PowerMeter, bringing its nearly ubiquitous reach to energy efficiency. The application reads information coming from a "smart meter," which utilities across the country are beginning to install to better track individual usage.

The utilities that Google is working with have small groups of customers using the PowerMeter software.

"For now, Google PowerMeter is only available to a limited group of customers, but we plan to expand our rollout later this year," Google posted on its company blog.

The additional utilities partnering with Google are Glasgow EPB in Kentucky, White River Valley Electric Cooperative in Missouri, and JEA in Florida. Google plans to work with additional utilities and meter companies in the future.

-By Mark Peters, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4604; mark.peters@dowjones.com