CPS Energy for Public Engagement

with Justin Chamberlain and Julie Cain, CPS Energy; and Michael Smith, National Grid

Gain key insights from a 17th PLMA Award-winning initiative for Thought Leader.

Recognizing the need to protect their customers from potential increase in energy costs resulting from projected peak load demands and megawatt availability in the ERCOT market, CPS Energy’s leadership challenged the Demand Response (DR) team to grow the company’s DR program for summer 2019 by 28 megawatts. The team created a plan to grow through behavioral DR, wifi thermostats, and both commercial and public customer engagement. Multiple new program options were created or expanded, including DR Coaching for commercial customers and an expanded behavioral DR program to 300,000 residential customers. To achieve this goal, a public engagement campaign engaging a local news station was created. The plan focused on adding an energy peak awareness message as part of the weather segment of the newscast. When a DR event was anticipated, the weather reporter would encourage viewers to lower energy usage throughout the day. At the end of the day, a follow up thank you message was announced during the nightly newscast. Through this effort of directly engaging the customer, CPS Energy exceeded the goal by adding over 40 MWs of DR to the portfolio. To promote friendly competition, customers in the program were able to see their kwh reduction versus their neighbors and where they ranked in energy savings.

Length: 28:39