Saint Johners Will Soon Be Able To Manage Energy Use

Tired of waiting until your power bill comes to see how much energy you used?

Saint John Energy is developing a new platform to make this a thing of the past.

The utility has partnered with Economic Development Greater Saint John and T4G to build a Smart Customer Engagement Platform.

“This technology will allow customers to log in to a portal through Saint John Energy’s website and learn how they can adjust behaviours to save money, monitor and control their smart consumer products, and protect the environment,” said Carl Ozkaynak, the utility’s director of smart grid.

Right now, Ozkaynak said most customers do not know their energy usage until they get their power bill.

He said the state-of-the-art solution will allow Saint John Energy to collect new sources of data that customers can visualize and use to optimize their energy use.

“There is no product on the market that really addresses this need,” Ozkaynak said. “We’re very excited to provide this new technology to our customers.”

We're thrilled too! “With new technology and data analytics, utilities can build a new kind of relationship with their customers by seeing them as partners, rather than customers"#poweringourfuture #smartgrid https://t.co/4PnDrUCb5h

— Saint John Energy (@SJENERGY) October 18, 2019

Ron Gaudet, CEO of Enterprise Development Greater Saint John, said they see this as a big opportunity to develop local expertise and knowledge which can be commercialized and exported to other utilities.

“It is for this reason, EDGSJ is investing $250,000 in the project as part of its Smart and Connected Data Project,” said Gaudet in a news release.

“The more we do to make Saint John a leader in energy innovation, the more we ensure we have one of the greenest and most affordable energy cities in the world. This helps us attract and retain more people and businesses to the region.”

T4G said the utilities industry is undergoing significant disruption and they see this as a market opportunity for the company.

“With new technology and data analytics, utilities can build a new kind of relationship with their customers by seeing them as partners, rather than customers,” said Jon Barry, executive vice-president, T4G.

“Utilities can enable customers to manage their usage and allow them to become producers should they choose. The Smart Customer Engagement Platform is a solution that will only grow in significance as customers become more empowered to produce and manage their own energy. With our partner Microsoft, we see significant market opportunities for this product and are thrilled to be part of this partnership.”

Ozkaynak said the new platform is expected to roll out in early 2020.