Energy

New York City, July 1977: during a brutal heat wave, a bolt of lightning struck a substation on the Hudson River at 8:37pm. But things were about to get even worse. Circuit breakers were tripped, lightning struck a second and third time, transmission lines were overloaded and soon the city’s…

The utilities industry is in flux. Combatting climate change continues to be a global priority, renewable resources and energy efficiency technologies evolve at a rapid rate, yet many utilities still grapple with how to adapt for the 21st century. In a time of such uncertainty, keeping your customers up to…

In a forthcoming 2017 Utility Dive survey, created by Industry Dive in collaboration with NTC, 53.5% of industry professionals surveyed claim that a lack of consumer interest is the greatest challenge to implementing residential customer education programs. As the utilities industry continues to transform at a rapid rate, how can…

Creating a “win-win scenario” is usually the goal for businesses in any industry. What’s the best approach to satisfy your customers and succeed as a company too? Utilities put a lot of time, energy and money into residential programming with the goal of creating the win-win scenario. Often, the approach…

Most utility companies offer some sort of education and community outreach programming. Helping your customers make their homes more energy efficient or develop energy-saving habits is a worthwhile endeavor for the utility and the customer – and the way you present and market a program is as important as the…

In the ever changing world of utilities, one constant is the customer. It can be frustrating that no matter how much good you do in your communities, some residential customers still resent having to pay for power at all. Engaging your customers and offering programs and incentives that benefit them…

Utilities face an uphill battle in educating residential customers since very few of them understand what a kilowatt-hour is, let alone why they should sign up for a utility cycling program or why a rooftop solar installation could be right for them. What’s more, a “Utility Residential Customer Education” study,…

As a demand response or energy efficiency professional, you’re often in a tight spot, responsible for signing up thousands of smart grid consumers with a budget that seems to make that objective unattainable. It’s no easy task to ensure consumers: 1) care about their personal energy conservation, and 2) are…