
I had been using Microsoft Hohm to graph month-by-month utility usage, and it used to pull bill data directly from Xcel. And then I got solar, and a bidirectional meter, and it all fell apart. Now nothing pushes to Hohm – not even gas usage. Argh. (I have been manually entering data, though, because the graphs are fairly illustrative I think).
Anyway, Xcel has recently started using Gridpoint to present account info to customers, and it’s a bit better than what we had before, as you can see in the above graph. 24 month history of gas or electric, with average temperature overlaid (though wouldn’t heating degree days be better?) can show you how you’re doing. Now if only it had a “compare to neighbors” feature like Opower provides. [1]
I’m a firm believer in measuring anything you want to change, so presenting info like this to every customer is pretty helpful, IMHO. It could be a bit more intuitive (and a bit less flash-heavy!) but it’s a start.
If you’re an Xcel customer, the portal is here: http://www.xcelenergy.com/myaccount
[1] Xcel did a pilot with Opower, too, and the friends who received the comparisons seemed pretty interested. However, I can’t tell from Xcel whether they plan to continue it or not, which is a pity. Grindpoint and Opower overlap a bit, so I wonder if they’ll keep both.