Business & Finance
Business and Finance
Business and Finance 
Fri, June 4, 2010
Thu, June 3, 2010
AEP Ohio Chooses OPOWER 3.0 Platform as Part of its Smart Grid Customer Engagement Strategy
ARLINGTON, Va.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--[ OPOWER ], the energy efficiency and Smart Grid software company, today announced that AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), has selected its award-winning customer engagement platform as the customer-facing solution for its [ Smart Grid ] deployment. Beginning late summer, OPOWER will help the utility provide 70,000 Smart Metered homes with contextualized in-home energy data and energy-efficiency advice and tips through mailed paper reports and an online energy management portal.
"The OPOWER platform will help us to attain broad customer engagement and has a track record of achieving real energy savings and positive customer feedback. Through gridSMART, we are giving customers the tools and information needed to use electricity more efficiently."
The OPOWER platform is an Advanced Customer Engagement (ACE) solution that is unique in its ability to deliver individualized energy usage information through all available channels: the mail, web, phone, in-home displays as well as mobile devices. The cross-channel approach is designed to enable all customers to engage with their energy data and save on their bills, irrespective of income or access to technology. At AEP Ohio, the initial deployment will include the mail and web, and the platform is equipped to include additional device-centric communication channels in the future.
aAEP Ohioa™s gridSMARTSM Demonstration Project is designed to provide greater energy control to our customers through enhanced energy usage information and improved efficiency and reliability,a said Joseph Hamrock, President and Chief Operating Officer for AEP Ohio. aThe OPOWER platform will help us to attain broad customer engagement and has a track record of achieving real energy savings and positive customer feedback. Through gridSMART, we are giving customers the tools and information needed to use electricity more efficiently.a
OPOWERa™s platform combines cross-channel information delivery, usage analytics, cutting-edge behavioral science and household-level content customization to deliver up to 85 percent customer engagement. Currently deployed to more than one million homes, OPOWER products have delivered over 120 GWHs and $14 million in verified energy savings for engaged utility customers.
With the addition of AEP Ohio, OPOWER is now working with 33 utilities across the country. Earlier this month, OPOWER announced that Commonwealth Edison has also selected the same platform as part of its large-scale [ Smart Grid pilot ].
About OPOWER
OPOWER is an industry leader in Energy Efficiency and Smart Grid software, providing the industrya™s only all-channel customer engagement platform proven to deliver unprecedented energy efficiency gains to its utility partners. Using cutting-edge behavioral science and patent-pending data analytics, the OPOWER platform enables utilities to connect with their customers in a highly targeted fashion, motivating reductions in energy use and increasing program participation and overall customer satisfaction. Seven of the ten largest utilities in the United States use OPOWER to significantly improve the effectiveness of their energy efficiency portfolios. For utilities with Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), the OPOWER platform represents a cost-effective way to convert hourly data into measurable energy savings, delivering the value of the Smart Grid directly to the customer. Founded in 2007 and privately held, OPOWER is headquartered in Arlington, VA. For more information, please visit [ www.opower.com ].