The Holy Grail of Energy Modeling

June 18, 2020 | Blog

Residential customers and utilities benefit from varying rate plans. Still, the truth is, many customers don’t understand how their energy rates work or what rate would be best for their lifestyle. In a recent survey conducted by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, 47% of customers didn’t know what their current rate plan was. In the same study, most customers said they would be willing to try a new rate plan, especially if it would allow them to save money.

In order for utilities to make alternative rates useful and widely accepted, they need to have effective communications and provide educational tools that help customers understand what rate options are available and how their bill may change.

Rate design is another challenge for utilities. Today’s residential energy use can be complicated. Many homes have electric vehicles, solar panels, and some may have battery storage behind the meter, all factors that can skew the energy profile.

How can an energy provider design a rate that will optimize their power supply and customer revenue while encouraging rate adoption by customers?

After decades of experience modeling energy use in homes and buildings, Apogee may have uncovered the “holy grail” of energy analysis. Apogee has created an application called RateAdvisor™ that will address the concerns of utilities and customers. RateAdvisor™ helps make customers aware of their options and assists utilities in creating profitable rate designs.

The RateAdvisor™ application allows utilities to batch process analysis of their customer’s billing history without AMI or smart grid data. As a result, this analysis gives the rate design and marketing teams precisely the information they need to design rates.

As a customer-facing application, RateAdvisor™ helps utilities engage consumers by providing the information needed to select an energy rate based on their personal needs and lifestyle. RateAdvisor™ helps customers determine the lowest rate structure, whether it’s volumetric, time of use, or demand. RateAdvisor™ also shows customers how behavioral changes affect each rate structure.

Another advantage of the application is that customers don’t have to have a full year of AMI data to pick the rate that works best for them. So a new customer doesn’t have to wait a year in their new home, or a utility with new meters doesn’t have to wait for a year’s worth of historic data to do the analysis.

To learn more about RateAdvisor™, please contact your Apogee account representative or info@apogee.net.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About The Author

Karen D. Morris, Marketing Manager, Apogee Interactive, Inc.

Karen manages Apogee’s marketing resources service as well as Apogee’s own corporate marketing efforts. For the past 20 years, she’s worked closely with utilities across the country to help them better market their energy efficiency programs through online initiatives. She brings timely and informative webinars to energy professionals through Apogee Institute as well as directs Apogee’s user groups.

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