Watch Your Language
Beware of Utility Lingo in Customer-centric World
To be heard, utilities must change the habit of relying on rate case jargon for customer communications.
Customer Engagement
Hiding Electricity's Complexity
Should We Lift the Curtain?
Almost nobody realizes the most advanced technology helps us manage grids, operate plants, integrate renewables, route flows, limit peak demand, and restore service after storms. Should we lift the curtain covering the network’s complexity?
Is Customer Activism for Real?
New Business Model, A Balancing Act
The attention given to the new electricity customer seems to overlook the fact that electricity is basically a commodity. And that the average residential customer may in fact be satisfied with electric service and price.
The New Standard Offer
Impact of Robust Customer Engagement
It's not just residential customers. Commercial customers need to be engaged more vigorously and analytically by utilities as competition increases along with customers’ expectations.
Investor-Owned and Public Power Can Learn from Co-ops
Co-op Approach in Energy Efficiency
Co-ops have the freedom to explore creative ways to enhance energy efficiency. Two forward-thinking programs that treat efficiency as a utility investment may be starting a bit of a revolution.
Response to Mitnick Re: What Consumers Want
A response to the Editor-in-Chief column by Steve Mitnick in our May 2016 issue
Unless and until we have access to economic bulk storage, substitution of carbon-free sources for fossil fuels will increase cost significantly. The cost must be borne by some combination of taxpayers and ratepayers.
The Consumer-Centric Utility
Empowering Consumers while Managing Risk and Optimizing Assets
Electric utilities do not simply sell a commodity. They sell safe, affordable, reliable and clean electric service. The “Consumer-Centric Utility” business model provides a viable framework for utilities while enabling new products and services that meet growing consumer expectations.
Has Retail Choice Delivered on its Promises?
Participation rates, customers’ bills, meaningful choice
Retail choice might have reduced retail electricity prices if it allowed customers to escape stranded costs, but that didn’t happen.
The Powerwall Follies
A year later, reality is kicking in.
One year after Elon Musk rolled out the Powerwall: The real price is 60 to 80 percent more than Musk claimed. A handful (yes, I mean about five) have actually been installed in Germany and Australia. None in the U.S. so far.
A Five-Point Plan For The Next Wave Of Electricity Restructuring
The monopoly utility model was once expansive and revolutionary. Now, it is contracting and preservationist.
A plan for restructuring: Delivery service pricing reform; devolution of generation and re-allocating risk; stranded cost recovery; distributed resources neutrality; optimization of service offerings.