Residential solar adoption creates opportunity for utilities, customer surveys show

The utilities industry should embrace the opportunity to improve customer service amid increasing numbers of residential solar adoption, according to recent results from two customer surveys.

Jamie Wimberly, CEO of DEFG LLC, and Dan Gabaldon, founding partner of Enovation Partners, presented their findings at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners annual meeting in La Quinta, California.

“Our research challenges the conventional wisdom that solar poses a grave threat to utilities’ relationship with their customers. We found just the opposite,” Gabaldon said.

The presentation included recent findings from customer surveys of 1,000 (95 percent non-solar) households from across the nation and a separate survey focused on residential customers who have already adopted solar.

The trend toward more residential adoption of solar is only expected to grow and the impact of that on the utility customer service model will be significant. Residential solar customers are expected to demand different types of contact and service requirements compared with traditional utility customers.

Wimberly said, “The prevailing sense in the utility sector that customers will stop calling or not require as much customer service once they have solar PV on their homes is misguided to say the least.”

Wimberly sees a clear need for utilities to start preparing for solar-specific service levels, staffing and system requirements that differ from the traditional models.

Of the customers surveyed who already had adopted solar, the majority were positive about their decision, with 40 percent reporting savings of 20 percent or more on their electricity bills.

“But nearly half of the respondents indicated they had more positive feelings towards their utility since choosing solar, and most were interested in increasing the range of solar-related information and services from their utility,” Gabaldon said.

Meanwhile, almost half of the 1,000 Americans surveyed indicated that they were very interested in offers to switch to solar power, mainly because they wanted a lower electric bill and because they sought more environmentally friendly electricity choices.

This survey also found that most Americans believe their local utility either supports residential solar or is neutral. Almost a quarter of households surveyed said they would want more contact with their utility if they had solar on their home.