OPOWER’s Home Energy Reporting System is the industry’s only energy management system that can convert AMI data into significant and measureable energy savings without an additional investment in in-home hardware. Through our patent-pending paper reports, our best-in-class online portal, and the improved quality of your customer-service calls (see CSR Tools), we can help utilities greatly enhance the customer’s experience by providing valuable insights about energy use.
While our system does not require smart meters, AMI technology increases our platform’s effectiveness with added features.
Enhanced Usage Analysis
With AMI data, OPOWER’s industry-leading statistical software module (see Insight Engine) extracts powerful insights based on daily, hourly or more granular historical usage data for each household in our program. The more data we have, the more powerful our messaging becomes.
OPOWER Delivers Industry-Leading AMI Data Analytics
Peak Load Reduction
The need to reduce peak-hour energy consumption is one of the key drivers behind the infrastructure overhauls underway at electric utilities nationwide. The ability to measure energy consumption on an hourly—or even more granular—basis allows utilities to establish an incentive structure that shifts usage away from overloaded times of the day. While Time-of-Use (TOU) pricing is the primary mechanism available to help drive down peak consumption, most utilities around the country are still years away from switching their customers to a tiered pricing plan.
With OPOWER's reporting platform, utilities can use the power of normative messaging to drive down peak reduction without TOU pricing. Where TOU pricing has been deployed, our attention-grabbing messaging can help dramatically raise awareness of new pricing structures, and help customers take advantage of the opportunity to significantly reduce their energy bills!
Normative messaging enhances the peak price signal
In-Home Displays
Though most customers will transition to the Smart Grid through mail, web, and call centers, a small group of highly engaged users will choose in-home displays. OPOWER's platform fully integrates our analyses into IHDs. Keeping with the idea that insight trumps real time data display, OPOWER's IHD presentment is designed to educate customers with valuable insights.
Alerts & Reminders
Most utility customers think about their energy use only about once a month— that is when the bill comes. With hourly or daily data reads, the OPOWER platform allows customers to choose to receive more frequent communications form their utilities. Our Alert & Notification System currently offers the following features:
- Critical Peak Event Alerts to inform customers of the season’s highest prices with sufficient notice
- Time-of-Use Alerts based on complex rules, such as our system noticing high-energy use during certain times (e.g., leaving your AC on while at work)
- Progress Tracking Notification to help customers track their energy usage against pre-set goals