CS Week recognizes leading utility for innovative Time-of-Use program that lowered customer bills and delivered load shift in Long Island, New York
FORT WORTH, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PSEG Long Island, which provides electricity to 1.2 million customers in the state of New York, today received the CS Week Expanding Excellence Award for Innovation in Digital Engagement. The award recognizes PSEG Long Island for its highly successful rate modernization effort, which saw the utility lower customer bills by an average of 10 percent and shift 4-5 percent of electricity load out of the peak. By taking a research-driven approach and employing a range of personalized marketing initiatives, PSEG Long Island enrolled more than 14,000 customers in Time-of-Use (TOU) rates, more than double the original target. The success of the program led their governing authority, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), to move forward with a full-scale TOU rollout to all 1.2 million PSEG Long Island customers starting in 2024.
“Modern rate structures like Time-of-Use are becoming a priority to manage an increasingly complex grid, maximize our investment in distributed energy resources and ultimately achieve decarbonization targets,” said Brian Kurtz, Manager of Special Projects & Utility 2.0 Project Management Office, PSEG Long Island. “However, ensuring an optimal customer experience is critical to the success of these efforts. Our meticulous focus on customer research to design the program and the use of analytics tools to communicate to customers how the new rates would personally impact them led to a successful rollout that exceeded our expectations and set us up for a very promising future.”
In December of 2021, PSEG Long Island embarked on a rate modernization initiative as a focal program within its Utility of the Future (Utility 2.0) portfolio, for its 1.2 million customers on Long Island, NY. They tapped into expert partners to help develop their TOU pilot, working with GridX, Questline Digital, ILLUME Advising, Bidgely and IDLab Global. This led to the deployment of a rate comparison tool for MyAccount, personalized savings included in direct customer communications, and a “1-Click” no log-in solution to easily select their best rate plan option. Bill designs were enhanced to provide clear and concise information on Time-of-Use energy usage and costs. The engagement campaign strategically targeted customers through owned channels such as email, website, direct mail, and video marketing tactics.
“Implementing new Time-of-Use rates, which essentially changes the way people use and pay for electricity, is an incredibly complex task. It requires multiple departments within a utility to collaborate to ensure a successful transition,” said Nayan Parikh, Technology Group Product Manager, PSEG Long Island. “This complexity was compounded by the need to break down organizational silos in terms of the data we collect, analyze and share. We addressed this challenge head on by creating a single source of truth on a shared platform all groups could collaborate on, which has been instrumental to our rate-modernization success.”
“We are proud to partner with PSEG Long Island and other utilities to satisfy customer demand for clear and consistent personalized information about different rate options and how they will impact their energy bills,” said Scott Engstrom, Chief Customer Officer, GridX. “Because understanding the cost impact of their decisions is what is going to encourage customers to change their behavior. A huge congratulations to PSEG Long Island and everyone involved for delivering such a successful, customer-centric rollout of TOU rates.”
About PSEG Long Island
PSEG Long Island is committed to providing the people of Long Island and the Rockaways with exceptional customer service, best-in-class reliability and storm response, and a strong level of involvement in the communities in which its employees live and work. PSEG Long Island operates the Long Island Power Authority’s transmission and distribution system under a long-term contract. PSEG Long Island is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG) (NYSE:PEG), a publicly traded diversified energy company.
About GridX, Inc.
GridX partners with utilities and energy suppliers to transform their businesses and accelerate the clean energy transition. The company’s Enterprise Rate Platform helps these organizations to develop new products and business models to achieve their clean energy goals; quickly operationalize new offerings in their billing and settlement processes; and better engage with their customers for broader program adoption. GridX’s platform is used by leading utilities, retail energy suppliers and energy ecosystem OEMs to serve more than 26 million homes and businesses. For more information, visit www.gridx.com.
Contacts
Bethany Ruhe
[email protected]
412.443.7969
