PSEG Long Island Honored for Implementing a Customer-Centric Modern Rate Initiative
May 02 2024 - 10:01AM
Business Wire
CS Week recognizes leading utility for
innovative Time-of-Use program that lowered customer bills and
delivered load shift in Long Island, New York
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.
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Bethany Ruhe bethany.ruhe@gridx.com 412.443.7969