In the world of energy, ordinary people have long been considered little more than “consumers”, defined by their place at the end of the power lines – the final, oft-overlooked stop in a centralized, linear energy system. Now however, they find themselves at the heart of a huge transformation that heralds massive opportunities, both for the consumer – and those that serve them.
The world of energy is changing fast. For one, electrical grids are becoming less centralized: rather than a relatively small number of fossil-fuelled power stations, generation is increasingly distributed across thousands of cleaner, cheaper, yet more unpredictable wind and solar farms. At the same time, our electrical systems are also becoming less “linear”, with consumers looking to send electricity “back up the wires” into the grid from home solar panels, batteries and even EVs .
Such transformations are creating huge opportunities. While consumers are helping to drive the shift to a more highly developed grid, they also hold the key to solving many associated challenges, simultaneously unlocking benefits for themselves and the energy utilities that have long served them.
Regulators are already well aware that smart, low carbon consumer technologies will be vital when it comes to managing a smarter, cleaner, less centralized grid. From electric vehicles and smart chargers to home batteries and solar panels, customers with low carbon consumer tech can now get rewarded for helping to store and release greener energy back to the grid in such a way that helps balance an increasingly renewable, decentralized system.
Rather than simply “consuming”, ordinary people now have the opportunity to become active participants. EV drivers, for example, can save or even make money by actively engaging in energy, via products like smart time-of-use tariffs (which intelligently charges cars at the cheapest times overnight) and vehicle-2-grid charging (which allows drivers to get paid for sending energy back into the grid at key times). This benefits drivers, helps grid management and makes a greener future possible in the process.
Pioneering businesses have already begun to pick up on these opportunities, catering for the many customers who are increasingly demanding products and services that allow them to make the most of their tech. At the same time, there’s still a huge pool of consumers who already have smart products – and even more who are interested in buying them – yet who know little about the whys or the hows of ‘engaging’.
Given that they already act as a vital interface between consumers and the wider electrical system, energy utilities are also in the perfect position to win big. Beyond increasing customer satisfaction and streamlining grid management, few others are better placed to seize the huge revenues associated with rolling out a plethora of attractive products which allow customers to make the most of their new gear.
At the same time, consumers currently tend to have pretty low trust in utility companies. With regulators watching closely, if these businesses don’t act, frustration is set to mount from many angles as access to these benefits is blocked.
To seize the day, utilities must transform the way they engage with consumers: educating, innovating and persuading. Those who know and understand customers and customer data will have an increasing role to play. Around the world, leading utilities are already thinking ahead, centering and supercharging the work of their marketing teams, and investing in smart digital platforms with sophisticated tools to stay ahead of the curve.
Marketing teams are using AI-supported systems to gather and analyze a wealth of data in order to help pioneering utilities understand which customers are most likely to engage with smart products, which marketing messages are most likely to help consumers understand the benefits, and provide hyper-personalized targeting to reach them.
Fairly sophisticated customer outreach and marketing functions will be needed to bring consumers who may be cynical of utilities, or smart products into the fray, especially given that as consumers are educated, their expectations around customer service and product innovation will likely continue to shift.
Rising to the challenge, however, will be more than worth it. For starters, innovative steps taken in the marketing of smart products and services will certainly have knock-on effects for utilities’ customer experience and customer scores across the board. What’s more, smart products prevent an opportunity to make a decentralized grid much more resilient. Finally however, when we consider truly extraordinary revenue sharing opportunities awaiting utilities and customers who step up to the plate – surely it’s a no brainer: customer engagement is the key to accelerating the energy transition.
