Ben Nathan leads E Source's research and advisement to utilities on energy affordability and equity. He specializes in identifying and sharing leading strategies and fostering collaborations to assist utility clients in planning, implementing, and evaluating their efforts to better serve income-qualified and other vulnerable populations. Before he joined E Source, Ben worked at the US Department of Energy, US Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Renewable Energy Lab, where he assisted federal, state and local government, and tribal partners in clean energy planning and air and water protection.

Content by this author

6 ways community partnerships can boost LMI customer enrollment in weatherization programs

Ben Nathan, Joshua Sorensen, Robbie Johnson, Paige Martin Cox
June 27, 2024

Low- and moderate-income customers face unique barriers when trying to participate in weatherization programs. In this blog, we highlight six ways community partnerships can help support weatherization program enrollment and delivery.

The energy assistance customer journey: Mapping and improving the experience for low-income customers

Jamie Wimberly, Rachel Cooper, Ben Nathan, Lisa Schulte, Katie Ruiz
June 13, 2024

Join us to learn how you can use customer journey mapping to better understand the current customer journey and improve the low-income customer experience. We’ll discuss what everyone involved can do to make a difference, including utilities, agency partners, and customers.

5 creative approaches to utility payment assistance programs

Ben Nathan, Patrick Woodworth
March 27, 2024

Managing arrears while maintaining flexibility for struggling customers is a balancing act for utilities with no universal recipe. Fortunately, there are many methods that can help. Here are five creative approaches to payment assistance programs that have shown positive results for some utilities.

LMI program enrollment improvements that make a difference

Ben Nathan
March 26, 2024

Enrolling in a utility program should be easy, quick, and stress-free for customers. Here are a few program enrollment improvement strategies that have been successful for Avista Utilities, Seattle City Light, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Equity and the utility customer: Highlights from 2023 customer survey findings

Ben Nathan, Jamie Wimberly
March 6, 2024

Equity is at the nexus of the relationship between customers living in frontline communities and their local utility. And the results from two of our annual surveys emphasized that point. Here are a few highlights from a recent webinar where we shard those survey results.