Presented at 2013 National Town Meeting on Demand Response & Smart Grid July 11, 2013 Lupe Jimenez, Sacramento Municipal Utility District Powering forward. Together. Smart Pricing Options Pilot Pilot Overview and Operational Implementation
Dec 31, 2015
Presented at 2013 National Town Meeting on Demand Response & Smart Grid
July 11, 2013
Lupe Jimenez, Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Powering forward. Together.
Smart Pricing Options PilotPilot Overview and Operational Implementation
U.S. Department of Energy Disclaimer
• Acknowledgement: “This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award Number OE000214.”
• Disclaimer: “This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.”
Page 2
A little about SMUD
• Sacramento County in Northern California• Municipal Electric Utility
• Governed by a Board of Directors
• 600,000 Customers• 540,000 Residential• 60,000 Commercial
• Summer-Peaking Load (Air Conditioning)• Residential Peak: 4-7pm June-September• Peak load ~3000 MW, of which 400MW = 40 hours
• Energy Mix• Hydro• Natural gas-fired generators• Renewables (solar, wind)• Wholesale market
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Study Objectives
The Plan describes the two-year application of experimental rate options on a sample population of SMUD customers with the intent of determining:
1. Electricity impacts of each of the treatments
2. Customer characteristics associated with behavior
3. The roles of enabling technology in customers’ daily electricity management
4. Program impacts on customer satisfaction
5. Rate and enabling technology program value to utility
6. Expected market penetration for rate and enabling technology programs
7. Effective educational and marketing strategies for customers
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Residential
Opt In
TOU
No IHD
OfferWith IHD
Offer
CPP
With IHD Offer
No IHD
Offer
Default
TOU
With IHD Offer
TOU-CPP
With IHD Offer
CPP
With IHD Offer
Key Features of SPO Pilot
Three Rate Options
Two Recruitment Strategies
Impact of IHDs on Customer AcceptanceTotal enrollment, including deferred groups = 12,027;
Total # of customers receiving offers, including deferred groups = 53,798
Total # of customers in SPO, including controls = 99,661
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Pilot Development and Support
Technology Projects
PricingSAP IntegrationMeter and HAN Pricing Integration
Customer ServiceCSR Enrollment, Tracking, and Communications IntegrationOnline Enrollment
Data CollectionEnrollment ReportsExportable Data Sets
Enabling TechnologyHAN CommunicationEnergy Cost and Energy Use DisplayEvent Notification
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7
Customer Services Projects
Contact CenterCSR special team
IVR call routing
Toll free number and custom email
Customer SupportOnline hourly usage display
HAN support
Event notification
Enabling TechnologyDefine HAN business requirements
Develop business processes for device support and deployment
BillingAutomated billing
Establish business processes for rate changes and enrollment protocols
Pricing Plans
Standard TOU CPP TOU-CPP$0.00
$0.10
$0.20
$0.30
$0.40
$0.50
$0.60
$0.70
$0.80
$0.10 $0.08 $0.09 $0.07
$0.18 $0.17 $0.17$0.14
$0.27 $0.27
$0.75 $0.75
Off-Peak Base Off-Peak Base Plus On-Peak Critical Peak
Pric
e p
er
kWh
($
)
n/an/a
On-peak from 4 to 7 PM on all non-holiday weekdays from
June through September (~10% of all summer hours)
Critical peak from 4 to 7 PM on up to 12 event days be-tween June & September
(~1% of all summer hours)
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n/a n/a
Page 9
Customer Touch Points
Summer Peak Campaign
Recruitment Letter and Outreach
Educational Microsites
Online Account Portal Hourly Data
Special Contact Center Team
IHD SupportIn Home DisplayConservation Day Alerts: Text, Call, Email, IHD
Marketing Research (pre, interim, post)
Customized Bill
Customer
Social Media Engagement
Welcome Packets Tips, Recipes, Discount Cards
Customer education started with recruitment and continues throughout the pilot. We want to give our
customers every opportunity to be successful!
Marketing and Communications
RecruitmentPublic Outreach and Education
rate processexternal affairspress releases
Recruitment Preparationstandard summer peak and energy efficiency campaign
Recruitment and Notificationpretest recruitmentawareness marketingdirect marketing via mail, email, door hangers, and phonecontact center advocatesno fuss - easy to enroll, easy to drop
Retention & EducationDirect Education
welcome packet
peak savings tips
Educational Web Pagespilot background
pricing information
educational videos
link to enrollment/drop
links to SMUD tools
Social Mediaupdates
tips
event notification
contests
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Market Research
MarketingBest practices
Sample analysis
Image and message testing
Offer and price positioning
Retention & EducationKnowledge gap assessment
Online social media tracking
Click-through analytics
SatisfactionPricing plans
HAN devices
Educational material
Program participation
SMUD satisfaction and brand attributes
Profiling & SegmentingDemographic, property, and appliance data
Marketing channels and frequency analysis
Opt-out/drop out analysis
Pricing study for future implementation
Enrollment, load shed, and satisfaction by customer type
6/28/201311
Page 12
New Questions to Consider
• Customer Support– Customer support for rate options: currently special CSR team– HAN support: internal/external, which business units, what times of the day, to what extent, installation services
• Operational Implementation– Meter reprogramming versus manual interval data extraction and manual bill calculations for mid-cycle moves– Ability to maintain bill presentment and tariff design consistency for special customer groups– Presentation of bill savings and peak consumption– Messaging of events and informational notifications: standards, effectiveness, process– Customer education: what types of education and delivery channels will best promote satisfaction and load reduction
• Program Design– Pricing ratios within the structures
• How would customers respond to greater risk/reward options?• Which customers would participate?• How would it impact bills and load?
– Deploy rates as a standard rate offer at sign up, a program “pricing plan”, or a product bundle with equipment?– Rate calculators: customer benefits and utility drawbacks
• Equipment– HAN certification by SMUD– HAN testing and firmware upgrades– Self-provisioning options for customers– Trouble-shooting and support roles– Internal process development, inventory, deployment, tracking
• Evaluation and Potential Future Research– Impacts on groups not included in study sample– Net value of impact of special customer groups– How to optimize benefits for both utility and customer value