by: Roger Warehime, Manager, Energy Management & External Relations
Are you a Facebook user? If so, you are obviously not alone. According to the website digitalbuzz.com, one in every thirteen people on earth is a Facebook user, and half of them are logged in on any given day. If the Facebook community were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world. In the United States more than 70% of the people that use the internet also use Facebook.
OPU joined the Twitter and Facebook world last year at the same time that we updated our corporate website. So far, we have 42 users that “Like” us on Facebook, and we have been using our Facebook and Twitter feeds to post energy savings tips and information about our programs. In April we will be one of a number of utilities in the country that will be involved with the launch of a “social energy” app on Facebook.
Most likely you are familiar with the Home Energy Reports we send out every other month which allow you to see how your electric and natural gas consumption compares with that of other homes near yours that are of similar size. Those reports are generated for us by a company named OPOWER.
OPOWER has teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Facebook to develop a social media app that will allow participating consumers to benchmark their energy use with similar size homes in other communities and across the country, compare usage with friends, enter energy savings competitions and share efficiency tips. The app will be accessed through Facebook and it should be live by the time you are reading this newsletter.
While any Facebook user can use the app, OPU customers can choose to have their energy consumption data automatically input rather than entering it manually. With your data loaded, you will be able to compare your home energy use against a national database of millions of homes. All benchmarking is done on an aggregate level to ensure complete data privacy.
If you choose, you may also invite friends to compare their energy use to yours, or share energy savings tips with them. You can choose to publish conversations about energy consumption to your Facebook newsfeed. You can share as little or as much information as you like.
So, the next time you are on Facebook, please find Owatonna Public Utilities and “like” us. Connect to the new OPOWER app from our website or at social.opower.com.
