Cost Tracker Module

The Cost Tracker module is designed to help residential customers save more energy by showing them how their energy costs are tracking across the month.

Requirements and Limitations

Requirements and limitations are as follows:

  • Data Requirements: The customer must have AMI data for the last thirteen months. This is required to compare the current bill to the same bill from last year. See additional details in the global Requirements and Limitations section.
  • Rate Modeling: Utility rates must be modeled by Oracle Utilities for cost information to appear. If rates are not modeled, energy use information is displayed by default. If the utility chooses to display cost information, rate modeling is required during initial program setup for an additional fee. See the Oracle Utilities Opower Rates Engagement Cloud Service Product Overview for more information.

User Experience

The module has these components:

Insight Statement: The current billing period projection is used to provide an insight statement of whether the user is projected to have a higher bill, lower bill, or spend about the same as compared to the same bill from last year. The time left until the end of the billing cycle is also provided.

Bar Chart: A bar chart comparison of energy costs for the current billing period and the same billing period from last year is displayed. The energy costs incurred so far in the billing cycle are provided along with a projection of energy costs at the end of the billing cycle.


This image shows an example of the module.

Calculations

The Cost Tracker insight is generated by displaying the customer’s energy use or costs for the week, a projection of what the customer is forecast to use by the end of the billing period, along with a bill or energy use from the same bill period last year. The customer’s current energy use information is collected through their AMI data. If the customer’s rate is available, the rate is multiplied by energy use to determine cost. Otherwise, energy use is displayed. The insight calculates the projected difference to alert the customer as to whether they are projected to use more energy, use less energy, or use about the same amount of energy.