ETAP Grid vs. Oracle Utilities Opower Energy Efficiency Cloud Service

Opower is a good tool. I don't have any real problems with it other than the fact that we have to run 4 batch programs to supply them with all the data they need. Any reduction in custom programs is a big win for my company as the cost of ownership is high.

Incentivized

• Provides week over week data to customers in an email.
• Provides suggestions to customers to curtail their usage and save money.
• Presents the data in an easy to read format.

Incentivized

• We have to run multiple batch programs to generate the extract files for Opower.
• The extract process is a little inefficient.
• We receive communication from multiple parties at Opower when there are issues. If issues came from 1 email address, that would be helpful. This is very nit-picky though.

Incentivized

Support is good. I work with 2 or 3 people at Opower when something goes wrong with our reported data. They respond in a timely manner with meaningful information. The only thing that might be helpful is to have any responses come to use via 1 common email address like support@opower.com so I can easily recognize that there's an Opower problem.

Incentivized

I haven't reviewed or used any tools like Opower before. I've only been using the service for a year or so and find it to be straight forward. I don't see any real issues with it and the fact that it's now an Oracle product means that base integrations with the rest of the Utility Suite would be possible in the future.

Incentivized

• We are able to fulfill our state regulatory requirements fairly easily with the tool.
• The reporting to Opower is automated through batch programs so it doesn't require manual work.
• We sometimes generate and send the data to Opower but they report they didn't get it. This requires manual intervention to send the same file again.

Incentivized