Amidst a flurry of articles regarding Opower sending its 25M home energy report, I have a vexing question that is often overlooked: isn’t it true that fixing leaks/conserving water/getting smiley faces will not save you money, and may actually cost you more, in the long run since utilities needs to recoup their revenues based on costs and will therefore raise the fees on your smaller quantities of water/energy? Just asking before we get too carried away with articles such as the following:
Energy software company Opower says it will send its 25 millionth energy data report to a utility customer by the end of January and will likely hit the 75 million mark sometime in 2012. Opower develops software and analytics to enable utilities to connect with their customers and get them to reduce their energy consumption by around two percent.
As Opower VPof Strategy and Marketing Ogi Kavazovic told me in an interview at Opower’s office in Arlington, Va. late last year, “The next 18 months will be a very interesting time for Opower.” The company has been growing rapidly, has been hiring at both its offices in Arlington and San Francisco, and will be introducing new products this year, including its social app with Facebook and a connected thermostat with Honeywell.
In November Opower even hired a CFO, Thomas Kramer, indicating it’s mulling over a potential IPO. Kramer was previously the CFO at Cvent, and created the e-commerce strategy for Boston Consulting Group.
At the smart grid conference DistribuTECH in San Antonio, Texas this week, Opower not only announced its milestone of 25 million reports, but also launched a new partnership and service called Opower Marketplace, which loops in retailers and coupons into its energy efficiency recommendations and reports. Opower’s first retailer in the program is The Home Depot, and, for example, when an Opower energy report recommends buying CFLs to replace incandescent lighting, The Home Depot could offer a coupon to the customer for discounted CFLs, along with a bar code to track if the customer uses the deal.
While Opower previously had a goal to help its customers reduce one Terawatt of energy by the end of 2012, Opower says it will actually hit that goal six months early. One terawatt hour (or 1 million megawatt hours) is equivalent to the energy consumed by 100,000 American homes over a year, and is worth a whopping $100 million in consumer’s utility savings.
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