customer preferences for metering and connectivity metering americas 2004 san diego, ca march 24-26,...
TRANSCRIPT
Customer Preferences for Metering and Connectivity
Metering Americas 2004
San Diego, CA
March 24-26, 2004
Lynn Fryer Stein
Primen
2
Agenda
Study methodology
Participant characteristics
Notifications times and modes
Tools to encourage participation in DR
Conclusions
3
Quantitative Survey Method
Data collected between August 19 and September 10, 2004
All interviews conducted via telephone
Respondents included facility manager, building manager, operations manager and chief engineer
Average survey length was 24 minutes
Survey focused on four utility programs– Energy information
– Innovative pricing
– Demand response
– Outage notification
4
Respondent Distribution
All results were weighted to reflect actual population and avoid being skewed by over-sampling across segmentation categories
Size of company
Type of company Estimated peak demand
5
The Main Job of Customers is Not Energy
How often do you attend to energy?
6
How Much Time Do You Spend on Energy?
0 5 10 15 20
Mass
Large
Very large
Total Median
Mean
Percent
7
Customers and Utilities Don’t Speak the Same Language
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Demandresponse
Intervalmeters
Load shapes Peak demand Kilowatt Kilowatt hour
% very familiar
Mass (< 150 kW)
Large (150 kW - 1499 kW)
Very large (≥1500 kW)
8
Familiarity with Energy Terms
We asked how familiar with the following terms:
Demand response
Interval meters
Load shapes
Peak demand
Kilowatt
Kilowatt hour
Assigned score of 0-5
9
Primary Energy Concerns Facing Customers
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Keeping energycosts down
Managingfluctuating
costs withinbudget
Avoidingdowntime due
to outages
Protectingequipment from
PQ problems
Extendingequipment life
Identifying loadcontrol
opportunities
Trackingenergy use
Not knowingpower is out
Not knowingrestoration
time
Mass (<150 kW)
Large (150 kW - 1499 kW)
Very large (≥1500 kW)
%
10
When Do Customers Want to Communicate?
When they “need” their utility
The most pressing need is outage notification– Out of 25 questions related to value of helpfulness of
communication programs only two were rated at a “10” by a majority of respondents
Notification of when power is to be restored (52%)
Ability to retrieve estimate of power restoration (54%)
Value of other programs – pricing, demand response, energy information – limited to niche markets and smaller groups of customers
11
Outage Communications – Phone Calls Preferred
12
Non-outage Issues – One-way Communications Preferred
45% of customers prefer an e-mail, page or text message
Only 3% find such communication methods unacceptable
A utility employing a broadcast system that could send e-mail, page or text messages would meet the needs of 97% of the C&I population
13
Outages Are a Major Concern
56% of customers state avoiding downtime due to power outages is a major concern
However, lengthy power outages are rare:– 58% experienced no more than two outages lasting < 5 minutes
– 71% experienced no more than two outages lasting > 5 minutes
– 28% experienced no power outages at all
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Less than 15min
15 - 30 min 31 - 59 min 1 hr - lessthan 2 hrs
2 hr s- lessthan 4 hrs
4 hrs - lessthan 12 hrs
12-24 hrs More than 1day
%
14
Usefulness of Outage Notification Programs
15
Outage Notification – Additional Information
16
Little Interest in Demand Response
0
5
10
15
20
25
1 - Not atall likely
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10-Extremely
likely
Likelihood of participating in curtailment program%
Likelihood of participatingin load curtailment
Percent of time spent on energy
Those who spend more time on energy are more likely to participate
17
What is Minimum Advance Notice You’d Need to Participate in Curtailment Program?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Industrial Institutional Commercial
18
Preferred Communication Modes for Curtailment Notification
24%
11%
22%
34%
5%1%
3% phone call from utility person
automated phone call
fax
email to computer
email to PDA
text message to cell phone
info posted on w ebsite
19
Tools to Aid Participation in DR
Helpfulness of demand response tools
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Energy use data tomonitor compliance
Real- time estimates ofsavings
Post-event savingsestimates
Control systems throughcustomer
Control systems throughutility
% rating 8-10
Mass (< 150 kW)Large (150 kW - 1499 kW)Very large (≥1500 kW)
There is less interest in post-event savings estimates (20% to 40%) among LES similar C&I states
20
Flexible Demand Response Communications
Preferences for communication method by minimum advanced
notice of curtailment periodMinimum advance notice required
for demand response by size
21
Automated Controls Need to Interface With Variety of Equipment
With customer override, 30% of very large, 40% of large and 47% of mass market customers would allow utility to remotely control equipment
22
Exception Reporting and Benchmarking Valued
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Energy used each day and cost
Graphs of current energy use in 15-minor hourly intervals
Prior year's energy use
Notification when power qualityproblem occurred at facility
Exception reports that highlight unusualincreases in consumption
Benchmarking of energy use acrossfacilities in company
Benchmarking of energy use betweenfacility and other similar facilities
Submetering
% rating 8-10
Mass (<150 kW)
Large (150 kW - 1499 kW)
Very large (≥1500 kW)
23
Preferences for Energy Consumption Data
24
The Frequency of Receiving Energy Information Impacts Technology Selection
Customer preferences for method of receiving energy consumption data
Preferred method of receiving information
Preferred frequency for receiving data
Mass (<150 kW)
Large (150 kW - 1499 kW)
Very large(1500 kW)
Monthly With monthly bill - 54%Email - 24% Website - 10%Fax - 12%
With monthly bill - 42%Email - 32% Website - 19%Fax - 8%
With monthly bill - 19%Email - 45%Website - 28%Fax - 7%
Daily With monthly bill - 25%Email - 27%|Website - 29%Fax - 20%
With monthly bill - 12% Email - 46% Website - 32%Fax - 10%
Email - 42%Website - 58%
Every 15-minutes N/A N/A Website - 87%Email - 13%
Note:This table shows customer preferences for the means of receiving energy consumption as a function of their preferences for how frequently to receive that information. Note that 25% of the mass market and 12% of the large segment indicate a preference with which no utility could comply — to receive information daily, but have it included with their monthly bill.
25
Larger Customers Can Tolerate Shorter Notice Time
26
Tools That Help with Pricing
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Monitoring and control systems toallow utility to automatically lower
use based on price signals
Monitoring and control systems toallow customer to quickly reduceenergy use based on price signals
Tool to predict how changes toequipment or energy use would
impact bill
Access to historical usage andbilling information
Access to current usageinformation
Tool to help choose the optimumrate plan
Mass (<150 kW)
Large (150 kW - 1499 kW)
Very large (≥1500 kW)
Customer communication preferences for innovative rates - services that would be helpful when participating in a variable pricing program
% rating 8 - 10
27
Conclusions
Customers really want to communicate with utility about outages
Energy information systems could share infrastructure with outage notification/management systems
Meter/machine to utility communications are transparent to customer
Demand response and energy information are of interest to a small subset of customers
Controlling energy costs is a major concern
Most customers do not have tools to manage energy costs
Energy information and automated control would help customers participate in demand response programs
