Customer Engagement

A roundtable with NASUCA President Michael Moody, Vice President Tom Content, Treasurer Anthony Ornelas, Secretary Karen Stachowski, and Executive Director David Springe.

“Performance-based regulation focuses on defining clear goals and measuring whether utilities are delivering results, rather than evaluating investments only after the fact through the traditional ratemaking process.”

“The conversation about affordability typically focuses on how to help customers on the back end, such as programs to help customers pay their bills and manage arrearages to avoid disconnection. Rarely do we talk about controlling costs on the front end of the ratemaking equation.”

“For years, we have warned that certain regulatory trends were going to create affordability challenges. In particular, we have pushed back against efforts to eliminate regulatory lag through mechanisms that allow utilities to place new costs on bills quickly through riders and trackers.”

PUF navigates affordability in conversations with Consumer Advocates from NASUCA, also featuring a Roundtable Discussion on this important topic.

“The Building Energy Usage Portal (BE-UP) developed by Orange and Rockland Utilities represents a shift in how utilities support customers by turning raw meter data into accessible, decision-ready information.”

“If we define unaffordability as when households with limited means and assets encounter a confluence of bill spikes and other adversities that compel them to miss payments and forego necessities, then data from all directions are informing us that there is indeed a crisis.”

“Recent orders aim to permanently reduce energy consumption for homes and businesses, while lowering overall system costs.”

Is the value proposition for all utility customers the same? A high-income household may expend one percent or even less of its total expenditures on electricity, whereas a low-income household may expend three or four percent, or even more.

“With the rise of VPPs, our utility clients need to engage with customers in different ways to enroll in these assets and make sure they are available to dispatch in a reliable way for full decarbonization.”