Ontario power providers tap Opower for efficiency, DSM offerings

Utilitydrive.com
Jan. 7, 2016
By Robert Walton

Dive Brief:

• Two community-owned energy companies serving the greater Toronto area and central Ontario have tapped Opower to supply customers with energy insights that will help meet some new generation needs with efficiency, Energy Efficiency Markets reports.
• PowerStream and Collus PowerStream selected Opower under the Minister of Energy’s Conservation First Framework, which calls for using efficiency to meet new demand when economically viable.
• Opower said it will pair data analytics with behavioral science, much as it does in its work with demand response, to show whether a household’s energy use is in line with similar-sized homes, the time of year, and local weather patterns.

Dive Insight:

Demand response and energy efficiency are increasingly aligned on a single platform, as power providers look to harness all possible ways to manage demand. Opower may be more known for its work in behavioral demand response, helping utilities to tweak customer power use habits, but their announcement this week on efficiency north of the border shows just how quickly the two sectors are merging.

“These new tools that empower our customers to save money and energy,” said Maurizio Bevilacqua, PowerStream chair and Mayor of the City of Vaughan. “Opower’s behavioral energy efficiency program will help us lead the way in supporting the new Conservation First Framework.”

Opower supplies customers with home energy reports that offer customized tips to help lower their power usage. The reports pair behavioral science with data processing power to provide information about whether a household’s energy use is efficiency, compared to other homes in the area. The comparative analytic - showing customers what their neighbor's energy use is like - is increasingly seen as a tactic to help push customers to more efficiency use of energy.

According to Opower, the company is now processing over 40% of all residential energy consumption data and nearly two-thirds of AMI data in the U.S., meaning it looks at more household energy data than any other company on earth.

“It’s exciting to see yet another competitive international utility delivering our innovative customer engagement platform to their customers,” Opower CEO Dan Yates said in a statement. “Investing in the customer experience is the mark of a truly cutting edge utility, and Opower is glad to help PowerStream drive business value and customer satisfaction through our program.”