Customer experience isn’t just the newest buzz word—it’s an essential part of any business strategy, and that applies to utilities, too!

By creating a cohesive customer experience across all contact channels, you’ll get customers who trust you and are more willing to participate in your programs. This web conference will explain exactly what customer experience is and how utilities can benefit.

Speakers:

Maureen Russolo, Director, Customer Experience Services
Matthew Burks, Senior Manager, Customer Experience Services
Richard Goodwin, Manager, Customer Experience Services

You will learn:

• Why utilities should care about the experiences they are delivering to their customers
• The strategic and financial value of improving how customers interact with you across all contact channels
• How other utilities are addressing customer experience
• The dangers of ignoring customer experience
• What E Source is doing to help utilities guide their strategies for customer experience, brand reputation, customer satisfaction, communications, public affairs, and social media.

Who should attend:

Anyone working for a utility who is interested in what customer experience is and why it’s so important.

For more information about attending this web conference, please contact Customer Service or call 1-800-376-8723 option 6.

Don’t miss this once-in-a-career opportunity! Dozens of manufacturers are bringing, or have already brought, electric vehicles (EVs) to market. The U.S. government, numerous states, and several Canadian provinces are paying incentives for EVs. Gasoline prices are near historic highs and expected to rise. What can utilities do to capitalize on this moment? Join us for the second in our series of conference calls for the E Source Electric Vehicle Leadership Group, created to allow utilities to share key information on how they are moving forward on this hot technology.

It’s time to get your message out. Don’t leave your customers’ perceptions of EVs to the car companies and naysayers.

During this call, we’ll focus on EV education and messaging. We’ll also include some discussion around EV rates and programs. This will be a highly interactive session; we encourage participants to engage in discussions as well as ask questions of the other Leadership Group members.

Speakers:

Bill LeBlanc, Senior Advisor, E Source
Jay Stein, Executive Vice President, E Source
Bryan Jungers, Research Manager, E Source

You will learn:

• The role utilities can play in educating, communicating with, and marketing EVs to customers
• How utilities can coordinate their EV education, communication, and marketing activities with car companies
• The specific aspects of plug-in EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs that customers may be confused about, such as up-front and ongoing costs, charging issues, and time-of use pricing
• How the corporate communications lessons learned from customer backlash against smart meters can be applied to EVs
• The types of rates and EV-program designs that should be in the incubator right now

Who should attend:

E Source members interested in and involved with electric vehicles of any kind.

For more information about attending this event, please contact Customer Service or call 1-800-376-8723 option 6.

This web conference will discuss the results of the commercial office plug load field monitoring study conducted on behalf of the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. The study, completed in July 2011, characterized the energy consumption of plug load devices in commercial applications and explored opportunities for plug load energy savings.

The plug load research team, led by Ecova (formerly Ecos Consulting) with PECI field support, inventoried the plug loads in two Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)–certified buildings in California and recorded detailed meter files on a subset of inventoried devices (mainly office equipment). Low- and no-cost energy-reduction strategies were implemented and then the energy consumption was remetered. The comparison of this use to the baseline allowed for estimation of the savings potential from these strategies. In conjunction, the New Buildings Institute (NBI) conducted direct panel-level metering and determined the energy breakout between building systems.

We’ll go over the findings from the study and how they can be used to suggest savings opportunities and actions that building owners, utilities, and policy-makers can take to obtain these savings in commercial buildings.

Speakers:
Cathy Higgins, Program Director, NBI
Amy Cortese Renbarger, Senior Project Manager, NBI
Chris Calwell, Senior Fellow, Policy and Research, Ecova
Catherine Mercier, Project Lead, Ecova

You will learn:

• Which devices were the largest plug load electricity users from the study
• What opportunities exist to reduce electricity use for office equipment plug loads
• How power-management settings and other software controlled by an IT department can affect potential energy savings
• How occupant behavior plays a role in plug-load electricity use and savings opportunities
• How the study and assessment of plug loads in commercial buildings could factor into programs and policies

Who should attend: Professionals in the building industry, office managers, building asset managers, electric device engineers, electrical engineers, and utility commercial program managers.

For more information about attending this web conference, please contact Customer Service or call 1-800-376-8723 option 6.

New electric vehicle (EV) models are flooding onto the U.S. and Canadian markets with over a dozen manufacturers planning to sell or release EVs in 2012. Included on this list are companies such as Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, General Motors, and Ford. Utilities have the opportunity to get out in front of this coming wave and help guide how consumers adopt and use their new electric transportation options. This is the first in a series of conference calls for the E Source Electric Vehicle Leadership Group, created to allow utilities to share key information on how they are moving forward on this hot technology.

E Source held its first Electric Vehicle Leadership Group roundtable at the E Source Forum in September 2011, with great discussions about how vehicles will affect utility loads, how pricing options could improve load shapes, whether utilities will be involved in selling vehicles, and what vehicles are likely to be the “winners” with consumers.

In this Leadership Call, we’ll follow up on that first discussion by taking on these issues that utilities are facing:

• What types of pilot programs are utilities engaging in, and what techniques are being tested?
• What cars are most likely to gain substantial market share? In particular, how will the introduction of the Prius plug-in hybrid alter the marketplace?
• What information is missing that utilities will need to help manage their new EV programs?
• Any other topics of interest to the group.

Speakers:

Bill LeBlanc, Senior Advisor, E Source
Jay Stein, Executive Vice President, E Source
Bryan Jungers, Research Manager, E Source

You will learn:

• What other utilities are doing in the EV space
• What cars are likely to get traction in the marketplace
• What EV research is being conducted by utilities and where there are gaps in the research
• Steps utilities are taking to get ready to manage EVs in their service territories

Who should attend:

E Source members interested in or involved with electric vehicles of any kind.

For more information about attending this web conference, please contact Customer Service or call 1-800-376-8723 option 6.

New research on rooftop units (RTUs) is now available from the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. Unitary RTUs are responsible for cooling at least half the floor space in commercial buildings in the U.S., yet their actual energy performance is below what it could or should be with today’s technologies.

Join us to learn about updates in two key areas of heating and cooling performance improvement in the light commercial buildings sector: (1) advanced controls and (2) performance monitoring, including fault detection and diagnostics (FDD).

Speakers:

Mark Cherniack, Senior Program Manager, New Buildings Institute
Kristin Heinemeier, Senior Engineer, Western Cooling Efficiency Center, University of California at Davis

You will learn:

• How the use of RTUs today affects a building’s overall energy performance tomorrow
• What are the available products, services, and behaviors related to HVAC operations and maintenance that define minimum FDD requirements for RTUs
• What product features are available for codes and standards consideration
• How the inclusion of performance monitoring and FDD in Title 24 will affect building requirements
• What new RTU performance monitoring and advanced control products are entering the market

Who should attend:

Professionals in the building industry, office managers, building asset managers, mechanical engineers, and utility commercial program managers

The characterization and approaches of performance monitoring and FDD from PIER funding is led by New Buildings Institute in conjunction with the Western Cooling Efficiency Center and in collaboration with the California utilities Codes & Standards Enhancement program. Results from this research have contributed to a new code proposal mandating fault detection functionality on RTUs for the California 2013 Title 24 code revision.

For more information about attending this web conference, please contact Customer Service or call 1-800-376-8723 option 6.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program funded research on how community leaders and builders can integrate land use, transportation, urban design features, and certain building energy technologies to produce energy-efficient development projects in California. Researchers modeled these technologies and design features for two development sites in Chula Vista, California, and assessed their impact on the environment and the existing electric and natural gas utility infrastructure. Additionally, researchers examined market and institutional barriers that prevent municipalities and the development industry from adopting these types of communities.

Join us for this web conference to hear the research findings. We’ll discuss how suggested integrated use of these technologies and features can reduce aggregate energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of a large-scale development project by as much as 45 percent and 33 percent, respectively, when compared to a Title 24–compliant project.

To achieve these gains, a fundamental market transformation is necessary, and state agencies and utilities must take leadership roles in facilitating the transformation.

We’ll also share how additional research could improve modeling tools, further evaluate the carbon reduction potential of various technologies and design features, and resolve economic and policy barriers impeding this form of development in California.

Speakers:

David Weightman, Energy Commission Specialist, California Energy Commission
Doug Newman, President, Sustainable Community Development Consultants; Director, National Energy Center for Sustainable Communities (NECSC)
Marek Czachorski, Independent Consultant; Former Lead Building Modeler, Gas Technology Institute
Denny Stone, Independent Consultant; Former Chief Economic Officer, City of Chula Vista
Jason Lally, Director of the Decision Lab, PlaceMatters
Doug Walker, President, Placeways
Nick Lee, Chief Development Officer, Sustainable Community Development Consultants; Former Project Manager, McMillin Development Company

You will learn:

• Where to find valuable practitioner design and policy reference guides derived from the research
• Which modeling tools were used to evaluate the energy efficiency and emissions performance of alternative building technologies and urban design features
• What the most important barriers and potential solutions are to energy-efficient development in the United States
• How the municipality and private development companies have used the research results to advance sustainable development in the City of Chula Vista

Who should attend:

Professionals in the development and building industry, including urban and regional planners, architects, engineers, modeling experts, and community development officials.

For more information about attending this web conference, please contact Customer Service or call 1-800-376-8723 option 6.