Shining a Light on New Rate Plans for Residential and Business Customers
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Uplight’s platform
- Uplight’s rate analysis tool
Tech Stack
- Machine-learning methodologies
- AMI interval data
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Cost Savings
- Energy Saving
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Machine Learning
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
- Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Applicable Industries
- Utilities
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Energy Management System
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Uplight is the technology partner for energy providers and the clean energy ecosystem. Uplight’s software solutions connect energy customers to the decarbonization goals of power providers while helping customers save energy and lower costs, creating a more sustainable future for all. Using the industry’s only comprehensive customer-centric technology suite and critical energy expertise across disciplines, Uplight is streamlining the complex transition to the clean energy ecosystem for more than 80 electric and gas utilities around the world. By empowering energy providers to achieve critical outcomes through data-driven customer experiences, delivering control at the grid edge, creating new revenue streams and optimizing existing load and assets, Uplight shares a mission with its clients to make energy more sustainable for every community. Uplight is a certified B Corporation.
The Challenge
Implementing new rate plans to align demand with supply is becoming critical to more and more utilities. However, new rate plans for business and residential customers can result in customer confusion and frustration—whether they are opt-in or opt-out. According to J.D. Power, utility customer price satisfaction drops by 10% when defaulted onto a TOU rate. A TOU rate transition can be stressful for both utility employees and customers. It can seem that customer needs are at odds with regulatory and internal requirements. Thankfully, utilities have gained experience helping customers through rate transitions. This experience identified best practices of the three e’s: empathize, educate, and empower.
The Solution
Uplight helps utilities prevent rocky rate roll-outs and become a trusted energy advisor through a personalized utility customer experience, targeted marketing and grid-optimized enrollment. The utility uses Uplight’s platform to help advise and enroll their SMBs and C&I customers on the most optimal rate plans. The utility integrated Uplight’s rate analysis tool into their MyAccount portal to help over 600,000 business customers analyze how hypothetical changes to usage would impact their rate and compare their current rate plan with other options. A large Southwestern IOU transitioned its residential customers to new TOU and demand rates with a goal of getting customers on to service plans that best fit their needs, reducing associated call center volume spike and improving CSAT. They not only needed to educate customers about their new plans, but also how to best manage their energy bill. Using AMI interval data, historical usage information and machine-learning methodologies, the utility utilized Uplight’s platform to segment their customers by service plans, analyze on- and off-peak usage and demand patterns. The utility then delivered next-best-actions tailored to each customer through personalized print and email energy reports, self-service online portal, energy assessment, and through the call center.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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