Weekly Energy Update FAQs
Why was I selected to receive the emails?
We want to help you save energy and lower your energy bill. You are among a group of customers included in the Weekly Energy Updates program, which is designed to help meet this goal.
What is the purpose of the program?
Most people are eager to make their home more efficient and save money, but they're not always sure how. Weekly Energy Updates are designed to provide more information about your energy use so you can plan ahead, make informed choices, and save money. We welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have comments or suggestions for improvement.
What is in the email?
Weekly Energy Updates are designed to provide regular updates about your home's energy use and help you find smart ways to make your home more efficient. Each email will provide you with information including:
Bill Projection: You can see a projection of approximately what your next bill may be, in terms of cost or usage. Our hope is that this forecast will help you to plan ahead and make informed choices to save money. To determine this value, we use your recent energy history and project it to the end of your billing period. Note that the forecast will not be exact due to rate details like taxes, fees, or changes in your usage due to weather or other factors.
Weekly Comparison: You can see a comparison of your energy usage over the last two weeks.
Day by Day breakdown: You can see a detailed breakdown of how much energy you used by day, and see how each day compares to the others during the week.
Hourly Breakdown: You can see a detailed breakdown of your energy use for your highest day to help you identify patterns and opportunities to save.
Personalized Tips: You can see tips that are tailored to your energy use and your home to help you reduce your usage.
Where can I learn more?
You can view more energy efficiency tips on the Oracle Utilities Opower web portal. There are a variety of energy efficiency tips you can browse and add to an energy-savings plan. Also, on the web portal, you may be able to update or complete your home profile in order to get more relevant tips for your home.
How do you project the usage/cost for the bill period?
The actual usage or cost from the beginning of the current bill period is added to the projected energy use or cost for the rest of the bill period. The most recent usage history is used to project forward.
Does the bill projection take weather into account?
Our algorithm does not explicitly weather normalize or use weather forecasts. However, it does take weather into account in that weather in the recent past is most predictive of what the weather will be in the near future. For example, if it was very hot last week, it is likely to be very hot again this week.
Why is my forecast different in the web portal than it is in the email?
The Oracle Utilities web portal may have more recent data. There also may be minor variations due to factors like rounding.
Why does the bill forecast differ from my actual bill?
Natural variations in weather and usage patterns can easily change your projected usage and bill amounts, but other factors may cause your forecast to differ from your actual bill:
- Rounding: We round the forecast to the nearest $5.
- Taxes, fees, and one-time charges: We usually do not include taxes, fees, and other charges in the bill forecast.
- Rate events: Because peak day events or other event-based rate changes are unpredictable, we do not try to forecast them in our modeling of rates. Missing rate changes in our calculations could cause the forecast to be under- or over-estimated.
- Unanticipated changes to rate plan or billing cycle: If you change rate plans, billing cycles, or have a bill canceled and re-issued, this may cause the forecast to be inaccurate for a temporary period.
How is the email cycle related to my billing cycle?
Weekly cycles and billing cycles are independent of one another. A weekly cycle may contain the end of one billing cycle and the beginning of another.
What period of time is covered by the email?
Weekly cycles begin on Monday at 12:00:00 AM (midnight) and end on Sunday at 11:59:59 PM. This is consistent with how people typically think about weekly events, and allows you to better analyze your weekday usage compared to your weekend usage. The email is sent as close to the end of the weekly cycle as possible.
Can I opt out of this program?
Yes. You can opt out in a number of ways. The options available will depend on your utility's setup and program design.
From the web: The recommended method is to use the Digital Self Service - Energy Management Web Portal Account and Preferences section to change your preferences. If you unsubscribe in this way, you will be able to subscribe again in the future.
Note: Some utilities choose to host their own account services. If your utility does not offer the Digital Self Service - Energy Management Web Portal as part of their program, contact your utility for more information about account management.
From an email: Click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email and follow the instructions to opt out.
Warning: If you click Unsubscribe in the email and then click to unsubscribe from all emails, this action is permanent, and you will not be able to opt back in. If you click to opt out of Weekly Energy Update emails only, you can opt back in at a later time.
Can I opt back in after I have opted out?
It depends on how you opted out. If you clicked to unsubscribe from all emails, then you cannot opt back in. If you clicked to opt out of Weekly Energy Update emails only, then you can opt back in again. Follow these steps if you would like to opt back in:
Log in to the Oracle Utilities web portal. Click Account & Preferences and then look under Manage recipients and preferences. Find the individual whose preferences you want to change, and then expand Message preferences. In the Weekly Energy Updates area, select the Email checkbox and click Save.