Opower is the world’s leading provider of customer engagement solutions for the utility industry (whatever that means) and last week it announced that it had saved residential energy customers in the United States a total of two terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity nationwide as a result of its behaviour-based efficiency platform.
Want to understand just what two terawatt hours turns out to be? It’s the equivalent of taking a 500,000-people-sized city off the grid for a whole year.
It also equates to $223 million saved on energy bills and 3 billion pounds of CO2 emissions abated (figures which are just continuing to grow on the Opower ticker located top right on its website).
Image Source: Opower via flickr
“Saving two terawatt hours is a significant and exciting milestone for Opower and we share this accomplishment with all our utility partners,” said Alex Laskey, Opower president and founder, who made the announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We achieved this only nine months after reaching one TWh’s of energy saved.”
“We’re building incredible momentum and to date have put over $220 million back into the pockets of families and businesses. Opower is committed to working with our utility partners to implement effective programs that save customers energy and money, and give homeowners the tools and insights needed to better manage their energy consumption.”
So just what does Opower do? Simply put, Opower provides consumers with information on their energy usage, how it compares to other homes, and tips on how to save energy in a customers specific situation.
Two TWh’s of energy is equivalent to:
- Enough energy to power a city the size of 500,000 people
- $220 million in bill savings for customers
- Over 3 billion pounds of CO2 abated
“As we continue to add utility partners in the U.S. and abroad, there is a tremendous opportunity for Opower, and broader energy efficiency programs, to have a massive impact on energy consumption across the globe, and to save families significant amounts of money,” said Laskey.
Companies like Opower are only going to become more essential as we move forward. Utility companies will attempt to implement their own similar solutions, but in the long run it will be outside-companies like Opower running for the express purpose of saving people money and minimising electricity usage which will end up helping the most.
Source: Opower
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