Opower is practically blanketing Rhode Island with its home energy report programs through the state’s major utility, National Grid.
The home energy management services company will provide its platform to all 425,000 of National Grid’s residential customers. Opower already works with National Grid in parts of Massachusetts, but the contract in Rhode Island is the first time a utility has rolled out Opower’s program to its entire statewide territory at the same time.
“The Home Energy Report program is a great way for Rhode Islanders to save on their energy bills,” Timothy F. Horan, president of National Grid in Rhode Island, said in a statement. “Not only does the program provide simple energy efficiency measures, it also give customers a chance to see how their efforts are paying off.”
Earlier this week, Opower launched its first Canadian program in Nova Scotia, although the deal was first announced last summer. The partnership with Nova Scotia Power and Efficiency Nova Scotia will roll out the home energy reports and web portal access to 90,000 homes. The announcement last July came along with various other customer wins for a total of 5 million additional homes. Opower currently claims more than 85 utility partners.
Opower is looking to do far more than just deliver its behavioral-based home reports via paper and web. Last year, the company launched Opower 4, which is intended to be an enterprise-level analytics engine to give utilities a more comprehensive view of their customers and use that information to drive further efficiency.
While Opower is sticking with utilities as customers, competitors such as EcoFactor, EnergyHub, Tendril and others are teaming up with everything from big-box stores to thermostat companies to cable companies.
The focus on utilities is working for Opower. In 2012, the majority of its revenue came from existing customers for the first time, rather than new additions. Although the Arlington, Va.-based company will continue to expand into new states and countries, Opower hopes 2013 growth will come from leveraging the enterprise-level platform, and also its relationship with Honeywell, not just an expansion of paper reports and web portals in new territories.