Case Study
Electricity providers in the U.S. and Canada are making strides in educating and engaging consumers on better controlling how much energy they use, the resulting costs they incur and the benefits of shifting their usage.
These case studies collected by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative spotlight how smart energy technologies and programs have engaged consumers to empower them to match the energy they use with their needs.
Headquartered in Kansas City, Evergy serves 1.7 million customers in Kansas and Missouri. Evergy’s mission is to empower a better future. Its focus remains on producing, transmitting and delivering reliable, affordable and sustainable energy for the benefit of its stakeholders. Evergy values innovation and adaptability to give customers better ways to manage their energy use, to create a safe workplace and to add value for investors.
When the Missouri Public Service Commission (MPSC) ordered Evergy to transition every residential customer to a time-of-use (TOU) rate by the end of 2023, Evergy had just six months to develop, test and implement a technical, complex and multi-channel digital education initiative and just ten months to begin transitioning customers to the new rates.
Rather than moving all customers to a default TOU rate, Evergy decided to offer several flexible TOU rate options, so customers would still have a choice and could select the plan that worked best for them. To engage customers proactively, Evergy enlisted Oracle Opower to embed its products and services across various channels, including webpages, mobile apps and outbound communications.
Evergy’s time-of-use transition was an overwhelming success. In roughly three months, Evergy motivated about 30 percent of residential customers to pre-enroll in a time-based plan before they would be automatically converted to the Default Time Based Plan. In addition, the education initiative resulted in 98 percent customer awareness of new rate options and 90 percent awareness of the required change to time-based plans.
