BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tendril®, the leading provider of Energy Services Management (ESM) solutions, today announced it is the only engagement software that can support advanced energy services to every home in North America. Two new advanced analytics capabilities – “zero”-data functionality and weather normalization – now make it possible for Energy Service Provides (ESPs) to deliver highly targeted information and insights to any consumer in the United States with as little information as name and street address.
“One of the biggest inhibitors to using data analytics to improve consumer-focused energy programs has been access to carefully protected meter data,” said Carol Stimmel, founder and president, Manifest Mind. “This fact presents a problem for both utilities and others in the market who wish to engage with consumers by providing insight that helps them better manage their homes. The ability to understand the energy consumption behaviors without technical roadblocks is a big step forward for the entire industry.”
Competing solutions that rely on historical consumption information paint only part of the picture and result in an inaccurate portrait of the end consumer and messaging that is either inappropriate, inaccurate, or both. Conversely, the Tendril ESM Platform considers up to 300 data points, making it highly accurate at predicting consumption and tailoring recommendations. Powered by a proprietary physics-based home simulation model, the Tendril ESM Platform allows ESPs to unlock the value of their customer relationships. Developed over 10 years and having served as the foundation for millions of consumer interactions, the Tendril ESM Platform is a robust, flexible and scalable enterprise-class software platform that is changing the way ESPs engage with their customers.
“Software solutions designed for specific engagement programs rely heavily on historical energy consumption provided to them by the utility. This ‘forensic’ approach to data analysis is out of step with the needs of today’s consumers,” said Chris Black, chief technology officer, Tendril. “In such a dynamic environment, using historical data to predict future behavior is woefully inadequate. These new predictive capabilities increase the forward-looking power of our platform and give ESPs a market advantage.”
About the New Capabilities
“Zero”-data Calibration
Most energy efficiency programs exclude customers that have limited billing history, for example a customer that has moved into a new house. Despite the fact that these consumers are prime targets, the lack of existing data prevents the energy provider from accurately gauging their usage and makes it difficult to offer relevant energy-related programs, services and products.
Tendril’s new “zero”-data capability solves this challenge by leveraging demographic and other third-party data to augment name and address in order create a data set specific to an individual premise. This data set is then used to power Tendril’s physics-based home simulation model to create a highly accurate prediction of the premise’s energy consumption. Even starting with “zero”-data about the consumer, i.e. no bill or meter data, the Tendril ESM Platform can predict the hourly, disaggregated energy consumption for North American homes within a few percentage points. And because of ongoing platform calibration, the consumption outputs continue to become more accurate and the resulting recommendations and savings calculations more personal.
Weather Normalization
Energy efficiency and conservation measures do not always equate to a lower energy bill. This fact is due in part to the changing nature of weather patterns from year-to-year. For instance, a consumer may install LED light bulbs throughout their home with the goal of saving money on electricity use. However, when they get their energy bill, they may not see an apples-to-apples comparison of savings due to the seasonal changes in weather.
Tendril’s new weather normalization capability leverages advanced degree-day-based normalization techniques to correlate energy consumption to actual weather conditions in real-time. In doing so, energy providers can determine what the customer’s bill would have been if weather didn’t vary month-to-month and year-to-year. By removing the impact of weather, energy providers can now provide a far more accurate and individualized view into how much energy a customer saved compared to what the customer would have spent had they not made any changes. Energy companies have long leveraged weather normalization techniques as a post-process step during the final measurement and verification of program results. Tendril’s real-time approach factors weather impact into the model’s calculations to bridge the gap between expected and actual savings, which improves engagement and satisfaction rates.
“The future lies in delivering energy as a personalized service,” continued Black. “This is not an insignificant task and one that is only possible by partnering with companies that have a deep understanding of enterprise-class software and can leverage the most advanced big data and predictive analytics capabilities available today.”
Supporting Resources
About Tendril
Tendril is defining data-driven Energy Services Management (ESM) for the evolving energy market. Our open, cloud-based software platform provides the infrastructure, analytics and understanding required to deliver personalized energy services. This targeted approach drives new business opportunities, delights consumers and has led to some of the industry’s highest engagement and satisfaction rates. For more information, please visit http://www.tendrilinc.com or follow us on Twitter at @Tendril.
