Central and South West

First with On-Line Energy Analysis

Note:  Central and South West merged with AEP.

In mid September Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO), along with its parent company. Central and South West Corporation (CSW), became the first utility in the country to offer its customers in home energy surveys over the Internet. Called HomeVIEW™, this service gives residential customers a chance to examine their energy usage patterns and translate them into cost savings.

While PSO has always offered home energy audits, the utility realized that scheduling conflicts and customer convenience were major barriers to customers' taking advantage of the service. With HomeVIEW™, customers can do the audits at their leisure without having to miss time from work, says Stan Whiteford, a spokesperson for PSO.

Developed and designed by utility services firm Volt Viewtech (Anaheim, California), HomeVIEW™ is more interactive than most programs, according to Whiteford.

To access the survey, customers must enter their utility company name and their account number to keep the analysis secure and confidential. In addition, customers are advised to have available their last 12 months' natural gas utility bills. After clearance, they are queried about their home (i.e., square footage, insulation ratings, number of windows, etc.), appliance usage (e.g., VCRs, stereos, computers, etc.), heating and cooling, and lifestyle. Customers receive 12 months' electric billing data; they also have the option of including other energy sources (e.g., natural gas) so that a complete picture of their energy use is produced. The program is rate-specific, using the customers' actual electric rate to analyze and calculate energy cost savings.

After the survey is completed, participants receive within minutes a two page report including energy efficiency recommendations.

With over four million customers, CSW has made the program available systemwide. Customers serviced by West Texas Utilities (Abilene, Texas), Central Power and Light (Corpus Christi, Texas), South Western Electric Power Company (Shreveport, Louisiana), and CSW (Dallas, Texas) can all use the service. The program also takes into account 15 weather zones representative of the diverse weather throughout CSW's territory.

CSW does not currently track the number of inquiries on specific portions of their home page and is not certain at this point how many customers have accessed the survey which has been in operation less than one month. They can determine the number of hits their home page in general is receiving: at press time, the CSW home page is averaging roughly 8,000 inquiries per week.

In its first weeks of operation, HomeVIEW™ is receiving very favorable customer reaction, Whiteford says. "They especially like that they can do a lot of the energy efficient recommendations themselves." And, as mentioned, convenience is also a key benefit to customers.

One interesting discovery CSW has made in the process is that a number of customers in the six utility area are not sure of the name of their utility. A few customers have contacted the company's 800 number after entering the wrong utility name and not being able to proceed with the survey. HomeVIEW™ can be found on CSW's Internet home page at http://home1.viewtechfinancialservices.com/csw/intro.htm.

Reprinted from Energy Services Marketing Letter,Vol 2., No. 10, October 21, 1996.