Central and South
West First with
On-Line Energy Analysis
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.
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