BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Uplight, a clean energy technology company that enables utilities and power providers to conserve, deploy, manage, and monetize energy resources, and GridX, the leading enterprise rate platform provider to utilities, announced the successful completion of the first year of Puget Sound Energy’s (PSE) time-varying rates (TVR) pilot. The pilot, which saw 94% of enrolled participants take action to reduce energy usage during the winter season on-peak periods, leveraged Uplight’s comprehensive Rates Engagement solution and GridX’s industry-leading Enterprise Rate Platform, to provide personalized rate education, streamline enrollments, and increase load shift during times of peak strain on the grid.
Time-varying rates (TVR) are an effective tool to help utilities manage electricity demand, reduce stress on the power grid, and achieve clean energy and decarbonization goals. Yet nearly half of all residential customers are unsure what type of electricity plan they are on. And, though 79% of residential customers have access to TVR nationwide, only 9% of TVR-eligible customers have enrolled, demonstrating an ongoing information and participation gap for these programs.
PSE launched the TVR Pilot in October 2023 to gauge customer appetite and willingness to participate in various TVR rate programs and to take action to close the TVR participation gap. PSE partnered with Uplight and GridX to manage customer recruitment and provide ongoing rate coaching to educate customers about what TVR mean for them, how their behavior impacts the cost of energy, and how to save money on their bills. Uplight recruited residential customers for one of three TVR rate designs using personalized Rate Education Reports and Rate Comparison tools featuring shadow billing and “what-if” scenarios powered by GridX’s leading rates analytics.
In the first year of the program, over 5.2% of residential Rate Energy Report recipients enrolled in the pilot, exceeding recruitment targets for each of the three time-of-use (TOU) rate variants. In addition to driving TVR enrollments, survey data from the first year of the pilot also revealed that participants found Uplight and GridX’s tools played an integral role in increasing their TOU literacy and encouraging rate-shifting behaviors, as well as:
- 94% of TOU participants used the Rate Advisor tool to evaluate rate options
- 88% found rate comparisons easy to understand
- 84% said rate comparisons influenced their enrollment decision
- Participants received Rate Coach emails to help them build load-shifting habits, manage utility bills, and succeed on their new TOU rate
- Over 80% of Rate Coach recipients correctly identify morning and evening on-peak periods during the winter TOU season
- These weekly update emails also received high recall scores (90%) and high usefulness scores (90%)
- Among customers who took action to reduce their energy usage during winter on-peak periods, 72% said it was easy
- Customers took action with 73% of EV drivers shifting their charging schedule, 80% of participants adjusting laundry, and 72% adjusting dishwashing schedule
"At Puget Sound Energy, we're dedicated to helping our customers achieve their energy goals and lower their bills," said Aaron August, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer and Transformation Officer at PSE. "That's why we're excited to partner with Uplight and GridX to provide personalized energy insights and incentives that empower our customers to take control of their energy usage. By putting our customers at the center of everything we do, we've not only met but exceeded our targets in this pilot program, and we're committed to continuing to innovate and improve our services to meet their evolving needs."
Uplight’s advanced user experience (UX) and energy analytics, combined with GridX’s leading rate engine, deliver accurate rate comparisons and what-if scenarios that simulate the impact of load-shifting behaviors on customer bills. These communications demystify the rate-switching experience for PSE customers by revealing the lowest cost rate based on historical usage patterns and recommended load shift behaviors. A personalized approach to rate education streamlines enrollments and increases load shift through behavioral and automated programs to alleviate grid strain during peak hours, offer financial savings for consumers, and assure customer satisfaction in receiving reliable and affordable energy. PSE can leverage these customer actions to maximize clean energy capacity that can be used by the power grid, reducing the need to burn fossil fuels and enabling continued renewable energy development.
Uplight, PSE, and Brattle Group will present learnings from the first year of PSE’s TVR Pilot at the PLMA Conference on November 11-13 in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Uplight’s rates engagement solutions here.
About Uplight
Uplight is a clean energy technology company creating a new source of energy by harnessing the collective power of distributed energy assets. The company’s best-in-class energy customer experiences and AI-powered flexibility management solutions help conserve, manage, deploy, and monetize energy capacity for customers, energy providers, and grid asset owners. With Uplight’s AI-driven platform, not only are grid-connected assets smarter, but also power providers can build, own, and operate virtual power plants (VPPs), microgrids, and other resources to participate in scalable energy capacity markets. To learn more about how Uplight, a certified B Corporation, is working to improve grid resilience, reduce energy costs, and accelerate decarbonization, visit www.uplight.com/.
About GridX
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 25 million homes and businesses. For more information, visit www.gridx.com.
About Puget Sound Energy
Puget Sound Energy is proud to serve our neighbors and communities in 10 Washington counties. We’re the state’s largest utility, supporting approximately 1.2 million electric customers and 900,000 natural gas customers. We’re undergoing the most significant transformation in our history as we strive to meet some of the most ambitious clean energy laws in the nation, while delivering on our customers’ expectations for safe and reliable energy. For more about us and what we do, visit pse.com.
Contacts
Uplight
Tegan Sullivan
Uplight@V2comms.com
