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Oracle Utilities Opower Business Customer Engagement Portal Overview

The Business Customer Engagement Portal is an online tool for understanding and managing a business’s energy use. It presents clear, actionable information about a business user’s account, displaying the most important data in a web interface that is easy to navigate and understand. It also provides energy efficiency tips and projects tailored to each customer, as well as trends and insights that empower utility staff to answer customer questions before they are asked.

On this page:

Registration and Login

The Business Customer Engagement Portal includes a four-step online registration process. Users can register using the premise ZIP code and account number. Step three of the process is optional and collects information about the facility to better tailor the customer experience. Once the initial registration steps are complete, users must verify their registration using a confirmation email. Single sign on integrations are also available for end users and utility administrative users.

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Dashboard

The Dashboard is the first thing an end user sees after logging in. The Dashboard provides a high-level summary of an account's energy information and includes key insights around recent usage, comparisons to self and peers, personalized energy solutions, and tools for inviting additional users. Some functionality on the dashboard requires at least one year of historical usage or billing data.

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Energy Charts

The Business Customer Engagement Portal includes charts that display energy cost, demand, usage, load duration, and other types of energy information. All charts are interactive and can be configured by the user to display different billing periods, time frames, and comparisons. Most charts can be downloaded as an image or .CSV file. The energy charts available include:

  • Electric Usage: Key statistics on the account’s electric usage. This chart allows the customer to see on- and off-peak usage. View electric usage data by year, bill period, day, or hour, and compare different periods. See the impact of temperature and humidity on usage. View usage for the account or drill down to see usage by meter or meter group.
  • Gas Usage: Key statistics on the account’s gas usage. View gas usage data by year, bill period, day, or hour, and compare different periods. See the impact of temperature and humidity on usage. View usage for the account or drill down to see usage by meter or meter group.
  • Daily Demand: Demand details by day and on-and off-peak demand. Requires interval electric usage data (15- or 30-minute intervals).
  • Average Demand or Average Usage: Average week day and weekend demand or usage. Customize the weekend days, compare periods against each other, and compare a specific date to the average demand or usage profile for the account. Requires interval electric usage data (15-minute, 30-minute, or hourly intervals).
  • Demand or Usage Heatmap: Demand and usage for a bill period. This lets users identify days and times of high usage with a color scale. Hovering over a specific interval will show the exact demand for that interval. Requires interval electric usage data (15-minute, 30-minute, or hourly intervals).
  • On-Peak Demand: Average and maximum on-peak demand by day for the bill period. Requires interval electric usage data (15-or 30-minute intervals) and on-and off-peak hours.
  • Usage Breakdown: A breakdown of the portion of the total annual energy use attributed to different load categories. This chart is based on business type and location models and becomes more personalized as business profile sections are complete.

The cost and savings charts available include:

  • Electric Cost: Electric costs by bill period. See actual cost and budget billing costs.
  • Gas Cost: Gas costs by bill period. See actual cost and budget billing costs.
  • Detailed Cost: A detailed breakdown of the charges in the most recent bill.
  • Demand Shift: A simulation identifying the demand peaks that would need to be flattened or shifted to off-peak hours to save a certain dollar amount. Requires interval electric usage data (15 minute, 30 minute intervals).
  • Usage Shift: A simulation identifying how usage shifted to off-peak hours could reduce the cost of the bill. Requires interval electric usage data (15 minute, 30 minute or hourly intervals) and on-and off-peak hours.

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Solutions

Solutions are low-cost, no-cost, or capital improvement recommendations displayed to a business user to help reduce energy usage and save money. Solutions are displayed by load category, such as Heating, Cooling, Ventilation, Lighting, Office Equipment, and so on. The categories are prioritized based on the customer's Annual Energy Use Breakdown and then by the payback, savings, and effort scores to help the customer prioritize. The Annual Energy Usage Breakdown shows what percent of the business's energy use is due to each load category. The categories are listed in order based on the largest percentage of the business’s total usage to the smallest percentage.

Oracle Utilities works with the provider to develop and customize the solutions displayed, the content, and the savings. Solutions can be customized, displayed or hidden by provider, customizable customer groups, and business type.

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Analysis

The Analysis page displays a summary of user-friendly analytics that highlight critical information around energy use and costs. This page requires electric interval data. Some analyses may not display if there are gaps in the interval data. The available analyses include:

  • Hot Weather Analysis: An analysis of much of an account's usage during the last bill period was due to increases in the outside temperature. These results are compared to the average of all businesses with the same business type. If an account's energy does not seem to be affected by rising temperatures, then an estimate of potential savings will be shown instead of how much you could save.
  • Bill Period Summary: A summary of an account's average cost per day, the most expensive day of the week, and the most expensive three-hour interval for an average week.
  • Off-Hour Analysis: The ratio of an account’s off-hour usage to on-hour usage. A higher percentage means that less energy is used during a business's off-hours. On and off-hours are determined based on the data for the most recent full bill cycle. This value is then compared against the average of all businesses with the same business type to produce a savings value.

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User and Account Profile

The User and Account Profile sections allow the customer to manage their accounts and meters, and invite users to the account. Users can add details about the facility in the Business Profile to customize their energy use breakdown and tailor the solutions available.

The Manage Account Settings section provides users with the ability to add multiple accounts to their user profile. Nicknames can be assigned to the accounts in order to toggle between accounts and compare accounts with ease. Users can also manage notification preferences and download Green Button data for each account.

The Manage Meters Settings section allows the user to add labels to meters to better identify the meters on the energy charts. Users can create groups of meters, giving them the power to use usage and demand energy charts to monitor specific subsets of meters for a floor, production line, or area of their facility.

The Invite Users section allows users to invite collaborators across their business to manage energy at the account together.

The Business Profile is a series of about fifty simple questions that can be answered across different energy use categories. The responses to the business profile sharpen the usage breakdown modeling and tailor the solutions to the account.

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Notifications

The portal sends outbound email notifications to customers, including a monthly energy trend report.

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Resources

The User Resources center provides frequently-asked questions and a glossary of energy terms to help the customer better understand their energy data. It also provides links, contact information, and engagement opportunities with other utility programs.

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Multi-Account Functionality

Business customers often have more than one utility account to manage. Users can add multiple accounts to their user profile to view each account individually and toggle between each account. In a single sign-in integration, the provider can pass the account available for the user to access when the user logs in. Users can add nicknames to accounts and manage notification preferences for each account.

The Account Ranking page lets users compare energy intensity, annual cost, shutdown and hot weather analysis, and solution commitments for all the locations the user can view. This enables the multi-account user to make informed decisions across their portfolio of accounts.

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