EDP adds digital tool to enhance consumer energy management
Portuguese utility EDP has adopted a new tool to help more than 300,000 customers improve their energy management and usage.
The new tool, developed by EDP Comercial, is expected to help customers signed to the utility’s Pack Full service to monitor energy usage after every 15 minutes and make informed decisions regarding how they utilise their energy.
The tool forecasts consumers’ monthly bills based on current energy use and history data.
The introduction of the tool enables automatic energy usage reading, allowing EDP to stop sending staff to read consumer meters on site.
EDP says the development is in line with the firm’s efforts to introduce digital technologies that enhance customer services, improve smart grid capabilities and helps the company to prepare for future business cases.
The introduction of the tool is part of efforts by EDP to enhance consumer literacy on sustainable energy usage. A better-informed customer simplifies the energy transition and helps a utility to enhance grid reliability and customer services, according to EDP.
For instance, by optimising their energy use, EDP customers will help the utility to avoid the costs associated with building new energy generation infrastructure to meet growing energy demand. They also enable the retailer to expand its portfolio of green electricity and in the process provide them with affordable electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The more than 300,000 customers that will use the new tool are already being provided with 100% clean electricity, according to EDP.
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The development comes at a time when global utilities are moving closer to energy decarbonisation goals but not at the pace required to meet targets set under the Paris Climate Change Agreement, according to DNV.
In its Energy Transition Outlook 2021, DNV says together with hydrogen, energy efficiency presents the biggest opportunity to combat climate change but is under-utilized. DNV calls for increased investments in energy efficiency and in planning, development and enactment of energy efficiency regulation and standards to unlock the full potential of energy management in the decarbonisation of power grids.
In a separate report, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy states that without energy efficiency global economies, including the US, will struggle to deliver an affordable, inclusive and just energy transition.
