Trends Module

The Trends module identifies the time of day when customers tend to use the most energy so that they know when to focus on being more energy-efficient. The energy usage is displayed in two bar charts: one for average weekday usage and one for average weekend usage. The usage value represents usage-to-date within the current bill period.

Requirements and Limitations

This section lists the requirements and limitations.

Requirements

Same as listed in Requirements and Limitations. Additionally, hourly or sub-hourly AMI data is required. If such data is not available, this module is hidden from view. For example, the module is not displayed for customers who only have AMI data at daily intervals. The alert is sent with or without the module.

Limitations

Fuel Type: This module supports data for single fuel customers for gas and electricity fuel types. This module is not supported for customers with water service:

User Experience

The Trends module represents the customer's usage trends in two bar charts, so they can identify when they use they use most energy and think about how to take corrective action.


The trends module includes a bar chart that displays average energy spending during the weekday, and another bar chart that displays average energy spending during weekends.

Chart Headings: The chart headings explain that the trends represent average weekday or weekend usage.

Bar Charts: The bar charts display data over a 24-hour period and represent the average usage-to-date within the current bill period.

Chart Footers: The chart footers specify the date range that the data represents. The time period covers the period-to-date, meaning the day that the bill period began to the day that the communication was generated.

Explore Your Energy Spending: This button directs users to the utility's website where they can view more information about their energy spending. By default, customers are directed to the Home Energy Analysis.

User Experience Variations

The user experience of the feature may vary for customers and utilities depending upon their service types (gas, electricity, water, dual fuel, and so on), available data, costs, locale, and other factors.

This section discusses the user experience variations in the Trends module.

Usage Version

If the customer receives a usage version of the email, this module shows usage instead of costs. Electricity is displayed in kWh and gas is displayed in therms.

Dual Fuel

The Trends module is hidden for Dual fuel customers. The Multi Service Comparison Module provides details on energy costs and use for dual fuel customers.

Time of Use

For customers on TOU rate plans, the Trends module is replaced by the TOU HBA Main Insight Module. For more information on these insights, see Load Shifting Insights for High Bill Alerts AMI.