You won’t find Indiana Michigan Power sitting on the sidelines when there’s technology advancements to be pressed into action. The utility serving Michigan’s Great Southwest, Northwest Indiana and beyond is now empowering you and I to help manage how we use energy by using voice commands for contacting I&M through Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.
We can now use voice commands to access I&M through either of the two virtual assistants on our smart phones and home devices. Among the questions that we, as customers, can ask initially to gain more information about our account and energy use are things like:
- How does my home use energy?
- Give me a tip to save energy.
- How much is my bill?
- Is my energy use normal?
- Does I&M have renewables?
- Can I get updates on outages?
- Does I&M have energy rebates?
- Does I&M have any job openings?
Questions should begin with “Ask Indiana Michigan Power…” Company officials say that more information and functions will be added over time.
Toby Thomas is President & Chief Operating Officer at I&M. Thomas says, “Technology offers our customers numerous ways to communicate, and I&M wants our customers to interact with us using the methods they prefer.” Thomas adds, “As part of I&M’s ongoing efforts to make account management simpler and more convenient, customers now can simply ask Alexa or Google Assistant key questions about their I&M account and their energy use. We invite customers to begin using their virtual assistants to connect with I&M and share the experience as their functionality for customers grows.”
In order to use Alexa or Google Assistant, I&M customers must be able to sign in to their I&M account on I&M’s web site. If you haven’t signed up, go to www.IndianaMichiganPower.com and click on the “Register” button at the top of the page.
Here’s how to enable your device to link with I&M:
For Alexa on a smartphone:
- Open the Alexa app, select “Skills & Games” in the menu, and type in “Indiana Michigan Power.”
- Select the Indiana Michigan Power skill, then select “Enable Skill,” “Settings” and “Link Account.”
- Type in your Indiana Michigan Power web account username and password.
For an Alexa smart home device:
- Say “Alexa, Open Indiana Michigan Power.”
- Link with your Indiana Michigan Power web account username and password.
For Google Assistant on a smartphone:
- Open the Google Assistant app and say “OK Google, talk to Indiana Michigan Power.” Google will give you a welcome message and ask you to link your Indiana Michigan Power account.
- On the authorization page, enter your Indiana Michigan Power web account username and password.
- Say, “OK Google, talk to Indiana Michigan Power.”
For Google Home smart speaker:
- Say “OK Google, talk to Indiana Michigan Power.”
- Google will give you a welcome message and ask you to link your Indiana Michigan Power account.
Customers who have any questions about finding and enabling the app can go to IndianaMichiganPower.com/contact and send an e-mail using the Smart Speaker category or call I&M at 800-311-4634.
