Rochester Public Utilities (RPU) today announced that it is expanding its Home Energy Report program to all residential electric customers.  The program, which has been piloted to 25,000 RPU customers, is now available to all residential electric customers.

The Home Energy Reports program is designed to help customers better assess their electric consumption, and most importantly, find additional ways to lower monthly bills by reducing energy use.  Customers will receive the reports monthly, via both traditional mail and through an online web portal.

RPU has been running this program since 2010 and has found that customers save on average 2.1% on their monthly electricity bills. The program has helped save RPU customers over 6,758 MWh of energy, over $650,000 on their electricity bills.

“We are excited to provide this service to all of our residential customers,” said RPU General Manager Larry Koshire. “Through the expansion of the Home Energy Reports program, RPU strives to continue to display our commitment to providing our customers with the information and insights needed to reduce energy usage and monthly bills.”

Developed by Opower, the Home Energy Reports combine behavioral science with cutting-edge data analytics to provide customers with detailed information and insights on their household energy usage. The reports include usage history comparisons, goal setting tools, and progress trackers. Through the program’s online portal, customers can further interact with their energy usage information, review a larger library of additional efficiency tips, conduct an automated 30-second home energy audit, develop a savings plan, and more. In addition to the Home Energy Reports, Opower also provides a social application called Opower Social for users to share their energy usage and savings through social media channels such as Facebook. All of these features are designed to help customers actively engage with their energy information and make smarter choices about their energy use.

The Home Energy Reports program has been successfully deployed at numerous utilities across North America, delivering between 1.5 and 3.5 percent in average energy savings to customers.  To date, the Home Energy Reports program has saved American families and businesses over $90M on their energy bills and later this year will hit 1TWh of energy savings, enough to remove 100,000 households from the grid. 

About Rochester Public Utilities

As the municipal utility of Rochester, Minn., for more than 110 years, RPU provides high-quality and reliable electricity to over 49,000 customers.  Water customers number more than 37,000.  RPU continually investigates innovative technologies to help customers realize the best value from the services they receive.  Current initiatives include fuel cell research, wind power, and photovoltaic offerings.

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