Uplight > Case Studies > Consumers Energy Provides 100,000 Pre-Enrolled Smart Thermostats to Save Money and Energy

Consumers Energy Provides 100,000 Pre-Enrolled Smart Thermostats to Save Money and Energy

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Google Nest Thermostat E
Uplight Marketplace
Uplight Home Energy Reports
Uplight Orchestrated Energy

Tech Stack

Automated Demand Response
Smart Thermostats
Energy Efficiency Software

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Customer Satisfaction
Energy Saving

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
Networks & Connectivity - WiFi

Applicable Industries

Utilities

Applicable Functions

Facility Management
Business Operation

Use Cases

Building Energy Management
Demand Planning & Forecasting
Energy Management System

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

Consumers Energy is a Michigan-based utility company committed to helping the environment and their customers simultaneously. Their bold Clean Energy Plan aims to eliminate coal and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, and double energy efficiency from 10 to 20 percent of peak capacity by 2030—eliminating the need to build more power plants. Consumers Energy has a strong focus on sustainability and customer satisfaction, prioritizing a triple bottom line approach that includes people, planet, and prosperity in all their decisions. They have been proactive in addressing the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the increased residential energy demand as more people stayed home.

The Challenge

As customers spent more time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, utilities across the country faced spikes in residential demand, often seeing bill increases of up to 20% or more even before the cooling season started. During the crisis, Consumers Energy continued to prioritize helping their customers via their triple bottom line—committing to people, planet, and prosperity in all decisions. Many typical energy efficiency measures weren’t possible as either contractors weren’t allowed to go into people’s homes or people weren’t comfortable having them there. Consumers Energy needed an innovative approach to help customers save even more energy and money at such a critical time, while continuing progress towards their clean energy goals.

The Solution

Consumers Energy partnered with Google and Uplight to provide free Google Nest thermostats to up to 100,000 households, helping Michigan residents save energy and money during the COVID-19 pandemic. These smart thermostats help customers save an average of 10-15% on their energy bills each year. Coupled with the Consumers Energy Peak Power Savers program, these households can shift usage away at times of peak demand, creating the potential to collectively reduce demand by 14 MW or more this summer. Uplight’s software strategically cools a home before a Demand Response (DR) event so that a customer can stay within their desired comfort range without the HVAC having to run during an event. During an event, the program never exceeds 1-2 degrees of the pre-existing temperature settings and doesn’t penalize the customer for adjusting the thermostat if needed. Consumers Energy utilized Uplight’s Marketplace, Home Energy Reports, and Orchestrated Energy products, along with the unique feature of automated demand response pre-enrollment, to create a connected, customer-centric experience that helps customers save money and energy.

Operational Impact

Consumers Energy leveraged Uplight’s easy check-out experience on the Marketplace site and seamless Demand Response pre-enrollment process alongside thermostat purchase, resulting in over 4X more enrollments than typical standalone enrollment methods.
Pre-enrollment enables customers to pre-authorize the thermostat at check-out so that when the customer installs and connects their thermostat, it is instantly ready to respond to Demand Response events.
All residential electric customers with central air-conditioning and Wi-Fi in the Consumers Energy territory were eligible to participate in the promotion by visiting the Consumers Energy Marketplace website and purchasing a Google Nest Thermostat E.
Natural gas-only customers could also receive the free thermostats, and any household that was not eligible for a Google Nest Thermostat E could receive a free Consumers Energy Care Package, which includes four LED bulbs and three night lights to help them save energy.
Consumers Energy has created a seamless, connected customer experience that helps customers save money and energy by providing free thermostats alongside an easy demand response enrollment—enabling the utility to continue to engage their customers as they achieve their ambitious clean energy targets.

Quantitative Benefit