Virginia-based energy information software provider Opower now has 10 Minnesota utilities using its Home Energy Reporting program, with its offering covering about 50 percent of the state’s electricity service area.

With the latest addition — Shakopee Public Utilities (SPU) — 6 percent of Minnesota households now receive Opower Home Energy Reports, the company said. Since the first implementation in 2009, Opower claims it has enabled Minnesota utility customers to cut $6 million from their energy bills and reduce electricity consumption by more than 107 gigawatt-hours.

Funded in part by the Division of Energy Resources, Minnesota Department of Commerce and its Conservation Improvement Program, Connexus Energy was the state’s first utility to implement Opower’s home energy management platform. Bruce Sayler, the utility’s manager of regulatory affairs and conservation, said the software enables people to “make small changes that don’t adversely affect their lifestyle, but make a significant difference in energy savings.”

Other utilities in Minnesota working with Opower include Austin Utilities, CenterPoint Energy, Lake Country Power, Minnesota Energy Resources, Otter Tail Power Company, Owatonna Public Utilities, Rochester Public Utilities and Xcel Energy. Together, these companies cover half of Minnesota’s total service area.

“Minnesota has emerged as the leading US example of how energy efficiency, combined with technology innovation, can generate positive results for consumers,” said Alex Laskey, founder and president of Opower. “The legislature enacted an ambitious energy efficiency goal, and the utilities in the state have embraced information-based energy efficiency programs as a key way to achieve those goals. With the existing programs in place, Minnesota is already saving enough energy to take a town the size of Owatonna off the grid for a full year — tremendous savings that delay the need for new power generation.”

Opower currently works with close to 60 utilities across the United States and in the UK.

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