For over 15 years, Aclara has been a proven innovator in utility customer education and engagement

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1 Home Energy Reports For over 15 years, Aclara has been a proven innovator in utility customer education and engagement. Aclara s software has helped to demystify energy bills, giving customers the knowledge and tools to manage their consumption and control over their monthly bills. Over a decade ago Aclara created the first online energy analysis tool designed with the consumer in mind. Today, Aclara s customer solutions include a focus on helping utilities educate consumers about energy efficiency and conservation, increasing customer satisfaction and promoting beneficial online and offline utility programs. Aclara s products are widely used by utility customers across the United States and have been demonstrated to deliver measurable energy savings for DSM programs. Aclara recognizes that reaching every customer means using every channel. We also recognize the need to provide a consistent experience for consumers, regardless of the channel in which they choose to engage with the utility. Capitalizing on our longtime success of delivering paper surveys and reports for some of the country s largest investorowned utilities, Aclara has created an enhanced print/ home energy report program that leverages the principles of behavioral science to generate energy savings.

2 Solution Overview Aclara s cost-effective home energy reports program provides targeted, personalized and/or paper reports. Aclara s innovative program leverages our Intelligent Customer Insight Engine to obtain usage and consumption analytics, peer comparison, targeted messages, goal setting, tips to save money, and much more. Aclara provides turnkey support for all of aspects of home energy report programs including: Data acquisition Program design, including customer segmentation and targeting Analytics: peer comparisons, efficiency and appliance-level energy use Monitoring and tracking customer participation and energy savings Report design Report processing, including printing and mailing Data Acquisition Aclara s professional services team is trained to assist the utility in extracting the source data necessary to drive the program. Aclara s team will accept historical billing and cost data along with any available home profile data in any reasonable format. We will analyze your data, identify gaps and, where needed; Aclara will obtain additional data from outside sources. Aclara sources weather data from the National Weather Service and premise data from county assessor records for information about the home s structure, occupancy, and fuel utilization. By aggregating data from the utility and a variety of other sources, Aclara can deliver more meaningful, personalized recommendations. Program Design Aclara s approach to working with utilities is flexible and collaborative. Utility stakeholders are invited to participate in all aspects of program design and delivery. Aclara will deliver a program tailored to each utility s objectives, and customer community. Aclara will work with whatever level of input/involvement with which you are comfortable. Utility stakeholders have the opportunity to review all customer treatments and provide feedback and suggestions to improve the final program prior to live roll-out. From the customer perspective, everything received from the utility is related from bills to customer communications about energy usage, program participation, events, bill alerts, rebates, etc. Therefore, wherever possible, all customer communications should be coordinated to serve as an impetus for positive behavior change.

3 Analytics For a customer to engage with a utility, we must provide them relatable insights from their usage patterns, calls to action, and engagement opportunities that elevate an individual s likelihood to act. Our Intelligent Customer Insights engine s main function is to generate the kinds of insights that are more likely to motivate an individual to participate in energy saving programs. The Intelligent Customer Insights engine analyzes all of the information stored in the data warehouse and generates insights that are relevant at the customer segment and individual customer level. Insights are then prioritized according to both an individual s and utility s priorities. The analytics include peer comparison, home usage breakdowns, normative nudges, encouragements to participate in a program, the value of using beneficial online features, and incentives to sign up for channel-specific outreach such as text alerts or projected bill s. Program Tracking Our reporting web interface enables Aclara and utilities to analyze programs in near real time to see the impact of their campaigns and to identify trends that require further analysis. Program managers can dig into those results and glean greater understanding behind a campaign s success, including segmenting participants and non-responders. These powerful tools allow for easy reporting as well as a mechanism to refine future program messaging and/or to design new programs. Recent Experience Southern California Gas Aclara is currently delivering a print and campaign to 75,000 SoCalGas customers. Participants are receiving one of three different program treatments related to the frequency and/or distribution channel of the reports. This is the utility s second year testing the impacts and costeffectiveness of a pro-active home energy report as it relates to producing measurable natural gas consumption savings relative to a control group. Targeting some of their highest energy users, Aclara is expecting to help SoCalGas reach an overall savings of 2%. Ancillary program benefits including adoption of self-service tools and rebate program participation are also being evaluated for impact. The United Illuminating Company Working with long-time client United Illuminating, Aclara developed a new home energy report program and worked in partnership with UI to successfully gain approval for the program with the Connecticut regulatory board. The reports, which will be targeted at UIL customers with the highest consumption history, are scheduled to be deployed starting late summer 2015 to 50,000 participants. The reports will be designed to impact both consumer behavior as well as increase participation in UIL Home Energy Solutions and the adoption of self-service tools.

4 Aclara also employs a comprehensive program evaluation process in collaboration with utility stakeholders, including the third party evaluator. Aclara s approach is comprehensive because it is ongoing from project kick-off and throughout the duration of the postprogram evaluation. In addition, it measures how well the program has achieved its goals, both from a process and impact perspective. Aclara s approach includes: Process Evaluation Identifies areas for program improvement by conducting surveys and interviews with program staff, customers, channel partners, and other critical decision-makers involved with the initial program design and implementation. Impact Analysis Provides objective measures of program success quantified in terms of measurable customer savings Report Design Aclara has worked with experts in efficiency, program design, social marketing and behavioral science to develop effective visual templates and messaging for our home energy reports. Aclara s reports go beyond social norms to include several social marketing and behavioral economic supports, including the use of goal setting techniques, prompts, and commitments. The reports are personal, with highly targeted and appropriate tips, designed to specifically address the consumption and household profile of the targeted participant. During program implementation, Aclara will lead a report configuration process tailored to the specific needs of the targeted customer segments. Report Processing Aclara has more than 15 years of experience managing mail-based energy audit programs for utilities nationwide. Aclara manages the report processing, variable printing operations and delivery, including performing quality control. Aclara s quality control includes design validation across popular clients and devices. Aclara will use its existing local project management team to oversee the project s process and production of customer reports as well as customer support.

5 Weather Sensitivity Program Design Weather Sensitivity (WS) is designed to impact reductions in peak demand along with overall energy consumption. The program targets not just those with higher energy consumption, but those that have the most elasticity around their consumption relative to cold or warm temperatures. This elasticity represents the most significant opportunity to change customer behaviors around cooling/heating and, in the case of cooling, the opportunity to reduce demand. Reports During the winter (gas) or summer (electric) season, monthly communications are delivered by mail or focused on how these customers perform during the most unfavorable weather conditions. Insights may include the amount of energy consumption during these periods relative to either normal or total energy consumption as well as how that consumption compares to similar homes experiencing the same weather. The reports also feature customized tips to improve their home performance and simple steps that can create big impacts. Alerts Customers also receive weather alerts that are triggered by a configured weather forecast threshold to alert the customer to the impending opportunity to change previous behaviors. The alerts can include a 7-day outlook on forecasted temperatures, a reminder about their consumption during previous periods of similar weather and easy, no cost/low cost tips to improve their performance.

6 Bill-to-Date Alerts Program Design Bill to Date (BTD) is an opt-out program that leverages frequent feedback to impact behavior change. The intent is to help customers maintain a vital top of mind awareness of their energy consumption to create the behavioral change necessary to achieve energy conservation goal and program adoption. The program is unique in that it has the potential to reach large numbers of consumers and to demonstrate how to meet the energy reduction goal in a cost-effective manner. The BTD program is also viewed as extremely valuable by participants with those participants having a measurable increase in satisfaction with their utility. Alerts The alert is made possible by leveraging Aclara s AMI and rate analytic engines to enhance the alerts with a projected bill amount. This projection indicates what the customer s bill might be if their consumption pattern does not change and provides them tips to take action. The weekly alert, also containing the bill-to-date amount, number of days into bill cycle, and a targeted tip or promotion to save energy, are available to participants via or text