Solar Choice Overview

Transcription

1 Solar Choice Overview Renewable Energy Markets Conference October 2017 Tyler O Farrell Puget Sound Energy

2 Puget Sound Energy Headquarters: Bellevue, WA Employees: 2,700 Service Area: 6,000 square miles Customers: 1.1 million electric 800k natural gas Resource Portfolio: Hydro 34% Coal 31% Natural Gas 29% Wind 4% Nuclear/Other 2% 2

3 PSE Renewable Offerings Retail Renewable Energy Choices EXISTING GREEN POWER PROGRAM REC purchases 44,000 customers Residential, commercial, municipal BULK REC PURCHASES Excess PSE RECs 10,000,000 kwh Large business GREEN DIRECT Long-term partnership with PSE for dedicated energy resources Large commercial, municipal 3

4 Green Power Program Highlights 417 million kwhs sold in ,000 residential customers. 1,000 commercial customers. Nationally ranked program in kwhs sold and customer participation. Green-E Certified. Above and beyond basic service mix. PSE does not make a profit on this offering Susan Swan Bellingham, WA 4

5 Marketing Direct Mail Events Courtesy Knock Call Center 5

6 Resource Supply Wind 68% Livestock methane 15% Landfill Gas 9% Low Impact Hydro 5% Geothermal 2% Solar 1% 6

7 Resource Supply Wind 68% Livestock methane 15% Landfill Gas 9% Low Impact Hydro 5% Geothermal 2% Solar 1% 7

8 Here Comes The Sun Launched March 2017 Sold in $5 blocks (150 kwhs) Opened with 2,800 available blocks. Available to residential and commercial electric customers. PSE does not make a profit on this offering. Green-E Certified 8

9 Program Facilities Grand View Solar Project (ID) 108 mw Kingston Community Center (WA) 75 kw 9

10 Solar Choice Goals Launch product to the public in April 2017 Subscribe 2,100 blocks / 3,750 annual MWhs by December 2017 (stretch goal of 2,800 blocks) Encourage use of new self-serve online sign up form Limit cannibalization of current Green Power enrollments 10

11 Online experience Interactive calculator Online enrollment with SAP integration 11

12 Initial online enrollment results 191 online transactions for Green Power using new form from December 22 to March 12 Customer online conversion rate rose from 5.5% to 17.2% 114 online transactions and zero enrollments by agents since March 12 Solar Choice soft launch 302 blocks sold - 11% of initial capacity 6 Green Power customers participating at the 100% level chose to add 10 blocks of Solar Choice at $50/month 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Conversion Rate 5.5% Old Green Power Form 15.3% New Green Power Form 17.2% New Green Power + Solar Choice Conversion rate = submissions / unique pageviews Data from PSE Google Analytics and SAP BW reporting 12

13 Marketing Strategy #1: Leverage Green Power Annual Report Approach Include a CTA button to upgrade their participation by adding Solar Choice Direct Mail: Include a BRC to upgrade participation by adding Solar Choice Why target this group? Green Power customers have already demonstrated support for voluntary renewables Customer research predicted additive behavior, not cannibalization Why use this channel? The Annual Report is a required communication and timing aligned with the Solar Choice launch What we wanted to test Does marketing to Green Power customers create cannibalization? How many customers opt-out of an enrollment incentive? Results Very limited cannibalization most customers added Solar Choice to 100% Green Power 44% of customers opted not to receive the promotional water bottle. 13

14 Marketing Strategy #2: Earth Day Approach Earth Day messaging promoting both Green Power and Solar Choice, with secondary message related to the calculator tool Why target this group? Opower segmentation predicts this group is interested in renewables Why use this channel? Large send (~170K) promotes broad awareness of offering JDP / MSI scores increase when customers know about product options, even if they don t participate Earth Day aligned with Solar Choice launch date What we wanted to test What do enrollment rates look like when copromoting Green Power and Solar Choice? Results 40% chose Green Power 100% only 29% Green Power 100% + Solar Choice 20% Green Power blocks + Solar Choice 11% Green Power blocks only 14

15 Marketing Strategy #3: Targeted Interactive Millennials Campaign Approach Directly market Solar Choice to millennials using CTA to enroll in the program Why target this group? Used PRIZM to target those willing to pay more for solar and likely to be early adopters Millennials are under-represented among Green Power Customers Why use this channel? Constant Contact / SendGrid allow for small sends with flexible dates PRIZM data indicates these segments prefer communication to other channels What we wanted to test Do the three target segments respond similarly? What messaging resonates best? Results Two rounds of test s sent Test segments responded similarly to each other and differently from randomly selected customers Enrollment rates were very low among test segments 15

16 Marketing Strategy #4: Cross-sell Approach Primary message promoted CAN. Secondary message promoted Solar Choice as a new offering from PSE Why target this group? Reach a broad audience Why use this channel? Large send (~294K) promotes broad awareness of offering JDP / MSI scores increase when customers know about product options, even if they don t participate What we wanted to test How does Solar Choice perform as a secondary message? Does promoting just Solar Choice drive spillover Green Power enrollments? Results 45% of clickthroughs were for renewables 48% enrolled in Green Power only 48% enrolled in GP and Solar Choice 4% enrolled in Solar Choice only 16

17 Some Results Sold out initial 2,800 block capacity after 20 weeks. Added an additional 2,800 blocks of capacity. We ve enrolled 1,909 customers who have purchased 3,291 blocks. 75% of Solar Choice customers are also participating in Green Power. 17

18 What s next? Explore social media options for reaching millennial segments. Test personalized s telling customers how many blocks they need to buy to cover 100% of their usage. Waitlist option 18

19 Thank you Tyler O Farrell Puget Sound Energy tyler.ofarrell@pse.com