About The Project
Our goal is to provide an efficient and intuitive solution to help individuals and businesses monitor and manage their energy consumption more intelligently. We believe that knowledge about energy consumption is essential for promoting sustainability and energy efficiency.
The platform offers a variety of features and functionalities that will help you understand and control energy consumption. You can view real-time data on energy usage, identify usage patterns, set savings goals, and receive alerts for excessive consumption.
The Problem
The free energy market in Brazil is known for its complexity, which can result in problems and errors leading to additional charges for customers. These extra charges can negatively impact consumers’ budgets, resulting in increased monthly spending on electricity. Furthermore, the lack of clarity and transparency in billing can cause confusion and frustration among customers, who may feel disadvantaged and suspicious of the system. It is essential to find a solution to simplify and optimize energy consumption management to avoid these undesirable consequences for customers.
Tools:
Prototyping & Testing
During the prototyping and testing process to address the complex electricity market issue, we adopted an approach based on three key points.
Firstly, we implemented the peak/off-peak consumption functionality. This feature allowed customers to clearly and comprehensively understand the value of their electricity bill by distinguishing energy consumed during peak and off-peak periods. This distinction was crucial because energy consumed during peak hours is more expensive than energy consumed outside those hours. By transparently presenting this information, customers gained a clearer understanding of the impact of consumption timing on their bills.
Additionally, we developed a future consumption projection. Using historical and current consumption data, we created a model that allowed users to visualize an estimate of their future consumption. This projection provided predictability for users, enabling them to adjust their consumption to stay within contracted limits. As a result, customers could make informed decisions about their energy usage and avoid unpleasant surprises on their bills.
During the testing period, we identified a significant issue: users struggled to understand their electricity bills. To address this, we worked on a simplified way to present the data. We opted for using graphs instead of tables to visualize the information. This approach proved much more effective, as it allowed users to visually comprehend their energy consumption over time, identify patterns, and make more conscious decisions regarding energy use.
Based on these points, we successfully developed a prototype that efficiently tackled the complexity of the electricity market. Through the distinction between peak and off-peak periods, future consumption projection, and simplified data visualization, we provided users with a clearer, transparent, and user-friendly energy consumption management platform.
The Final Design
The final delivery of the electricity consumption management platform project was a success. Through the implementation of the developed functionalities, we effectively addressed the previously identified issues.
One of the main achievements was improving customers’ understanding of the energy market. With the platform, users gained a better understanding of their electricity bills, peak and off-peak periods, and how these factors impact the final invoice amount. This resulted in a significant reduction in fines and fees paid by customers due to errors or lack of knowledge about the market.
Additionally, we reached a significant milestone in user engagement with the platform. Initially, only 2% of customers accessed the platform monthly. However, with the implemented improvements and simplified data visualization, we increased this number to 73% of customers accessing the platform at least once a month. This demonstrates the success of creating an attractive and useful experience for users.
In terms of financial impact, the platform also contributed to reducing fines and fees paid by customers, resulting in cost savings for them. Furthermore, the future consumption projection allowed users to adjust their usage to avoid exceeding contracted limits and additional charges.
Overall, the final delivery of the electricity consumption management platform was successful. The identified problems were efficiently resolved, resulting in a platform that improved customers’ understanding of the energy market, increased user engagement, and contributed to fee reduction.
Main Takeaways
Throughout the development of the electricity consumption management platform project, several key points stood out as main takeaways:
Enhanced Understanding of the Energy Market: The platform enabled customers to better understand the electricity market, including concepts such as peak and off-peak consumption. As a result, there was a significant reduction in the number of fines and fees paid by customers due to errors or lack of knowledge.
User Engagement: Through improvements in the interface and data presentation, we significantly increased user engagement with the platform. We went from only 2% of customers accessing the platform monthly to 73% of customers accessing it at least once a month, demonstrating the success in creating an attractive and useful experience.
Cost Reduction: The platform contributed to cost reduction for customers. This reduction occurred both through decreased fines and fees and by projecting future consumption. Users were able to adjust their consumption to stay within contracted limits, avoiding unexpected charges.
Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction was a fundamental aspect of the project. By simplifying data visualization and presenting it more clearly through graphs, we improved user satisfaction. Users could efficiently track and manage their energy consumption.
In summary, the electricity consumption management platform project was successful in enhancing customers’ understanding of the energy market, increasing user engagement, reducing costs, and overall improving customer satisfaction.
