Opower energy efficiency goes to India

By Juan Jimenez
Senior Product Marketing Manager

BSES launches Oracle Utilities Opower in Delhi to help customers save energy.
I’m new to the Opower team, though not new to utility customers and their energy efficiency journeys. One of the first things I got to do with this new gig is sit down and watch cartoons.

Well, I got to watch an animated feature, anyway. (The one you can see playing on the screen in the photo above, in fact.) The video, produced by Indian distribution powerhouse BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BSES), tells the story of a journey—one electricity consumers in India are about to embark on right now to reduce energy waste and save money unlike anything they’ve seen before in the country.

It’s a video about a first-of-its-kind behavioral energy efficiency program that’s just been launched.

Encouraging utility customers to save energy is no walk in the park—no matter where that park is in the world. I think this video will help spread the word to residential energy customers throughout South and West Delhi—maybe even throughout India and, perhaps, even push that story even farther out into the world.

It’s certainly a fun way to kick-off BSES’s Home Energy Report (HER) pilot initiative, powered by Opower.

In the video, the guy on the left quickly becomes curious about what BSES has to offer with the paper HER the guy on the right is holding.

“It’s much more than that. It’s almost like my savings certificate,” he says.

And it’s clear that they’re both very excited about having these energy insights at their fingertips.

The video then showcases some of the new digital tools available via BSES’s website that’ll help customers stay ahead of and better manage their energy costs. It’s great to see these two BSES ambassadors go back and forth about this initiative and its value—in an effort to inform BSES’s customers about how the HER pilot initiative can help them save energy and money.

Consider these two engaged.

And engagement is key.

The Global Engagement Push
Utilities across the world spend a great deal of time and resources trying to tap into engagement: increasing awareness about residential energy efficiency programs, doing some customer listening, tailoring communications to fit, and gauging how customers feel. But, it can be a challenging task for utilities if they don’t have an effective customer engagement platform to do it with.

That’s where Opower comes in.

Our Opower solutions enable BSES to deliver a comprehensive set of actionable energy insights and savings recommendations to their customers, who will also benefit from access to home energy analysis tools and appliance disaggregation details; billing and similar home comparison trends; usage and weather patterns; and adaptive, intelligent recommendations for saving energy.

BSES serves over 2.4 million customers in South and West Delhi, and they’re bound to reduce electricity waste and save on their energy bills in a big way with this new program.

From Regional Customer Engagement to Saving the World
It’s probably not news to you, but behavioral energy efficiency initiatives like this BSES one can have a lasting and positive impact for the utility, its customers and for the environment, too. I recently learned that energy efficiency is incredibly important in India. The country is now the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China, and is among countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Even the video chimes in on the subject.

“Wow, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited is committed to saving the environment … [and] we should be too.… It feels so great to be a part of this inspiring change,” one of the characters tells the other.

The video also suggests that customers be mindful of rising pollution due to electricity generation in the region and empowers customers throughout India to save energy in their homes to help offset some of those issues.

On top of that, “Behavioural Energy Efficiency Potential in India,” a new study published by the Alliance for an Energy Efficiency Economy (AEEE) and Oracle Utilities this month highlights the importance of encouraging customers to adopt more efficient habits. The white paper notes that 70% of energy demand will come from India’s residential sector, which presents a significant opportunity for behavioral energy efficiency going forward in India.

The Opower team is just as excited as the BSES team for the opportunity to help this cause—and to continue to work with BSES to achieve their energy savings goals as they scale the program. I asked my new colleague Paul McDonald, Opower Industry Strategist with Oracle Utilities, about BSES’s initiative.

He said, “It’s thrilling to be working with BSES to help their customers save energy, save money and protect our planet. I know it’s been a privilege for our team to bring BSES our understanding of utility customers, study the perceptions and behaviors of BSES customers in Delhi, and deploy a BSES customer experience tailored to help those particular customers save energy.”

Opower’s modern take on energy efficiency is catching on in India. Watch the video (English version | Hindi version) and see for yourself.

The Opower HER pilot initiative was announced by BSES via Youtube and other social media on February 11, 2019.

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