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Topic: Rates & billing 
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Marketing Prepaid Programs
April 4, 2012
Prepaid metering can be promoted to all residential customers, but certain segments value different messages delivered through specific channels. Which messaging and communication channels should you be using?
Content type: Research Brief | Document ID: RES-RB-17 | Author: Dulcey Simpkins, Sarah Fiebiger
Electric Vehicle Rates
May 9, 2011
What kinds of rates are utilities offering for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs)? The vast majority are based on time of use, and most fit in two categories: rates that are specific to PEV charging only and rates that apply to all electrical consumption of a household or building.
Content type: Research Brief | Document ID: EDRP-RB-13 | Author: Alexandra Behringer
Energy Savings, Jobs, and Environmental Stewardship
The Benefits of Funding Energy Efficiency
October 29, 2010
We want to inform our customers of the value they receive in their community by funding energy efficiency through their electricity or gas rates. What are some talking points?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: UCS-AskES-16 | Author: Melanie Wemple
Can Utilities Allow Customers to Opt Out of Bill Notifications?
September 9, 2010
Many customers pay their bills through their banks but receive e-mails from both the bank and the utility when the bill is ready. Some customers have asked us to stop sending e-mail notifications, but they don’t want paper bills either. Do other utilities offer a “no paper and no e-mail” option? ...
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: UCC-AskES-41 | Author: Alexandra Behringer and Stephanie Spalding
Addressing the Equity of Your Smart Meter–Enabled Pricing Program
April 21, 2010
Our utility is preparing to offer dynamic pricing to customers with smart meters. We’re concerned that our program may be disrupted by worries about equity—for example, that low-income or elderly customers may be unfairly affected by high peak-time prices. How can we allay these concerns? ...
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: IGS-AskES-15 | Author: Carol Stimmel
Residential Products and Services
March 2, 2010
What products and services do utilities typically offer to their residential customers? Does offering a variety of products or services affect a utility’s customer satisfaction scores?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: RES-AskES-12 | Author: Stephanie Spalding
Communicating Energy Prices to Your Large Industrial Customers
November 24, 2009
What are some effective ways to provide energy price communications to large industrial customers? Do you have any examples of how price communications have positively influenced customer satisfaction?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: BCO-AskES-5 | Author: Alexandra Behringer
Saving the Earth with E-Billing
March 20, 2009
What are the carbon-reduction benefits of paperless billing and electronic bill payment and presentment?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: CAS-AskES-2 | Author: John Sottong
Participation Rates for Three Residential Programs
December 1, 2008
What are utility participation rates for time-of-use pricing, levelized billing, and renewable power and how do these residential programs affect customer satisfaction?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: RES-AskES-5 | Author: Stephanie Cary
Energy Assistance Programs
September 1, 2008
How are utilities marketing and increasing donations to their energy-assistance programs for lower-income customers?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: RES-AskES-1b | Author: Kim Knox
Trends in Natural Gas Prices
July 1, 2008
Where can I find data that show recent trends in natural gas prices paid by commercial and industrial end users?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: MAS-AskES-12 | Author: Gwen Farnsworth
Trends in Electricity Rates
June 1, 2008
Where can I find data that show recent trends in electric retail rates?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: MAS-AskES-14 | Author: Gwen Farnsworth
Fuel-Cost Adjustment Charges
June 1, 2008
What are recent trends in fuel-cost adjustment charges? How do other utilities pass the cost of fuel and purchased power to their customers?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: MAS-AskES-15 | Author: Gwen Farnsworth
Addressing Rising Fuel Costs
June 1, 2008
As fuel costs are rising and utilities pass the costs on to customers, what can we do to ease the pain for the customer?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: MAS-AskES-16 | Author: Gwen Farnsworth
Marketing Pricing Options to Residential Customers
April 1, 2008
How are utilities successfully marketing pricing options to residential customers?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: RES-AskES-2 | Author: Chad Garrett
Big Innovations for Small Customers
Utilities Experiment with Dynamic Prices for Residential Customers
February 1, 2008
Programs in the field that have offered customers a choice of rates and saved them money have been received favorably, but experience also shows that substantial education and marketing is necessary to introduce dynamic pricing and overcome customers’ initial reluctance.
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: EDRP-F-24 | Author: Chad Garrett and Florence Connally
The Green Hedge
Could Fixed-Priced Offerings Revolutionize Green Pricing Programs?
May 16, 2007
Renewable energy has a unique feature among energy sources: inherent price stability. This report describes hedge products and why they might signal a new wave of interest in green pricing.
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: GE-F-13 | Author: Jeff Anthony, Barry Friedman
Wait! Before You Raise Rates...
Part 2: Tactical Tips to More Effectively Communicate
April 30, 2007
Utility electric and gas prices are on the rise, but that doesn't have to hurt a utility's residential customer satisfaction, providing the utility can explain the increase in terms its customers understand and accept. In this report we examine best practices in utility price-increase communications ...
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: RES-F-20 | Author: Kelsie Bell, John Egan, Josh Haney
Wait! Before You Raise Rates...
Part 1: Strategic Steps to Take Prior to Raising Residential Energy Prices
March 30, 2007
Residential customers across North America are paying more for their electricity and natural gas these days, for various reasons. But the rules of the communications game have changed markedly since the last time many utilities raised rates 10 or 20 years ago. Utility leaders may be keenly aware of ...
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: RES-F-19 | Author: Kelsie Bell, John Egan, Josh Haney
Cost-Effective Measures for Improving Services to Low-Income Customers
December 1, 2005
Improving support for low-income customers benefits the recipients, ratepayers, and the utility’s bottom line. This report examines the strategies that work best for reaching these customers and prompting them to take advantage of available resources.
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: UCC-F-17 | Author: Leland Keller
Critical Peak Pricing: Combining Communications, Control, and Pricing for Residential Demand Response
August 1, 2003
Electric utilities and energy service vendors have combined load-control technology and communications with innovative pricing techniques, creating a new breed of price- and demand-responsive load management known as critical peak pricing (CPP). CPP programs take tariffs that are designed to reflect ...
Content type: Focus Report, Research | Document ID: EIC-F-3 | Author: Leland Keller
Shake Things Up: Innovative Rates for Large Commercial Customers
July 1, 2003
A number of utilities have created new rate options for their large commercial customers during the last few years. Can conjunctive, time-of-use, critical period, and other rates be successful with commercial energy users? With deregulation on the wane, this report examines efforts many utilities are ...
Content type: Focus Report, Research | Document ID: LC-F-4 | Author: Gwen Farnsworth
Breaking the Advanced Metering Barrier: Technology and Economics Are <i>Not</i> Enough
January 1, 2003
Demand-responsive pricing for electricity, enabled by advanced metering and communications technology, could protect retail energy customers from wholesale energy price spikes and transform the utility business. Many agree that advanced metering could have reduced or altogether eliminated California’s ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-02 | Author: Dick Montague, John Egan
Advanced Pricing Concepts
November 1, 2002
With deregulation inertia wearing off, innovative rate design is gaining interest among utilities seeking ways to improve service to their regulated customers. This summary report presents 10 in-depth explorations of innovative electricity pricing concepts in action. We show how pricing concepts such ...
Content type: Market Study | Document ID: MCS-NPD-1 | Author: Michael Reid, Bill LeBlanc, Joan Gregerson, Nathan Adams
Survey of Innovative Rates
November 1, 2002
Utilities trying to improve load factor, increase customer satisfaction, and send accurate price signals to customers are increasingly looking to rate design as a tool to achieve these goals. For this report, we gathered details on 700 innovative rates from 140 utilities in the U.S. and Canada, collecting ...
Content type: Market Study | Document ID: MCS-NPD-2 | Author: Nathan Adams, Andrew Cerri
Incorporating Innovative Elements into Residential Time-of-Use Programs
July 1, 2002
A new generation of residential time-of-use (TOU) programs is emerging, fueled by advances in interactive communications technologies and the desire of utilities to control costs and develop new products and services. But many utilities still regard the costs of implementing a technologically innovative ...
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: RES-F-3 | Author: Alexandra Behringer
E Source Energy Pricing and Load Management: What Do End Users Want?: Final Report
November 1, 2000
This market research study provides information for energy service providers interested inevaluating end-user, or customer, perceptions of pricing and load management options.Medium and large commercial, industrial, and institutional energy decision-makersthroughout the U.S. and Canada (Alberta and Ontario) ...
Content type: Market Study | Author: Tia Hensler and William LeBlanc
Trends in PBR for Distribution Companies: Implications for the Customer Service Function
August 1, 2000
Public utilities commissions are establishing new standards for call center responsiveness, customer satisfaction, billing and consumer complaints, and field service quality under performance-based regulation (PBR). In light of this, customer care professionals must become familiar with these PBR metrics ...
Content type: Best Practice, Research, Service Report | Document ID: UCC-4 | Author: Ron Davis
Pricing Green Energy
December 1, 1999
How should one price green electricity? This report summarizes experience to date in pricing green electricity, from both regulated and restructured electricity markets. Evidence from market research and from pricing of other green products is reviewed as well. The report pinpoints what works and what ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: GE-2 | Author: Paul Komor, Christine Hurley
From RTP to Dynamic Buying: Communication, Analysis, and Control Tools for Managing Risk
October 1, 1999
For “energy-aware” end users and demand-constrained providers, current and emerging technologies for supporting dynamic pricing may hold the key to market-driven savings. Early results show that market-driven load management programs can benefit both the seller and buyer, with the greatest benefits ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: EIC-7 | Author: Brendan Kiernan
