The following information is for those wishing to use the Opower integration with Con Edison (Con Ed). In order to do that, you will need to switch your coned.com login to use TOTP, and you may find that you are unable to do that from the site itself.
Before you begin, have a TOTP authentication app or hardware device handy.
Next, call Con Ed at 800-752-6633 during their regular non-emergency hours, which don’t seem to be published anywhere. I managed to get an agent on the phone at 7PM on a weekday.
After selecting your language (press ‘1’ for English), their phone system’s main menu will give you options numbered ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, and ‘4’, and none of them will sound applicable to your situation. Press ‘0’ and hold for an agent. I waited about 15 minutes.
Have your account number ready and tell the agent that you would like to reset/change the 2-step verification method on your account. Once they’ve done this, log off/on, and you’ll be prompted to choose a new 2-step verification method.
Enter a phone number where prompted. Like me, you’ll probably be thinking, “but I don’t want their idiotic text/phone verification! I want TOTP!” Do it anyway. (You should probably provide a number that actually belongs to you, but as you’ll see in a moment, it won’t be required for two factor authentication. If you resist their request for a phone number, they’ll only give you the option of setting up a “security” question.)
Once you’ve entered a phone number, a drop-down below will be populated with four options:
- text/SMS
- phone call
- Google Authenticator
- Okta
Choose either “Google Authenticator” or “Okta” to get your 16-character TOTP secret. A 2D barcode will appear, which includes the secret plus some additional metadata. There will be an option to simply display the secret. (I forget the exact text of the link/button) Click that option and copy the 16-character string into a text file for safe keeping.
Next, copy/enter the 16-character secret into your TOTP software/hardware/app/whatever. If I recall correctly, you can also toggle back to displaying the 2D barcode on Con Ed’s site, if you prefer to scan that with your phone. Once you’ve got it set up, generate the 6-digit time-based code and enter it back into Con Ed’s form, which you should then submit.
You can now go back to Home Assistant and set up the Opower integration using the 16-character secret that you previously saved somewhere.