ATLANTA, Nov. 12, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Customers of Arizona utilities Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and UniSource Energy Services (UES) now have access to a series of quick and accurate energy efficiency tools on the sister utilities’ websites to help customers save energy and money. Developed by Apogee Interactive, the easy-to-use online tools offer customers a fast, visual summary of their energy use, specific energy-saving recommendations, and estimates of dollar savings for each measure.
The suite features an online "Home Energy Calculator" for residential customers and a "Commercial Energy Calculator" that customer service representatives can use to help business customers. Apogee's predictive software uses the latest in energy modeling concepts and automatically incorporates local weather and each utilities’ energy prices. This provides an even greater degree of relevancy and accuracy to the customer, which was an important selection criteria for TEP and UES.
"We want our customers to have a first-hand look at how their building structure, appliances and behavior affect their energy use and costs," said Dan Hogan, Manager of Demand Side Management and New Products and Services for TEP and UES. "The calculators provide this insight in an engaging format, and the accuracy of Apogee's software ensures our customers consistently receive relevant recommendations and realistic savings estimates."
While TEP and UES residential customers benefit from the accuracy and ease of online energy efficiency tools, customer service employees will use the suite’s features to answer commercial energy customers' questions. TEP’s and UES’ non-residential Customer Relationship Managers can use the suite’s tools on mobile devices when onsite working with customers, helping them understand their energy use and opportunities to save.
In addition, because TEP and UES already offer instant rebates for high-efficiency heating and cooling systems and lighting upgrades, the calculators will also direct customers to rebate details whenever their energy-use summaries indicate a potential for savings in these areas.
Savings generated from the new suite of cost-effective online tools will help TEP and UES work toward the goals in Arizona's Energy Efficiency Standard, which calls on utilities to achieve cumulative energy savings of 22 percent by 2020. Such savings also help reduce each company’s long-term need for new energy resources and reliance on fossil fuels, resulting in reduced air emissions and water usage.
"We are honored to be a part of TEP's and UES’ energy efficiency initiatives and their efforts to educate customers about what drives their energy use. Making these tools readily available will help customers make good energy choices," said Susan Gilbert, President and Chief Executive Officer of Apogee.
APOGEE Interactive, Inc. (apogee.net) is the leading provider of online energy analysis and customer engagement applications to 650 electric and gas utilities across the US, reaching more than 56 million customers. Clients include investor-owned, municipal and cooperative energy companies including Con Edison (ED), American Electric Power (AEP), PSEG (PEG), CPS, Georgia Power (GPE-A), LCEC, Avista (AVA), and SMUD.
Tucson Electric Power provides safe, reliable electric service to more than 417,000 customers in southern Arizona. For more information, visit tep.com. UniSource Energy Services provides electric service to approximately 93,000 customers in two Arizona counties. For more information, visit uesaz.com. TEP, UES and parent company UNS Energy are subsidiaries of Fortis, which owns utilities that serve more than 3 million customers across Canada and in the United States and the Caribbean. To learn more, visit fortisinc.com.