What creative ideas has there been around controlling smart plugs and displaying related energy monitoring?
Is there anything compact that really makes sense or is it just going to be a bulky endeavor?
What are you looking for exactly? It really isn’t hard to setup.
If you’re looking for out of the box solutions, Powercalc may help with power monitoring.
For controlling lights and sockets, Entity Controller is a possibility:
How bulky the endeavour is depends on how many smart plugs you’re got. 