Smart Energy Insights

Earlier this month, utility SaaS company Opower's IPO successfully opened on the stock market. The opening offer, 6.1 million shares at $19 per share, gave the company an estimated market value of nearly $1 billion.

Opower's success is driven by a simple goal: to motivate people to save energy. The company provides data-driven analysis for customers, using this information to compare each customer to his or her neighbors. Opower works with its 93 utility partnerships to provide this ...read more

Saving energy, cutting costs, and preserving the world's resources are common concerns among both consumers and utility providers. In a new report from the Edison Foundation Institute for Electric Innovation, data shows that customer-funded energy efficiency programs were able to prevent the generation of almost 90 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2012, a significant savings.

The report, recently published by FierceEnergy, also notes that these same programs generated enough electrical ...read more

The Event Summary materials for the 2014 Smart Energy Summit are now available for download. This summary provides an overview of the research, speakers, and main topics discussed at the Smart Energy Summit sessions that took place February 17-19 in Austin, TX.

Conference highlights include these important points:

• Utilities need to align their services to connect with consumers who are on social media and using apps and smartphones for information.
• Residential DR is in
...read more

Consumers are interested in smart home technologies. Parks Associates research shows that 66% of consumers are specifically interested in smart home bundles, where services like home automation, energy management, and security are combined in a single solution.

For seamless integration into homes, then, interoperability is key. Recently, the OpenADR Alliance and the Wi-SUN Alliance announced an agreement that would allow a faster rollout of utility demand response programs. Working ...read more

The electricity industry has rapidly evolved over the past five years with the entrance of new energy service providers that complement utility customer services such as cable operators, telephone companies, security companies and retailers. As modern technology continues to be integrated into the grid, it is crucial that utilities educate and engage consumers.

It’s been proven that consumers are most satisfied with their energy provider once choices are made available to them. ...read more

Emphasized this year at the Smart Energy Summit in Austin was the need for utilities and connected home platforms to work together to create a better experience for the connected consumer. Many of the summit's panel speakers touched on this, and Parks Associates home energy management research continually highlights this growing need.

One of the areas where partnerships are most needed is in gathering, analyzing, and communicating data trends within the home energy management industry. ...read more

Erik Charlton, Nest’s vice president of business, disclosed that nugget in Austin last week at the Smart Energy Summit hosted by Parks Associates, a national marketing research firm.

About 50 percent of U.S. broadband households own a programmable thermostat, but only 11 percent have a device that can be connected to the Internet. However, Parks Associates’ consumer survey showed that 62 percent of the respondents would purchase a Internet-connected thermostat if given a $75

Like any other investor-owned utility facing disruption, Duke Energy has come to an existential fork in the road: New business models or no? For Duke, the nation’s largest electric utility, the answer seems to be a resounding yes.

Duke is exploring “new business areas to get in,” Denis Garman, leader of Duke Energy’s energy management and information solutions group, told Utility Dive at the Smart Energy Summit in Austin, Texas. “We’re really trying to rethink our value ...read more