12^th Rocky Mountain Utility Exchange Resources and Archived Presentations
(click on Speaker or Session name in gold)

Track A – IoT/Technology

Co-Chair Brian Tholl City of Fort Collins

Co-Chair Gary Myers Tri-State

Put a Meter on it! Connected, Low-cost Submetering
Amy Jiron, U.S. Department of Energy with Dylan Cutler, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Despite documented widespread market demand, technology for submetering has been cost-prohibitive at approximately $1,000/point, keeping many building loads out of reach for both building operators and utility programs. Recently, however, DOE announced the launch of a wireless submeter at $100/point. This session will summarize initial results from field study of this low-cost wireless submeter as well as two other connected submetering field studies at GSA’s Denver Cesar Chavez Building and Salt Lake City Courthouse.
0.50 BPI CEUs

Smart Energy Management Circuit Breakers, Grid of the Future?
Gary Myers, Tri-State G&T with Joseph Childs, Eaton
Managing the load is becoming just as important as managing energy at the source. To keep costs down and service levels up, consumers become a critical piece of the energy puzzle. Demand response programs, in order to better manage energy usage, require actively engaged consumers and highly connected homes. Early advances in smart home technology have done a lot to open our members minds to new ways to increase their comfort while saving them money and energy. Inspired by the success of companies like Nest, the smart home market has been surging in recent years. The Pilot project Tri-State has been involved in over the past 1+ year, with EPRI and Eaton has further opened our eyes individual device data collection with 18 devices currently deployed on many different devices within Colorado/ New Mexico. Our Wi-Fi devices are collecting data from solar gardens, electric automobile charging stations, heating, cooling, and plug load. The Dashboard provides voltage, amperage, power factor, and wave form of connected devices in real time educating our members! Interested, see what all of us have learned???
0.50 BPI CEUs

Lessons Learned from Connected Home Utility Programs
Sarah Colvin, ecobee; Brad Davids, Google (Nest); and Keith Canfield, CLEAResult
The proliferation of connected home devices provides a brand-new avenue for utilities to engage with customers. But in what way? How? Where do you start? With a platform of voice-connected smart home products, ecobee and Nest have led the way and been collecting a wealth of information about how customers think and interact with their devices. This data is incredibly useful in understanding not only how customers live in their homes, but in how the home itself performs. In this session, hear about utility case studies, and learn what’s gone well, what hasn’t and some unexpected surprises in program implementation examples along the way.
0.50 BPI CEUs

Track B – Customer Engagement

Co-Chair Joy Manning High West Energy

Co-Chair Alan Stoinski Cheyenne Fuel, Light and Power

Customer Centricity: Prioritizing Customer Experience in Innovative Program Design
Lee Hamilton, Xcel Energy with Jeana Swedenburg, Cadmus
With the future of lighting savings in question, utilities across the country are looking for previously untapped savings opportunities through customer-focused program concepts. During this presentation, we will explore case studies of new and innovative programs that reach across departmental lines (e.g., corporate marketing, billing, information technology) to prioritize customer engagement while capturing energy savings and driving market transformation. A sampling of the customer-centric programs discussed during the presentation include: utility loyalty programs, proactive energy alerts, and demand-shifting electric vehicle pricing options.
0.50 BPI CEUs

Longmont Power & Communications' NextLight, Colorado's First Municipal-owned Broadband Utility
Anne Lutz, Longmont Power & Communications; Chuck Finleon, Longmont Power & Communications; and Robert Love, Longmont Power & Communications
Learn about how a small energy services group at a municipal electric utility unified their energy efficiency programs and renewable portfolio by adding broadband and phone services. By using our expertise and community connections as well as our key account program, we added on a call center to serve our residential customers’ needs. Our key account managers have learned to perform site surveys for commercial customers and sell the broadband services we offer. We have learned the world of MDUs (multifamily) and have thousands of apartment units and condos connected as well, as well as incorporating specialized sales and billing software into our processes.

Giving Customers Control via Education and Gamification
Dave Hatchimonji, Boulder County with Matt Wilmoth, CLEAResult
Customers want to be in control of their comfort, expenses, and impact on the world. Utilities and communities are in a position to empower their customers to have this control when it comes to energy use and sustainability. However, this can be challenging due to the limited amount of time and attention that many customers are able to dedicate to these topics. By putting additional emphasis on customer education, our industry can empower more customers to actually join the conversation. More and more customers are using websites and mobile devices to stay informed and connected. This presentation will focus on an online platform that serves to educate, guide, and reward customers as they strive to understand energy efficiency, improve their homes, control their comfort/expenses, and ultimately thrive.
0.50 BPI CEUs

Track A – Energy as a Service, Not a Product

Targeting Individual Homes for Beneficial Electrification
Adam Stenftenagel, Radiant Labs
Utilities as well as State and City governments are faced with the need to dramatically reduce fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions. As electric utilities switch to renewables, the need to electrify space heating and transportation becomes increasingly important. The City of Boulder, National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), and Radiant Labs have partnered to develop a sophisticated targeting tool that harnesses the power of publicly available data and combines it with NREL's ResStock platform. The tool unlocks extremely useful information that cities and utilities have previously not utilized to perform an hourly energy model on each individual home in a community, effectively pinpointing individual homes that are the best candidates for all forms of beneficial electrification as well as traditional energy efficiency improvements. The City of Boulder is deploying this platform to power a series of pilot programs focused on beneficial electrification that range from air source heat pump adoption to microgrid implementation and electric vehicles. Adam will present lessons learned from the Boulder pilots as well as detail how Radiant Labs' platform is helping target the ideal candidates for this effort.
0.50 BPI CEUs

Electric Vehicles: Customer & Employee Input on Program Planning
Allie Marshall, Cadmus
With the electric vehicles (EV) on the rise, utilities across the country are looking to develop EV programs that increase customer adoption of EVs and promote the use of EVs in the workplace, thus setting the foundation for market transformation. During this presentation, we will explore recent California utility research results using focus groups and conjoint analysis to investigate the influence of charging station locations and charging pricing strategies on the purchase and use of EVs.

Connecting with Customers Through the eCommerce Experience
Colin Lamb, Xcel Energy
During just the first 6 months of operation, nearly 200,000 customers visited the Xcel Energy Store. Xcel Energy will discuss how it has used its marketplace to successfully increase customer participation in programs, improve program cost effectiveness and overcome barriers to delivering downstream instant rebates to customers through both on-line and brick-and-mortar channels. Highlights will include lessons-learned from the groundbreaking in-store rebate launch with Lowe’s, current store offerings, retail partnerships, impacts of various marketing strategies on driving customer conversions, overall customer satisfaction results and future strategies.
0.50 BPI CEUs

Track B – Reaching Hard to Reach Customers

The Country’s First Cannabis Cultivator Engagement, Energy Use & Management Program
Mary Wiener, Holy Cross Energy with Eric Stern, Cultivate Energy Optimization
Currently permitted in 30 states, cannabis cultivation is one of the country’s most energy intensive industries, accounting for an estimated 1% of all U.S. energy use and 4% in Colorado. Thousands of indoor cannabis businesses must manage the significant monthly energy costs of 24-hour lighting, constant HVAC operation, humidification management, irrigation needs, and other varying energy demands – presenting unique challenges to both owners and the utilities that serve them. In the spring of 2018, Holy Cross Energy, in partnership with Cultivate Energy Optimization, created the country’s first and most significant cannabis cultivation energy use and management program – offering its indoor cannabis growers resources and tools to better understand and manage their energy costs. This session will present the unique approach created by Holy Cross to not only engage with their cannabis customers but to also provide them with specialized on-site technical assistance and guidance. Please join us for a fascinating look at how cannabis growers use and manage energy in Colorado, and how one local utility responded with action.

AOG/OG&E Weatherization Program and the Arkansas Consistent Weatherization Approach
John Ware, Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp. (Summit Utilities/Colorado Natural Gas) with Ryan Lee, Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company
The AOG/OG&E Weatherization Program was launched in 2011 and is jointly implemented by Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corporation (a natural gas utility) and Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company (an electric utility) to weatherize severely energy inefficient homes in their overlapping service territories in western Arkansas. This highly successful program improves comfort and reduces energy costs by upgrading the thermal envelope of qualified homes and installing other common energy efficiency measures - all AT NO COST to the customer. The customer-centric program exhibits cross-fuel cooperation that results in a comprehensive weatherization program with lower administrative costs. Through the efforts of the Arkansas Parties Working Collaboratively (PWC), the Arkansas Public Service Commission ultimately adopted the AOG/OG&E Weatherization Program model in its quest for a statewide consistent weatherization approach, which is currently utilized by all investor-owned utilities in Arkansas.
0.50 BPI CEUs

Water Panel:

I’ll Head Your Way: Meeting Customers in the Middle
Dr. Liesel Hans, Fort Collins Utilities
Last year we told the story of a web portal and how some customers were using it (and how the majority were not). The takeaway? It’s not surprising that customers aren’t coming to a utility website to understand their use and what actions to take. This story continues with how we’re trying engage and educate customers: we’re finding out where customers are, working to meet them in the middle, rather than asking them to come to us. This talk will showcase examples where we used customer feedback to adapt our approach. Examples include co-piloting different communication tactics, giving customers what they want, making utility events fun… plus a few things that didn’t work. Conservation and efficiency goals and customers both benefit when we take time to solicit input and try new approaches.
0.50 BPI CEUs

Postcards: The Ultimate Conversation Starter
Abbye Neel, Fort Collins Utilities
A leaking toilet can waste over 3,000 gallons in a few days. Irrigation leaks can add up even faster. In the fall of 2017 Fort Collins Utilities began exploring methods to communicate abnormally high-water use, which can be indicative of a leak, to commercial customers. While phone calls were initially made, man-power and volume limited the number of customers that could be reached. To contact more customers Fort Collins Utilities began sending postcards to customers identified as having continuous water consumption for over 24 hours. Customers with odd-numbered accounts received postcards that discussed the impacts continuous water use had on natural resources. Customers with even-numbered accounts received postcards that discussed the impacts continuous water use had on monthly bills. This presentation will explore lessons learned, the postcard campaign’s ability to reduce the number of customers with wasteful use, and which message was most likely to elicit a reaction.

Workshop 1

9:00 am
Electrifying Transportation: Developing Integrated Charging Networks for Electric Vehicles

Christian Williss Colorado Energy Office	Zach Owens Colorado Energy Office
Chris Nelder Rocky Mountain Institute

Speakers:

Chris Bilby Holy Cross Energy	Doug Bursnall Colorado Springs Utilities
Bryan Hannegan Holy Cross Energy	Eric Van Orden Xcel Energy

The Colorado Electric Vehicle (EV) Plan establishes a goal of nearly 1,000,000 EVs in Colorado by 2030. Achieving this goal will require thousands of new Level II and DC fast-charging stations. This session will explore the role of utilities and government in electrifying the transportation sector, including planning, policy, grant programs, utility rates, and ownership models.

CEO will present policy and program updates including the Colorado EV Plan, REV West MOU, VW Beneficiary Mitigation Plan, and CEO grant programs to electrify highways and communities. CEO will share updates about its DC Fast-Charging Transportation Corridor grant program, and partnerships with cooperatives, municipal utilities, and investor-owned utilities in developing and continuing to refine program and policy offerings will be highlighted.

Rocky Mountain Institute will present a market update that provides a snapshot of the most recent EV research, papers, and publications. Following this, representatives from three different types of Colorado electric utilities will present on their approaches to EV infrastructure, rates and outreach: Xcel Energy, Holy Cross Energy, and Colorado Springs Utilities.

Workshop participants will be asked to share proposed strategies, programs, and experiences that expand on the presentations. A facilitated discussion among IOUs, Coops, and Municipal utilities on current and planned efforts will highlight opportunities and challenges facing Colorado utilities and identify areas for future collaboration at state and local levels.

Download the agenda for the workshop.

Workshop 2

9:00 am
Customer Experiences Workshop: Journey Mapping

Ann Kirkpatrick Xcel Energy

Melanie Wemple E Source

Customer journey mapping provides a framework that can break down departmental barriers that limit us and our programs’ potential, resulting in increased internal collaboration, program participation and higher customer satisfaction. What is it like to be Craig, a 39-year-old customer, interacting with your utility? What pain points become apparent? We will identify Craig’s pain points, attitudes and emotions; brainstorm possible ways to improve Craig’s experience with us; get “real” and then do some planning. You’ll hear one utility’s experience with the process, and some of the CX improvements that have resulted. You’ll have some fresh ideas about how to improve CX in your own company – with less resistance - when the workshop ends.

Workshop 3

9:00 am
Community Goals Meet Utility Realities: Developing Best Practices for an Evolving Landscape

Chris Menges City of Aspen	Kristen Taddonio Compact of Colorado Communities
Kevin Brehm Rocky Mountain Institute

This facilitated discussion hosted by the Compact of Colorado Communities 'Utilities Working Group', is an opportunity for local government and utility leaders to communicate directly about understanding and advancing community renewable & energy efficiency goals. We’ll highlight examples of where utilities and communities are working together effectively and cooperatively, discuss what's happening in places where cooperation is less than ideal, and explore what it would take to replicate the successes. Through a series of charrettes, activities and collective brainstorms, workshop participants will shape these answers and assist the Compact working group in its quest to develop a series of best practices for effective community-to-utility (and vice-versa) communication.

More than ever, citizens are asking their elected officials to influence decisions related to energy. Often, these decisions are made by utilities rather than by local government staff. This has created a new dynamic where government staff are reaching out to utilities to represent their constituents. How can both parties effectively communicate so that the relationship is collaborative and so that goals can be pursued in a way that aligns with the utility’s constraints? This workshop seeks to begin answering that question.