White Papers & Articles
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Privacy and Security: Leading the industry with SOC 2
- March 7, 2013
Effective January 2013, Opower is proud to announce that we have now achieved the gold standard in third-party verified information security assurances—known as SOC 2 Type 2. Awarded by Deloitte & Touche, Opower’s SOC 2 certification firmly establishes it as the market vanguard for protecting customer data. This certification builds on a foundation of privacy and security investments and further establishes Opower’s track record of industry leadership. -
Best Practices For Designing Energy Efficiency Obligations
- March 5, 2013
The European Union's 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive requires each Member State to adopt a strategy for achieving the EU goal of improving energy efficiency by 20% by 2020. Fortunately, there are many successful Energy Efficiency Obligation models upon which policymakers can draw. As a participant in efficiency markets around the world, Opower offers this White Paper to identify the key policy levers that Member States should consider as they design and implement Energy Efficiency Obligations. -
Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole - Behavioral Energy Efficiency at Scale
- January 30, 2013
Behavioral programs deliver a range of benefits, including direct savings, increased participation rates for installed measures, and improved customer satisfaction. As such, behavioral programs merit, and (usually) receive, broad support from the policy community. Yet a problem remains - not with behavioral programs themselves, but with a regulatory framework that was specifically designed to account for installed measures. As utilities and regulators seek to expand the use of behavioral energy efficiency, this whitepaper introduces a range of accounting improvements, and also explores the idea that all consumers ought to receive information to help them manage their energy use. -
Effective Customer Engagement
- January 15, 2013
This white paper examines some simple reasons why utility customer engagement programs have had varying degrees of success. Data from several published Pike Research reports supports the conclusions to arrive at a more factual analysis and identify some seldom discussed trends. Finally, it presents approaches to win over customers as a launching pad for successful programs.