By Jesse Berst

Opower began by focusing on paper reports and customized recommendations ("you are using 37% more energy that similarly sized homes in your neighborhood"). It became the leader in that category and has hit scale -- it now claims to be working with 75 utilities and reaching 15 million homes.

But reports and recommendations are just part of the home energy story. Now Opower is expanding further. The company draws customer engagement as a circle with four areas (see illustration below):

• Help them care (reports, portals, recommendations, games)
• Help them understand (alerts, customer service recommendations)
• Help them take action (coupons, rebates, offers)
• Help them take control (smart thermostats and other devices)

Opower draws the customer engagement space as a circle with four quadrants.

With Opower 4, the company is expanding further into "action" and "control." (It's interesting to note that arch rival Tendril began in "control" and then expanded into the other quadrants.)

Opower continues to be the leader in sheer number of customers served, and in mind share. But it is seeing serious competition from Tendril, Aclara and others -- and that's good news for utilities which now have even more choice when it comes to finding a customer engagement provider. This is one arms race that should have a happy ending -- namely, empowered customers.

More on customer engagement…

Webinar replay: Customer engagement with IHDs

Webinar replay: Breakthrough techniques for engaging electric power customers

Stuff utilities actually do (hint: you may want to steal these ideas)

Better customer engagement: Lessons from National Grid's Worcester pilot

Jesse Berst is the founder and chief analyst of Smart Grid News.com, the industry's oldest and largest smart grid site. A frequent keynoter at industry events in the U.S. and abroad, he also serves on advisory committees for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Institute for Electric Efficiency. He often provides strategic consulting to large corporations and venture-backed startups. He is a member of the advisory boards of GridGlo and Calico Energy Services.