Tendril Energize Revolutionizes How Energy Providers Connect with Customers

BOULDER, Colo. & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tendril, the Energy Platform company, today unveiled Tendril Energize™, the industry’s first ever application suite based on proven behavioral science techniques that provides utilities with simple, easy-to-use tools that deliver increased, persistent consumer engagement in home energy performance.

“It is not enough to merely bombard people with data about their energy consumption with no guidance or incentives on how to alter their behavior in a meaningful and consistent fashion”

Tendril Energize is an application suite of important demand side energy management applications that utilities, regulators and consumer advocates find increasingly imperative to create a more efficient and effective power system. The suite is built on Tendril Connect™, an open standards-based, scalable and secure 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.

“Tendril Energize moves us closer to the activation of the Energy Marketplace by creating a scalable hub of accurate and actionable information in real-time that engages consumers and motivates them to do the right thing for themselves, the grid, and the environment,” says Adrian Tuck, Tendril CEO. “The consumer must be a willing partner in order to move the needle on residential Home Energy Management and we must engage them on their own terms. Tendril Energize does just that.”

Based on research grounded in behavioral and cognitive psychology, Tendril Energize allows energy service providers to meet customers where they are—online, via mobile devices, in-home displays or even through traditional paper reports—and provides a supportive learning environment where consumers can set energy efficiency goals, measure progress towards those goals and share their experience with experts and other consumers. The net result is the persistent active participation of consumers in managing their home energy use.

Today’s launch is the culmination of several years of research and Tendril’s October 2010 acquisition of GroundedPower, creator of the Interactive Customer Engagement System (iCES) for consumer-driven energy management and efficiency—which has its origins in the Web’s largest smoking cessation community.

Cape Light Compact, an inter-governmental organization consisting of the 21 towns and two counties on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard that delivers proven energy efficiency programs, effective consumer advocacy, competitive electricity supply and green power options, is already using iCES and will deploy Tendril Energize™ to an expanded pilot group in June 2011.

“We’re excited to be among the first energy efficiency programs to deploy Tendril Energize,” says Kevin Galligan, energy efficiency program manager, Cape Light Compact. “We’ve had great success with iCES, including a consistently high level of participation and a lot of customer interest. Tendril Energize delivers even more functionality and we are thrilled to be rolling it out to an even bigger customer base as part of our Phase II pilot in June 2011.”

In addition to Cape Light Compact, KCP&L will also begin using Tendril Energize later this year. The company will use Tendril Energize as part of the KCP&L 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.

By empowering consumers with the tools to master their home energy use, Tendril Energize enables energy providers to promote new and different price programs, offer specific energy pricing programs, provide energy saving tips like caulking and weather-stripping, sell energy management products like programmable thermostats and smart appliances, and even manage load control.

In addition to providing real-time energy usage information to consumers via multiple delivery channels, Tendril Energize leverages several tenets of consumer psychology principles to encourage behavioral change: the establishment of personalized energy efficiency goals (savings measured in money, reduced energy use or a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions); tangible and concrete actions a consumer can take toward achieving these goals (e.g., changing the temperature in the refrigerator, plugging a PC into a power strip or using appliances at a different time of day); feedback mechanisms such as energy use reports (energy use to date measured in kilowatts, dollars or as percentage of goal); progress reports, and communal participation—including an “ask an expert” function that allows customers to seek advice on specific issues. Consumers can also share information and compare their performance with others, creating a dialogue and shared experience among consumers.

“It is not enough to merely bombard people with data about their energy consumption with no guidance or incentives on how to alter their behavior in a meaningful and consistent fashion,” says Tuck. “If we want consumers to participate in energy efficiency, we must meet them where they are and arm them with the knowledge, tools and support to achieve persistent changes in their behavior.”

Launched today at DistribuTECH, the nation’s leading tradeshow focused on utility energy distribution and efficiency, Tendril Energize will be available to the market through energy service providers in spring 2011.

For more information, including a demo of Tendril Energize, visit Booth # 1329 at DistribuTECH, Feb. 1-3, 2011 at the San Diego Convention Center.

About Tendril

Tendril is the Energy Platform company, delivering end-to-end consumer engagement products, applications and services powered by Tendril Connect™—an open, secure and scalable platform that takes the complexity out of the Energy Internet and creates a dialogue between energy service providers and their customers. Delivering consumer engagement software, in-home products and applications as well as easy to integrate utility solutions such as Demand Response and Energy Efficiency, Tendril offers unparalleled insight into energy decisions, making the Energy Marketplace a reality. The company is venture backed by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Good Energies, RRE Ventures and GE. For more information, visit www.tendrilinc.com.

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