Tendril Start Shipping of Tendril Energize

Tendril, the energy platform company, today announced it has shipped Tendril Energize™, its revolutionary application suite of consumer-facing home energy management tools, to several energy providers including Cape Light Compact, KCP&L and Origin Energy.

The Tendril Energize applications are built on Tendril Connect, the company’s cloud-based software platform for utilities, energy service providers, and third party product and service providers. Based on field research grounded in behavioral science and cognitive psychology, Tendril Energize provides a web portal as well as mobile and other applications to create an active learning experience where consumers can gain insight into their energy use and learn how to control consumption based on their unique goals. The result is persistent and active consumer participation in managing their home energy use with meaningful results.

By engaging consumers, Tendril Energize enables energy service providers to accelerate consumer participation along an energy value chain that encompasses energy efficiency, demand response, direct load control and orchestrated home energy management systems (e.g., distributed generation, solar, electric vehicles), allowing them to meet their business objectives and regulatory requirements.

KCP&L is using Tendril Energize as part of the SmartGrid Demonstration Project, a complete, two-way utility infrastructure upgrade to 14,000 homes and businesses in a number of Kansas City’s Midtown and urban core neighborhoods.

“One of the goals of KCP&L SmartGrid is to give customers increased information about how and when they use energy, empowering them to make decisions that save energy and money,” said Mike Deggendorf, KCP&L senior vice president, delivery. “Tendril Energize is one of the tools helping us to achieve this goal and better understand the way our customers use energy.”

Tendril Energize features include:

• Personalized energy savings goal and progress tracking: Energize allows consumers to set a meaningful and achievable goal around energy use based on the amount of money they would like to save on their electric bills, and track their progress toward the goal. Users can see their energy use to date as it compares to their monthly goal.
• Personalized, recommended actions to achieve the energy savings goal: Consumers are provided with personalized, concrete steps they can take to meet their goal based on their home energy use. These include simple actions like air-drying laundry or installing low-flow showerheads, to progressively more challenging and energy efficient steps like replacing old appliances with more efficient ones or upgrading to a programmable, controllable thermostat.
• Peer comparisons: Consumers can see how their energy usage compares to their peers based on household and locale.
• Active learning with social and expert support: Consumers can use Tendril Energize’s “Ask an Expert” feature to receive advice on a specific issue or an answer about energy usage from Tendril’s team of energy efficiency experts. A Facebook-style news feed gives consumers access to experts’ advice as well as comments from other users. Consumers can also share information and tips, creating a dialogue and shared experience.
• Smart in-home device insight and control: Tendril Energize enables consumers to install and control a full complement of smart in-home devices made available to them through optional utility energy efficiency or demand management programs. Devices include load control switches, programmable thermostats, in-home displays and smart outlet devices. Consumers can incrementally add to their home area network as needed.
• Pricing information: Consumers have access to clear information on energy pricing schedules, detailing times at which each price is in effect, including information on peak and off-peak periods. Tendril Energize supports a variety of pricing programs, including flat rate pricing, variable rate (TOU) pricing programs as well as critical peak pricing.
• Mobile access: In addition to the web portal, consumers whose utilities have deployed Tendril Energize can access a mobile Energize application for iPhone and Android. The app delivers energy usage information, action plans and the ability to remotely control devices in their home, such as programmable thermostats. The mobile Energize applications are available today on the iTunes and the Android Market app stores.

“The power of our cloud-based software platform, on which Energize is built, is that it facilitates multiple connections between utilities, their customers, and third party product and service providers,” said Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril. “It provides information, unleashes action and unlocks value for the consumer, the energy service provider and the entire energy ecosystem.”

Tendril Energize is powered by Tendril Connect, an open standards-based, scalable and secure software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that enables energy providers and third-party energy ecosystem partners to deliver applications that empower consumers to actively participate in home energy management programs, such as energy efficiency, demand response, direct load control, electric vehicle and appliance management, and eventually, distributed generation.