Energy tap 0713 v5i

Utility

TAP t r e n d s ac ro s s the planet

0713

TAP

Welcome to this edition of Utility TAP – taking a glance around the world at some of the latest utility-related trends and campaigns.

This edition covers several campaigns including the elusive viral video, a pylon design competition in the UK, Portland General Electric’s social experiment and Georgia Power’s Learning Power curriculum.

In reviewing trends, we take a look at increasing electric vehicle attention, the recovery of clean energy’s reputation and how recent superstorms have caused customers to consider stability.

We round off the edition with some insights on the use of social media by utilities and the changing American household.

All this and more inside this latest edition of Utility TAP.

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contents

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Electric vehicles’ slow but steady growth

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Clean energy is once again publicly supported

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Storm preparation

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PG&E Markets Residential Offerings through Reality TV

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Reliant Energy’s Social Videos campaign

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Social media and utilities

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The National Grid Pylon Design Competition

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Tennessee Valley Authority “Money Vacuum”

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Portland Gas and Electric’s Online Community Experiment

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Georgia Power’s Learning Power curriculum

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Oklahoma gets big home energy savings out of the smart grid

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Solarcity finds success in partnerships

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The changing American household

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Contact us

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Industry T RE ND S

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Electric vehicles ’ slow b ut steady growt h C lean energy is once again pu b licly supported S torm preparation

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Electric V e h icles’ S low But Steady G rowt h

is a curiosity and anticipation to tap into, particularly among early adopter and influencer audiences. An increased, favorable focus on electric vehicles in the media offers an opportunity to tie in their smart grid and demand response efforts as interrelated parts of stories

such as Tesla’s national network of recharging stations and the new Model S sedan.

Plug In Electric Vehicle Sales, United States: 2010-2015 300,000 250,000

(Vehicles)

Steady growth in the electric vehicle market continues to make an impact on the US consumer and make headlines in regional and national publications. With articles focusing on technological advancements, innovators behind the companies and outlooks on the future, there

200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0

2010

EVs Source: Pike Research

2011

2012

2013

Plug-in Hybrids

2014

2015

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Clean Energ y is O nce Again P u b licly S upported

T op 5 clean energ y concepts Solar Energy: 69 percent Wind Energy: 66 percent Hybrid Vehicles: 61 percent Electric Cars: 49 percent

According to Pike Research, after a dip in in 2012 in consumer support for clean energy, in large part due to the highly-publicized demise of Solyndra, consumer support for clean energy has stabilized, creating an opportunity to once again highlight this work as a benefit to the customer base. The survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults in late 2012 found that the average percentage of consumers with a “very favorable” or “favorable” view of 13 clean energy concepts stands at 42 percent.

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Storm Preparation Superstorm Sandy, this year’s devastating tornados and other extreme weather anomalies have increased consumer and media conversation around energy service reliability and infrastructure. Consumers want to know that their energy providers are preparing for potential extreme weather conditions in their area. Smart grid infrastructure and other improvements told within this lens provide a contextual and personal relevance to a topic with which many customers aren’t typically engaged.

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PG & E M ar k e t s R e s i de nt i al O ffe r i ng s t hr o u g h R e ali t y T V

r e li ant e ne r g y S o ci al V i de o s campai g n

S o ci al me di a and u t i li t i e s

t he nat i onal g r i d py lon de s i g n co mpe t i t i on

MA R K E T I NG C AMPAI GNS

T e nne ss e e Valle y Au t ho r i t y “ M one y Vacu u m”

P o rt land Gas and E le ct r i c’s Onli ne Co mmu ni t y E x pe r i me nt

G e o r g i a P owe r ’s L e ar ni ng P owe r C u r r i cu lu m

O k laho ma G e t s Bi g H o me E ne r g y S av i ng s O u t O f S mart G r i d

s o lar ci t y fi nds s u cce ss i n part ne r s hi ps

T he chang i ng ame r i can ho u s e ho ld

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P G& E Markets R esidential O f f erings t h roug h R ealit y T V In 2012 Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) launched Energy House Calls, a campaign platform that integrated their multiple residential programs into a single campaign platform.

In the focal point of the campaign, an HGTVbased reality series featuring celebrity host Carmen De La Paz, visited the homes of six families and transformed their homes to be more energy efficient. The series aired online, accompanied by How To videos with stepby-step instructions on how to complete projects seen in the episodes, program information, an energyefficiency game and more information on the families in the episode. Paid media across cable, cinema and online advertisements and earned media helped drive traffic to the site.

PG&E took the campaign on the road with Energy House Calls LIVE, a mobile tour that traveled around central and northern California and included project demonstrations, an educational kiosk with episodes and email signup, promotional items and project sheets to take home.

Customers could also watch episodes and see energy savings information via kiosks in several Sears, Best Buy and Orchard Hardware stores. Social channels provided yet another opportunity for customers to engage; the campaign leveraged Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter channels to provide tips, behind-thescenes photos and information on the families featured.

visit energyhousecalls. com

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Reliant E nerg y ’s S ocial Videos C ampaign In 2011, Reliant Energy launched a social video campaign featuring two video concepts with the goal of using humor to drive awareness of Reliant e-Sense® Smart Energy Solutions. In “Digs featuring MegaWatt,” a spoof on MTV’s “Cribs,” MegaWatt, an energy-conscious hip-hop artist of CFL Records, gives a tour around his home showing off his mansion’s energy improvements. “Digs” also featured posts on the Reliant “energy in your life” blog and Facebook posts.

Over two years, the YouTube video generated over 12,000 views. In “Ask Jack,” a series of videos posed questions to a cartoon outlet named Jack and allowed viewers to participate by selecting

the right or wrong answer with the reward as a link to another humorous viralgeared video. The two “Ask Jack” entry videos garnered over 6,300 views.

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Trending: S ocial M edia and U tilities An estimated 57 million customers worldwide used social media to engage utilities in 2011 and that number is expected to increase over ten times to 624 million customers by the end of 2017, according to a white paper from Pike research.

Of those engaging with their utilities through social media (11%), Facebook was the most popular social media site for interaction, used by 75% of respondents.

Twitter (27%), YouTube (23%), and LinkedIn (15%) were used by fewer customers. Billing issues and obtaining information about a service or program (32%) were the most common reason for social media use followed by complimenting the utility about a service (25%), reporting a service outage (19%) or another service issue (16%) and scheduling a new service installation (15%).

Click on the infographic to see more

M / view Key Takeaways: • Social media use by utilities is most effective when content is meant to quickly inform during crisis and/or outage, answer needs in the form of customer service, and involve the customer in products or services with content that enables engagement. • Facebook is best for customer service, Twitter for crisis management and outages, and YouTube for consumer education. • As social media becomes more dynamic and more useful, more customers will be encouraged to use this medium to interact through social media channels.

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The National G rid P y lon Design C ompetition In the UK, The National Grid partnered with the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Department of Energy to create a design competition to replace the original 1920’s pylon design. The competition was announced on the BBC and 250 designs were submitted. Six design finalists were selected and were available for public viewing and commentary at the Victoria Albert Museum.

Public comments were considered when selecting a final design. The competition was a leveraged as a positive entry for The National Grid to share its approach to building new transmission infrastructure including a generation of power stations due to come online.

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Tennessee Valle y Aut h orit y “ M oney Vacuum ” In another campaign geared towards getting customer to go online and complete an energy audit, in Tennessee Valley Authority’s case a Home Energy Evaluation, TVA released this advertisement which takes a direct approach to showing money being swept out of the house.

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P ortland G eneral Electric ’ s O nline C ommunity E x periment Studies showed that while PGE customers were aware of energy efficiency information, they were largely unaware of the first steps to take which led to inertia. To promote energy efficiency and help customers get started, PGE launched Operation Switch, an “online community experiment.” Through Operation Switch, customers can go on energy efficiency “missions” to save money.

Through each mission, customers learn how to complete an energy-saving task and why it matters. At the end of each mission, customers are asked to Tweet or leave a comment. To encourage completions, PGE publicly posts a Twitter list of people who

have completed the most missions and shares the community’s cooperative energy savings. The campaign was promoted through customer newsletters, online advertising, announcements during baseball and soccer games leveraged through an existing stadium sponsorship, local radio, print ads and earned media. Through the course of the campaign, PGE garnered over 200 comments on missions, over 25,000 unique visitors and over 70,000 pageviews.

C h eck out operation switc h

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Georgia Power’s L earning P ower C urriculum As part of Georgia’s statewide initiative to bring energy education into the classroom, Georgia Power reached over 100,000 students through their Learning Power program.

The program includes eleven Georgia Power education coordinators who travel through the state teaching the Learning Power curriculum to elementary, middle and high school students at no cost to the school. The subject matter focuses on science, technology, engineering and math with the goals of improving academic achievement, helping create well-informed future energy purchasers, and building awareness around careers

in the electric utility industry.

The lesson plans and content are broken up into three categories (parents, teachers and students) and include classroom lessons, field trips and even an energy efficiency storybook, Joining the Watt Squad. According to Georgia Power, teachers throughout the state have been extremely receptive to the program.

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O klahoma G ets Big Home E nerg y S avings O ut Of t h e S mart G rid While the number of dynamic pricing programs offered has increased due to smart meter deployments, most have been on a small, pilot scale and driven by regulation. To prove that internal economic considerations alone could make a dynamic pricing plan worthwhile, Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E) launched their SmartHours demand response program, a partnership with Silver Springs network and their Energate Foundation™ Smart Thermostat, to residential customers. In their first full-scale season, OG&E was able to sign up 40,000 customers and delivered 70 megawatts of peak power reduction (about 2KW per home). This is nearly double what their goal was and has more than covered the cost of the program, which is about $300-400 per home.

In 2014 the utility has set a goal of 120,000 homes.

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SolarCit y Finds S uccess in Partners h ips SolarCity has established two relationships to drive solar installations. The first, established in 2010, puts SolarCity employees in Home Depot to share their solar leasing program with home improvement shoppers. They are not only capturing consumers considering solar through this channel, they are also turning people on to solar who would not have otherwise considered it and had low to no awareness of financing and leasing options.

Home Depot, in turn, receives a payment for each customer who installs a system.

A second partnership with Honda, established in early 2013, enables SolarCity to market to millions of Honda and Acura customers while also providing Honda an opportunity to co-fund Power Purchase Agreements. The benefits to Honda, in addition to the fund return itself, are two-fold. Honda is able to play a role in providing a solution to the electric vehicle concern of trading fuel costs for increased energy bills and align themselves more closely to renewable energy, a value Honda says is close to its Honda and Acura customers.

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The changing American House h old The US household continues to change as a result of economic pressures and lifestyles.

Multi-Generation Households The recession caused the trend towards smaller households to slow as many young people could not afford to leave home or returned home to save on costs. According to Pew Research Center, the number of Americans living in multi-generational households has reached record levels, increasing from 46.5 million to 51.4 million between 2007 and 2009. The survey found the median income for multi-generational households is higher than other types of households because there are more potential earners and this group is less likely to live in poverty.

More Households Formed in 2012 Despite the trend towards multi-generational households, The Census Bureau data shows almost 1.2 million new households were formed between 2011 and 2012 compared with just 650,000 households over the previous four years.

Cohabitating on the Rise

Single-Parent Families

The share of households which were non-married couples without children rose from 23% in 2006 to 23.5% in 2012 and is expected to increase further to 23.8% in 2017. Households with married couples increased from 54.5 million in 2000 to 56.5 million in 2010 according to the Census Bureau, while the number of unmarried opposite-sex partners grew from 4.8 million in 2000 to 7.7 million in 2010.

In 2012 13.2% of all households were singleparent families, up marginally from 2007. The 2012 OECD report found that single parents in the US were more likely to be employed (36% compared with a 21% average in other OECD countries), but had high rates of poverty as wages for single parents are often very low.

US: Households by Type

2007

2012

2017

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

single person

couple

couple with children

single-parent family

other

Source: Downsizing Globally: The Impact of Changing Household Structure on Global Consumer Markets, Euromonitor report, April 2013

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Getting in touch f or more in formation tap@ momentumww.com

http: //blog .momentumww. com/ b logs / wwtap/

Sources: Mintel, Marketing Daily, Pike Research, Booz & Company, BBC News, CNN Money, Greentech Media, Zpryme, the Census Bureau, Pew Research Center, the Organisation for Economic CoOperation and Development (OECD), Renewable Energy World, Portland Gas and Electric and Georgia Power