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Educational and Informative Online Tool Now Available to All Toronto Utility Consumers - Whitecap Canada Inc. and Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited (THESL) Announce the Full Roll-Out of the Smart Meter Web Portal
-- Following a successful pilot in 2007, Whitecap helps THESL roll out the Smart Meter Web Portal with a rearchitected Microsoft SharePoint-based solution --
Toronto, Ontario – December 1, 2008 – Whitecap Canada Inc., a leading developer of customized e-Business and Internet-based applications, and Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited (THESL), one of the largest municipal electric distribution utilities in Canada, announced today the launch of the full roll-out of the Smart Meter Customer Self-Service Portal: a new web application allowing utility consumers to easily access and understand Time of Day utility consumption rates and pricing.
Developed as part of a series of THESL initiatives to build customer trust and loyalty through web and wireless technologies, the Smart Meter Portal allows registered Toronto Hydro customers to securely access their personalized usage data over the web via access to THESL’s Smart Meter Operational Data Store. The application not only facilitates access to downloads of raw usage data, but also enables utility consumers to effectively analyze and manage their utility consumption, through access to easy to understand tabular and graphical representations of usage data as well as educational information detailing the concepts behind “Time of Use” billing and the goal of energy conservation.
The Smart Meter Portal pilot was rolled out in December 2007 to 50,000 Toronto Hydro users. Although the Ontario Government is not yet ready to officially launch and mandate "Time of Use" utility billing in the Province, the application’s intuitive interface and strategically selected educational content has resulted in a high rate of user adoption among the pilot group. With the help of Whitecap, THESL has now begun the process of rolling out the online tool to its full customer base of 700,000. To facilitate this, Whitecap worked to rearchitect the solution, leveraging its wealth of experience with the Microsoft SharePoint framework to achieve an application that is more flexible and extensible, and gives THESL greater control over content as compared to the .NET-based pilot version. Additionally, Whitecap has directly integrated the application with THESL’s back-end systems, making the solution seamless and easier to administer than the previous version.
Whitecap plans to make the core technology behind the application available to other utility providers, and will offer development of customized web interfaces leveraging Whitecap’s own proprietary interface to the Ontario Ministry of Energy’s centralized Meter Data Repository. Robb Carmichael, Whitecap’s President & CEO, commented: "We are thrilled that THESL has had such success with the pilot of this great tool, and are happy to be using our expertise in helping them to roll out this unique web application to their full customer base. Working on a project centred around the goal of energy conservation has been highly rewarding. The Smart Meter Portal represents an excellent showcase for Whitecap’s strengths in technology development and strategic design."
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