Oracle is helping US electric and natural gas provider Xcel Energy with an AI-enabled customer engagement platform to support its energy programmes, strengthen customer experiences and improve grid resiliency.

Oracle Opower is designed to provide customers with insights on their own energy use. Its residential behavioural energy efficiency programmes are now used at more than 100 utilities and have saved more than 38TWh of energy.

“As utilities transform to meet growing expectations for clean, reliable and affordable energy, customer engagement is essential,” said Matt O’Keefe, group vice president of Oracle (www.oracle.com). “Together with Xcel Energy, we’re delivering innovative, AI-driven solutions that empower customers with personalised insights while providing regulators and policymakers with the measurable outcomes they expect. This collaboration demonstrates how technology and customer experience can accelerate the clean energy transition.”

Xcel Energy is committed to delivering safe, reliable energy while keeping bills low for its 3.9 million electric customers and 2.2 million natural gas users across the eight states it serves. The company will use Oracle’s platform to show users how their energy consumption compares with similar homes, provide energy savings tips, and give personalised recommendations about energy programmes that can help them save money on their bills.

“As we build out our grid to meet the growing energy demand across the states we serve, we’re focused on continuing to make energy work better for our customers,” said Emmett Romine, vice president at Xcel Energy (my.xcelenergy.com). “By providing personalised insights about their energy use, we’re empowering them with options to reduce or shift their usage and potentially save money on their energy bills.”

The Opower platform (www.oracle.com/utilities/opower-energy-efficiency/) powers dozens of products and services to help energy providers give insight and choices about energy use, provide efficient service, and create a satisfying experience. Oracle’s AI-driven data analytics insights enable seamless integration across utilities’ digital channels, helping ensure users receive consistent guidance whether online, on mobile or through email.

Components of the Opower platform include:

• Customer engagement and energy efficiency: Opower home energy reports deliver personalised, data-driven, energy insights, giving customers clear, actionable guidance about their energy usage, where savings opportunities exist, and nudges to take advantage of other customer programmes.
• Behavioural demand response: Scalable, equitable, peak reduction programmes that will use well-timed, personalised messages to encourage customers to lower or shift their energy usage during periods of high demand, avoiding costly capacity and keeping the grid more reliable. The addition of this flexible peak reduction resource contributes to deferment of costly infrastructure investments, enhanced grid stability and long-term energy affordability.
• Connected energy insights: Through personalised energy insights, utilities can create a seamless customer journey from regular reports to event driven alerts that empowers customers to save money, manage peak demand and support the clean energy transition, all within one unified experience.
• Real-time analytics: AI-driven, cloud-based dashboards show programme performance, customer segmentation and grid impacts, supporting data-driven decision-making and compliance reporting. Visualisations and insights will be accessible to both programme managers and executives, not just data scientists, extending value across the organisation.