Print Recognition and Press
SmartGrid Consumer Collaborative Member Spotlight
January 9, 2012
Efficiency 2.0 is a leading energy efficiency software and program administration company that helps utilities meet ambitious energy efficiency goals by supercharging customer engagement.
CUB Energy Saver Plays Santa, Gives Lucky Lombard Consumer the Gift of Free Electricity
December 16, 2011
To celebrate its one-year anniversary last June, CUB Energy Saver held a drawing for about 1,400 Illinois residents who joined the online service that month. The top prize was a summer of free electricity (June-August), up to $500.
Sued firm: OPower Using Suit to 'Improperly Maintain' Dominance
December 5, 2011
Efficiency 2.0, sued by OPower in federal court last month, denied all allegations it infringed on OPower's copyrighted home energy-use reports, claiming in a recent court filing that OPower brought the suit to “unfairly interfere” with Efficiency 2.0's business and to “improperly maintain its dominant position in the market.” %br
Efficiency 2.0/Greenlet partner on DR pilot for CUB Energy Saver
August 31, 2011
New York-based Efficiency 2.0 will provide participant outreach and engagement for the pilot, which entails education and real-time usage data, as well as override options through web, e-mail or SMS.
What PowerMeter's Exit Really Means For Consumer Energy Management
July 13, 2011
The industry as a whole must embrace a culture of innovation that maintains laser focus on delivering value to consumers. A value-based approach, as opposed to a feature-based approach, is the core of what we do at Efficiency 2.0. We have already seen our rewards program extend well beyond the 10-20% early adopter cohort, but we also recognize that even our efforts have barely scratched the surface on what is possible in this space.
Cool Your Energy Bills When Temperatures Rise
July 7, 2011
The Citizens Utility Board the only organization in Illinois 100 percent focused on lowering utility rates, is working together with Efficiency 2.0 to offer CUB Energy Saver to Illinois residents.
Efficiency 2.0 Offers Energy Diet Plan with Perks to Consumers
July 7, 2011
Dangling a carrot in front of a stubborn mule might get it to prance, but energy customers can be tougher to motivate. Armed with an incentive program to encourage conservation, Efficiency 2.0 in New York thinks it has the right kind of lure to curb energy waste.
How to Succeed in Energy Management Where Google, Microsoft Failed
July 5, 2011
Efficiency 2.0 is an example of a company using advanced behavioral techniques to boost efficiency program participation rates, benefits, and impacts. Efficiency 2.0 customers compare their energy savings to that of their peers, competing for prizes.
Efficiency 2.0: Couponing Your Way to Efficiency
June 30, 2011
There are two things people love in this world: getting discounts and helping their kids succeed. In the sphere of residential energy efficiency, these two ideas have been married by Efficiency 2.0, which offers a rewards program for homeowners who cut their energy use -- and in a few instances, Efficiency 2.0 is using schools to spread the word.
Why the stampede to next-generation efficiency may trample utilities
June 14, 2011
Consider New York-based Efficiency 2.0. It is pioneering "multimodal" energy efficiency. Rather than lean on a single technique - compact fluorescent light bulbs, for instance, or personalized recommendations - it has a collection of techniques and technologies. (Many of its competitors are adopting a portfolio approach as well.) Efficiency 2.0 actively seeks to partner with utilities seeking energy efficiency from residential customers.
Electric bill savings can come easily, consumer group says
June 14, 2011
David Johnson of Des Plaines has saved more than $1,000 on his ComEd electric bill in the past eight months after signing up for the Citizens Utility Board's Energy Saver program, where he tracks his electric-bill savings and earns points that he redeems for groceries.
Johnson, 56, an independent web designer and database administrator, said he jumped at the chance to participate in the Energy Saver program because "it seemed obvious - anything to save money."
Village, CUB join in program to reward energy saving
June 14, 2011
"This is great opportunity for Northbrook residents to lower their energy usage and earn rewards by doing so," said Dan Kaup, Northbrook assistant to the village manager. "The program makes it easy to be a more responsible steward of our environment."
CUB Energy Saver, created in June 2010, has already saved its 112 Northbrook members $3,751. Kaup said.
CUB: Online tool saves 5.5% on electricity bills
June 14, 2011
Consumers using an online tool by Citizens Utility Board designed to help people realize energy efficiencies in their homes, have saved an average of 5.5 percent in electricity costs in the year since the tool was launched, according to a report released today by CUB.
In the City of Evanston, efforts to heavily market the tool, which rewards consumers with discounts at local stores for saving energy and allows them to compare their progress with against their neighbors, amounted to more than 100,000 kilowatt hours saved, said Catherine Hurley, sustainable programs coordinator for Evanston. That amount saved, she said, is akin to taking 14 passenger vehicles off the road.
CUB report: ComEd customers could be overpaying by $189 million
June 14, 2011
The report, entitled "Making Every Kilowatt Hour Count," analyzes CUB's new Energy Saver initiative. The program began last year and sends ComEd customers tips for energy conservation. The 11,682 customers who use the program saved an average of 5.5 percent off their electric bills this year, according to CUB.
Online tool rewards ComEd Customers who save energy
June 3, 2010
CUB Energy Saver automatically links to your Commonwealth Edison bill to track savings, rewards your energy savvy with points redeemable for gift certificates and lets you compete against your neighborhood and friends.
The free program, available at cubenergysaver.com to ComEd customers, is the first online program in the nation to reward consumers for reducing their energy usage and combines elements of similar programs that are being tested but have yet to be introduced on a large scale by ComEd and other utilities. According to CUB, customers in its 3,000-person pilot program saved $200 annually and earned points toward gift certificates averaging $130 per year.
Utility Board hopes incentives will lead to energy-saving
June 2, 2010
The users set up their own "personal audits" showing the types of power they use electric heating, central air-conditioning and electric water-heating, for example. They choose a saving plan from three options: No-cost, low-cost, and home investment.
They can track on the Web site how much they are saving by replacing a certain number of light bulbs or washing a load of clothes in cold water, among other activities.
Individual users also may view a map that lets them see how their energy savings compare with others in the neighborhood. Users may turn off this feature if they don't want to be listed on the neighborhood map, and they may compare themselves to the community as a whole rather than to individual neighbors.
Smart Algorithms: The Future of the Energy Industry
April 29, 2010
"Utilities will have to embrace energy information analytics if they want to reach their energy efficiency targets," says Tom Scaramellino, the founder and CEO of startup Efficiency 2.0, which has spent the last 5 years developing energy management algorithms that can offer utility customers highly personalized energy-efficiency recommendations.
Efficiency 2.0 is using its algorithms-developed by researchers that came from Yale, Harvard and Columbia to get utility customers to reduce their energy consumption in various ways. ...Using this type of data the service makes a profile of the customer and can make highly-accurate educated guesses on how the customer would or would not reduce their energy consumption.
And America's Greenest Campus is...
October 13, 2009
The contest, which was funded by grants from the Department of Energy and various foundations, will award the two schools $5,000 each, to be put towards green initiatives on campus.
In total, more than 460 schools and 20,000 people participated in the contest, which began in April and was created as a partnership between Smart Power, a nonprofit clean-energy marketing company, and [Efficiency 2.0's project] Climate Culture, a clean-energy social networking site (think Facebook meets the Jenny Craig of carbon).
Among other metrics, the schools saved a combined $4.5 million in energy costs and reduced their collective carbon output by 18.6 million pounds, a number roughly equivalent to the annual amount of carbon emitted by 1,900 cars.
Energy use falls when neighbors compete
September 30, 2009
At Efficiency 2.0, a New York-based software provider to utility companies, Andy Frank's team is working with the Western Massachusetts Electricity Company to create a Facebook-like community where people can help one another save energy and compare results in a friendly, yet competitive way.
Online comparisons come with frowny or smiley faces and also give people highly customized tips about how they can reduce their energy use. It offers, for instance, a calculator tallying myriad decisions - take shorter showers, adjust thermostat settings, or hand-wash dishes.
"We're like Weight Watchers for your energy use," says Mr. Frank, Efficiency 2.0's executive vice president for business development. "Most Americans would like to lose weight, but they don't do it because they don't get feedback. We provide that feedback to cut energy use."
Energy-Use Software to Rival Google's?
July 28, 2009
But one New York-based startup called Efficiency 2.0, which has spent the past four years developing sophisticated energy management algorithms, says it's the first to be able to offer truly targeted energy-efficiency recommendations to customers, which it believes will put it at the front of the pack.
Efficiency 2.0's software collects a whole bunch of information about the energy consumer-like location, age and demographic data, as well as some answers the consumer provides in response to prompted questions about lifestyle and residence-and churns out recommendations on ways to curb energy consumption that rings true for each individual. For example, if the user is 23, Scaramellino said, then the engine would likely recommend more cost-effective energy-saving techniques that don't require a lot of up-front expense.
Credits for Cutbacks
June 15, 2009
To achieve the emission-reduction goals that states and the federal government are discussing, the door needs to be thrown open to third parties, such as the companies that do efficiency projects in Connecticut, says Andy Frank, executive vice-president of business development at Efficiency 2.0, a New York-based start-up and provider of software that helps households and small businesses save energy. The old process of utilities proposing projects and regulators approving them is too small and clunky and slow, Mr. Frank says. To reach the needed scale, he says, market-based approaches are needed.
Connecticut's efficiency market "is important nationally," Mr. Frank says, "because it is proving a model for other states."
Efficiency 2.0 wants to use software to help people track and change how they use electricity at home. Homeowners would commit to certain cuts in consumption and share in the credits they help produce on top of lowering their electricity bills.
To Save the Earth, Start with Data
April 22, 2009
"All these major media companies are giving people green tips. Frankly, three quarters of the time they have no clue what they're talking about," said Thomas Scaramellino, founder of Efficiency 2.0, which makes energy-efficiency software for utilities. "We think the general awareness is helpful, in principle. But you're setting yourself up for a backfire into a deep skepticism."
[Efficiency 2.0] provides utility customers with granular data about the specific energy usage and CO2 reductions that their actions will have in their homes, based on the energy system where they live. While it might be frustrating for greens in Birmingham that their power is dirtier than their friends in Los Angeles, it also means that Alabamans reducing their electricity usage could have a bigger climate impact.
Select Publications
Residential Energy Efficiency: This Is How We Do It
June 9, 2009
Software technologies can also play a significant role in behavior programs. Online energy audit tools have been used for many years to help households understand their energy use. Most utility websites combine audit software with energy "tips" that recommend energy reduction actions. The accuracy of these audits is based on the sophistication of the energy algorithms, the number of customer inputs, and the amount (if any) of actual usage data that is integrated. Software is, of course, cheap compared to hardware, and can scale very easily. On the other hand, customers must make an active decision to utilize the software. Therefore, the software must be fun and easy to use, and effectively break down information, legitimacy, and social barriers while providing relevant feedback. Long surveys and generic tips are not enough in this day and age.
Residential Energy Efficiency: It's the Behavior, Stupid
May 11, 2009
As utilities, regulators and other market actors face increasing pressure to dramatically ratchet up energy efficiency and demand response programs, a new buzzword, behavior, is fundamentally changing the approach to energy efficiency. Behavior strategies, often grouped with close cousins marketing, education, outreach, conservation and market transformation, offer the promise of dramatically increasing the reach, cost-effectiveness and verifiability of energy efficiency investments. By combining the insights of behavioral science and consumer marketing with advanced technologies, changes in household energy use patterns and purchases of energy efficiency products and services can be strongly affected.
