North American Power Launches, Outside of Texas, Tool Showing Breakdown and Forecast of Customer Usage By Category

North American Power has officially launched its Understandabill tool, a monthly energy report that provides its customers with electricity usage predictions, a categorized breakdown of how the electricity is used, and personalized recommendations on how to use less.

North American Power's beta testing of the tool had been previously reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com

North American Power is offering Understandabill in nine states. The tool is currently available to new customers in Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

The company said that the report, sent each month via email to participating electricity customers, is believed to be the first of its kind outside of Texas

Understandabill features include:

• Usage Comparisons & Forecasts: Using seasonal factors such as weather, along with your historical usage, North American Power provides an estimate of how much electricity the customer will use in the upcoming billing period. North American Power will also compare energy use between past and current bills

• Electricity Usage Breakdown: Understand how appliances and devices in the customer's home may contribute to the customer's total electricity use during the next billing period. A breakdown by category includes cooling, water heating, lighting, kitchen, and electronics, among other categories

• Personalized Recommendations: Tailored to the customer's home and habits so that the customer may learn how much they could save by reducing electricity usage

After a customer enrolling with North American Power chooses an electricity plan online or over the phone, they then complete a 60-second, 11-question survey about their home and energy use. North American Power processes those answers, along with over 300 data points on the home, weather patterns, regional averages, electricity costs and more to create the customer’s home energy profile.

"Today, many customers dread opening their electricity bill each month because they don’t know what to expect—we’re out to change that," said Greg Breitbart, North American Power’s co-founder and chief marketing officer. "A good rate is important, but also providing our customers with this easy-to-read report helps them better understand and anticipate their cost for electricity, and what they could do to pay less. This is value that virtually no other energy supplier or utility company is delivering, which is why we’re so excited about Understandabill."

North American Power also announced that to celebrate the launch of their new product, the first 500 customers that enroll at www.napower.com/understandabill and complete the survey will receive a free Energy Efficiency Starter Kit. Each kit includes five LED light bulbs and a step-by-step guide on how Understandabill works.

"[T]here will be a lot more coming from us within the next several months and beyond. We’re building out new features for Understandabill as we speak, and have also completely redesigned our website and customer communications with 'easy' in mind. We’re investing a lot of time and resources into making energy simple for our customers not only because we want them to feel more at ease when opening that monthly bill, but also because we know it’s something that can truly set us apart from the rest," Breitbart said

North American Power serves over 250,000 customers in 63 utility territories across 12 states