Company Testimonials on Open Data

This list is neither all-inclusive nor static.  It is meant to be a growing repository of open data use cases:

  • Appallicious offers a mobile commerce platform, tailored for governments to deliver services to their citizens.  The tools are helping cities like San Francisco, which uses open data from the city and county on parks to access public recreation facilities.  The Appallicious-powered technology was ranked as "one of the 7 open data apps your city needs" by Mashable.
  • Ecodesk is a live, open data, web-based platform that enables organizations of all sizes to search, publish, analyze and communicate sustainability data in one place. Extending product and service sustainability to the supply chain usually demands time-consuming reports and questionnaires for thousands of suppliers. Ecodesk eases that burden by simplifying the process with open profiles that are easy to create, manage and share. Founded in 2006, Ecodesk has over 1.2 million organizations creating and publishing profiles, providing customers with up to the minute sustainability data.
  • Energy Points is an energy resource management company that provides decision makers with a common metric solution that is simple, accurate and actionable. The Company’s SaaS platform combines advanced analytics with open data from local utilities to convert energy resources - electricity, water, transportation, materials and waste - into a common metric. This enable organizations to reduce their capital and operational expenses, while improving environmental performance. 
  • DataMarket provides stakeholders in the energy industry a single interface for effectively utilizing the wealth and breadth of US government energy data. The portal brings together more than 10,000 constantly updated datasets from DOE agencies and dependencies including EIA, NREL, EERE and Oak Ridge; the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics and EPA; and leading global sources of energy information such as the World Bank, UN and BP.  These can be shared and downloaded as links or as interactive content for use in presentations or on the web, helping users to deliver new insights and capture the value of public energy data for their business
  • FirstFuel Software delivers energy efficiency analytics for commercial buildings, working with Utilities and government entities to engage property owners on operational and retrofit recommendations to reduce consumption.  Through the lens of a building’s energy consumption data—including data in the industry format “Green Button” that is becoming increasingly available from utilities —FirstFuel’s zero-touch audit can understand how a building is consuming energy, where it is wasted, and what to do about it without ever sending professional engineers onsite.  Founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneurs Swapnil Shah and  Ken Kolkebeck, the company has raised $12.5 million in venture capital and grown to over 40 employees.
  • kWhOURS delivers tablet software to improve how building energy assessments are conducted.  The company's iPad tool, FIELD, is used by national energy services firms on federal, state and institutional facilities where it directly improves efficiency and performance while allowing users to easily share data in a standard format.  The FIELD platform has the ability to integrate historical weather data, CBECS benchmarking data, direct uploads to Energy Star Portfolio Manager, and Green Button data. 
  • Lucid’s BuildingOS software is used for commercial building benchmarking, analysis and reporting. Capturing data from HVAC controls, inverters and utility meters, BuildingOS is an integrated software platform for liberating and aggregating efficiency data. Green Button data from utilities is simply uploaded to BuildingOS to supplement device-level readings, forming a comprehensive view of performance across large portfolios of buildings.
  • Noesis is a web-based energy management platform that helps energy professionals better understand energy usage by providing tools that track and analyze energy performance, leading to improved energy efficiency. The Green Button's standardized data format streamlines the process for users to leverage Noesis' performance tracking, benchmarking, project measurement and verification (M&V), and forecasting capabilities. 
  • Opower works with over 85 energy utilities – including 17 of the 20 largest in the U.S. – to provide millions of people across the country with a better understanding of how they use energy. Founded in 2007 by college friends Alex Laskey and Daniel Yates, the company has grown to over 400 employees on 4 continents.  To date, Opower home energy reports have helped Americans save over 2.6 terawatt hours of energy and more than $200 million on their energy bills.  Opower relies on open and transparent U.S government data from a number of sources to create value for its utility partners and millions of their residential customers across the country.  Specifically, the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), undertaken by the Energy Information Agency (EIA), helps Opower understand how households are using energy around the country. The survey provides region-specific data on end-use energy consumption patterns, such as the type and efficiency of appliances consumers use, the systems and energy sources they use to heat and cool homes, etc.  Opower utilizes this data, along data from the U.S. Census Bureau on the mix of gas and electric heating sources in a given county, to create location-specific baselines to use when analyzing an individual’s home energy consumption.  This, in turn, helps Opower deliver personalized information to individual customers – for instance, identifying and suggesting the replacement of inefficient heating & cooling systems. 
  • PEV4me.com provides information and applications to help educate consumers on the costs of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and other renewable energy products.  The calculator compares multiple utility rate plans to determine the most cost effective plan based on the user’s existing driving needs and the home's electricity usage as indicated by a homeowner's Green Button data.
  • PlanetEcosystems delivers a consumer engagement platform for utilities that inspires consumers to upgrade their electric, gas and water utility systems and then provides tools that simplify the upgrades. The company's customized system optimization evaluates the local technical and economic issues - along with open data from cities on buildings and weather - and then prescribes customized recommendations for cost savings environmental impact and health. PlanetEcosystems was founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneurs Rory Jones and  Steve Malloy.
  • Retroficiency enables utilities, energy service providers, and building owners to identify buildings with high energy savings potential in minutes, and streamline the energy audit process by 50%-80%. Retroficiency applies advanced analytics to energy consumption data (delivered via Green Button, for example) to determine the savings potential of thousands of buildings and recommend operational and retrofit opportunities to engage building owners — without ever going on-site. Retroficiency has analyzed more than 300 million square feet of space and identified more than 1.5 billion kWh of annual savings since March 2011.
  • WattzOn helps consumers save energy and money. Through our business partners, we offer online and mobile tools, and supporting professional services, to help reduce energy use through habit changes and smart purchases.  Typically savings for engaged users are 10 - 20% per month. Founded in 2007 by serial entrepreneur  Martha Amram,  WattzOn's  personalized tips and recommendations are the result of marrying public and private data sources with sophisticated analytics. WattzOn is a user of data from NREL, EPA, DOE, the FTC and others, and also provides users utility bill tracking through customized tools, including use of the Green Button format. WattzOn also provides tools and services to  11 Navy bases and one Air Force base to help military families reduce energy use.
  • Smart Utility Systems (SUS) offers its utility clients a mobile customer engagement solution in the industry that utilizes Green Button data as a foundational source of information.  Transforming the traditional approach and method by which utility companies engage their customers is creating measurable positive results for the utility company and their customers.  Immediate improvements in customer satisfaction and lowered costs are common while providing focused energy management information related to reliability, usage, energy efficiency, and conservation.
  • Xatori is a company founded in 2010 by Forrest North and Armen Petrosian and is backed by several notable Silicon Valley investors. They offer a product called Plugshare, which is a charging station finder for any plug-in electric vehicle owner, with over 15,000 charging stations in the database and available as a free download for iPhone, Android, or on the Web. Over 30,000 drivers access PlugShare every month to add photos and reviews of charging stations – many of which are sourced from the Energy Department's Application Programming Interface (API) for the Alternative Fuels Data Center.

Energy Data Disclaimer

U.S. Government is featuring applications and companies leveraging energy data and does not endorse any product or service provided.

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