Report highlights use of digital tools to help electric utilities engage with consumers

Early in 2018, the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) based in Atlanta, Georgia, produced a research report, “Consumer Platform of the Future”, that surveyed about 1,300 utility customers with nearly half saying they were interested in using a digital platform for energy use and management.

Patty Durand, president and CEO of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, attributes the interest to influence from the younger generation.

“Consumers today are looking for new ways to engage with their electricity providers, especially millennials,” she said. “They increasingly see Amazon, Southwest, Lyft and online banking as the benchmarks for customer services and user experiences.”

For a follow up, the SECC teamed up with the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) based in Washington, D.C., to produce “Consumer Platform of the Future: Industry Insider Perspectives,” a report that explains how consumer platforms are commonly structured and how utilities are using them to engage customers in their energy use.

The report notes the transformation that the electric utility industry is currently undergoing. “This transformation is pushing utilities’ business models and investments to be more responsive to consumer demand. Consumer engagement — building relationships with customers, communicating with them more (including through digital modes), and enabling them to be active energy consumers — is a key component of this transition.”

Two case studies are examined in the report, one from the publicly owned utility Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), and the other from investor-owned utility company Duke Energy.

Duke has been working with the Tendril Energy Services Management (ESM) Platform since 2012 to produce Home Energy Reports (HERs) for its customers who can receive paper or online summaries of their monthly energy usage over a 12-month period.

The reports show comparisons of their customers past energy use, either month by month or year by year. If a customer has a smart meter the data can be broken down by the hour. Tendril’s ESM Platform lets Duke Energy personalize the promotions and action items presented to each customer in the program.

Duke’s paper version of the program has a high rate of participation, possibly because it’s offered on an opt-out basis, with only one tenth of one percent of customers opting out. The digital side is offered on an opt-in basis. Duke believes an email campaign might boost the numbers but only has email addresses for half of its customers.

Meanwhile, SMUD’s “My Account” platform provides a suite of tools and features for residential and commercial customers. Customers can access billing and payment functions, usage and cost analysis, and tips for saving money and energy.

To make all this happen SMUD forged partnerships with software giants Oracle and Kubra and tapped Clean Power Research for solar and electric vehicle analysis. Since 2015, the numbers are looking good, with 52 percent of its customers having a My Account login. Of those users, half log in at least once a month, one-fourth log in twice a month, and one-tenth log in three or more times a month.

In 2017 SMUD struck a deal with Simple Energy, a SAS firm based in Colorado to launch SMUD’s online Energy Store where customers can buy smart thermostats, lighting, connected home products, advanced power strips, and solar-powered chargers for phones. The Energy Store offers instant rebates on energy saving products and since its launch has sold close to 17,000 items. Smart thermostats and LED lighting are the highest selling items.

SMUD is also developing a mobile app that will allow customers to pay bills, check and report outages, view energy usage, receive notifications and alerts, as well as enroll in demand response or other energy-saving programs.

While the various partnerships have racked up impressive numbers, SMUD acknowledges it has also created its own breed of challenges. The report notes that “anytime a company works with a vendor, there is additional management required to ensure the vendor’s vision aligns with the company’s.”

Utility companies also face barriers to developing digital platforms for consumer engagement given the heavily regulated industry. The report addresses potential challenges, such as a lack of regulatory support and data integrity and privacy issues, and seeks to offer solutions.

“Sometimes well-intended rules to serve customers, such as data privacy or bad debt protection rules, end up limiting what a utility can invest in and ultimately do for their customers.”

As one solution to that issue, the report said, “Regulatory reform is needed to establish a system that rewards a consumer-oriented focus and encourages more research, testing, and pilots for improved consumer engagement programs.”