Note: This is the fourth part of an ongoing blog series about how an AMx framework can help energy utilities accelerate decarbonization.
An AMx metering framework allows utilities to access more granular, timely data from existing electric and gas meters—including both AMI and AMR systems—and realize true meter interoperability. As a result, it offers substantial potential to help utilities bolster program targeting to drive increased participation and cost-effectiveness for both demand-side management (DSM) and electrification programs. It can also help significantly improve the customer experience, both with regards to utility programs and other areas, like new time-of-use (TOU) or dynamic rate structures. Because customer buy-in and active participation in utility programs will be essential to the long-term success of any energy decarbonization pathway, these are critical areas for utilities to be actively considering and planning for when thinking about current and future metering infrastructure.
Higher-resolution meter data allows utilities to significantly improve program targeting by identifying customers that are uniquely well-suited to energy efficiency, load management, fuel-switching, or distributed energy resource (DER) offerings. For example, particularly when combined with basic load disaggregation (focusing on major loads that can be confidently identified with high accuracy) it can help identify customers with unusually high overall consumption or peak demand, those with large HVAC, those with level-2 EV charging, those with solar pv, or those who may have gas space- or water-heating. Layering on additional data (for example, 3rd party analysis of household energy burdens) can help further filter down customers who could benefit from utility offerings while also improving program equity. Once that targeting is complete, utilities can target specific customers in a personalized way to increase engagement and drive overall program cost-effectiveness. And, particularly for emerging building electrification programs, utilities can use apples-to-apples gas and electric data to assure that a given customer won’t see higher energy bills or experience other negative impacts if they switch a piece of equipment from gas to electricity.
Better data can also enable improved behavioral efficiency programs by helping customers understand the impacts of their decisions in real time, and help scale behavioral load management efforts, as we discussed in our last article. Not only are behavioral approaches to energy management often more cost-effective for utilities, but they can be inherently more equitable since there are fewer barriers to entry and they fundamentally empower customers more deeply by putting them in control of their own usage. As just one example, utilities could better deploy mid-cycle high bill alerts to customers that are directly paired with educational information on utility programs or marketplaces to help deliver useful insights when they are likely to be most receptive. And better data also directly addresses a legacy problem associated with behavioral programs by enabling rapid and precise measurement and verification to confirm savings and provide more timely incentives to customers.
Finally, higher-resolution and more-timely data can improve the customer experience by increasing usage transparency and enabling more relevant, personalized, and actionable insights. For example, many electric utilities are currently rolling out large-scale TOU or dynamic rates with the hope that by changing energy prices over the course of the day, customers will change their usage patterns to benefit both their wallets and the grid. That’s great in theory, but most customers still can’t see how they use energy in real-time, which can make these new rates a frustrating and confusing experience. Providing high-resolution usage data that’s updated in near-real-time can help customers more clearly see, understand, and respond to the price signals utilities are trying to share. Particularly when paired with the kinds of more relevant, personalized communications discussed above, these kinds of approaches have tremendous potential to help customers feel more engaged and empowered when they want to be, and to foster the kind of more productive relationship with the utility that will be critical for successful decarbonization in the coming years.
In the fifth and final part of this blog series, we’ll explore how an AMx framework can help utilities free up funds to accelerate decarbonization while bolstering resiliency. We hope you’ll join us!