The District’s sustainable energy program would be best served by a robust platform that is able to integrate data collection and data analysis through all elements of the program, beginning with customer engagement and continuing to use data in delivery, savings tracking and savings verification.
It’s all about real-time data, when it comes to successfully building and implementing energy efficiency portfolios for municipalities, government agencies and utilities serving the District. Like many other states and jurisdictions, we have a utility that implements energy efficiency programs to manage long-term demand growth economically and to comply with legislative and regulatory policies that mandate reduced consumption of electricity and natural gas. Measuring success requires the collection, organization, interpretation, and presentation of data that would make your most competent software developer code endlessly; therefore, it is best to have a robust technology platform, as you will quickly discover the limitations of your favorite spreadsheet program. Performance management of sustainable energy systems requires the continuous collection of data to provide metrics on: 1) energy efficiency portfolio performance; 2) the balance of demand and load on the energy grid; and 3) ultimate customer satisfaction with the diverse means of obtaining energy to power households or businesses.
Let’s focus on data and the correlation to improved customer satisfaction. I have seen partners in the sustainable energy space use advanced, data-driven marketing tools to segment, rank, and map customers at a granular and community level. These market research tools fall into two categories: Segmentation and Analytics, and Ranking and Modeling. Over the last several years for energy programs across the country, the data from these tools has been used to ensure efficiency and customer engagement, program participation, and satisfaction. The data helps our partners understand and serve their customers. The same tools can be implemented right here in the District.
The District’s sustainable energy program would be best served by a robust platform that is able to integrate data collection and data analysis through all elements of the program, beginning with customer engagement and continuing to use data in delivery, savings tracking and savings verification. Also based on the data – and it’s all about the data – recommendations can be made to further implement smart grid technology solutions, scale grid storage, manage fluctuating load patterns, and foster interactions between renewable energy providers and existing utilities to achieve kilowatt savings.