Guest post by : Joey Anderson – Business Development Associate
Rising rates… Increasing customer scrutiny… A growing number of alternatives to the traditional power delivery model…
Utilities are feeling more competitive pressure than ever before, and are looking to drive customer engagement with new services. Energy efficiency and demand response programs are some of the most common responses to this trend. The looming question though, is how to successfully execute these programs.
As a recent Utility Dive survey of utilities concluded, “Convincing customers to care and proving return on investment are the two biggest obstacles utilities face in deploying successful residential customer education programs.” 43% of utilities surveyed noted the difficulty of customer education around energy efficiency and demand side management programs.
At EcoFactor, we offer a simple solution: show customers the dollar impact of their energy efficient actions. When customers log in to EcoFactor’s white-labeled mobile app, they see savings projections.
EcoFactor Energy Savings Report Screenshot
What about demand response (DR)? According to the Utility Dive survey, 20% of utilities deemed DR the most important area for their residential customer education programs. But when utilities trigger a demand event, turn the A/C off and make life hot and uncomfortable, won’t residents get angry?
At EcoFactor we deal with this using big data. When utilities call a demand event, EcoFactor uses home thermal properties, past customer preferences, and weather data to create a personalized DR load shed schedule for each customer. Residents always have the ability to opt out, yet most end up participating through the entire event.
Ongoing Demand Response Event Screenshot
The results have been amazing. In 2013 and 2014, NV Energy ran 54 demand events using EcoFactor, including a stretch of eight in a row. Very few customers decided to opt out, with 12% fewer overrides than the next best performing thermostat during the pilot phase.
By the end of the year, NV Energy’s residential thermostat program had saved their customers an average of $100/home/year, received an 86% satisfaction rating, and had a Total Resource Cost (TRC) of 1.33.
When utilities show customers the benefits of energy efficiency measures, and prove that they can trigger DR without sacrificing comfort, customer engagement improves! It’s one very effective way to combat these new pressures facing utilities.
