PG&E CUSTOMERS CAN "COMPETE TO CONSERVE" WITH NEW FACEBOOK APP

Attention Chamber Blog Readers:

PG&E has a new Facebook app that might be of interest, check out their press release on the matter below:

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New Facebook App Lets PG&E Customers Share, Compare Energy Use with Friends

PG&E customers can now share and compare their energy use with friends around the nation on Facebook with a new social energy application.

The app, created by Opower in partnership with Facebook and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), provides insight into individual energy use while fostering friendly competition.

PG&E is one of 15 utilities participating in the program. In all, 19.4 million households will have the ability to participate in this program.

To get started, PG&E customers can visit social.opower.com or search for the Opower app on Facebook and connect their utility account.

PG&E customers who sign up will immediately see how their home energy use compares to others with similar homes. As friends are invited and join in, people will then be able to engage in savings competitions. PG&E customers with a SmartMeter™ and My Energy account can get a leg up on their competition by logging onto pge.com/myenergy to view hourly electric data, gaining insights to further conserve energy.

This new app is among a growing number of energy-use tools available to PG&E customers. PG&E also offers a Green Button, which allows customers with SmartMeters to easily download their personal energy information—in a standardized format—that can be used by third-party developers to create innovative energy-saving ideas.

These examples show how utilities such as PG&E are thinking differently about how customers can use information about their energy consumption.

Over time, the app will grow new capabilities, but already it enables customers to:

§  Compare energy use to similar homes: People can benchmark their home energy use against a national database of millions of homes. All benchmarking will be done on an aggregate level, ensuring that customer data stays private.

§  Compare energy use among friends: Friends can compare their energy use, show how energy efficient they are, and share tips on how to improve.

§  Publish conversations about energy: Participants can share information about energy use, rank, group participation, and conservation tips through the Facebook newsfeed.

§  Engage in group cooperation: Communities of Facebook friends can form teams to help achieve collective goals.

§  Automatically import energy data: PG&E customers can choose to import their energy data into the application automatically.

The application’s concept derives from extensive social science research on human behavior change and energy use. Research has confirmed that word-of-mouth proved to be an effective tool in encouraging people to use energy more efficiently. The application’s use of this kind of behavioral science combined with energy information, and Facebook’s global platform for connecting and sharing has the potential to create a dialogue and action about energy efficiency among hundreds of millions of people.