From Passive to Proactive: Redefining Customer Experience-Driven Energy Management

Consumers today expect real-time information, seamless communication and immediate responsiveness in all aspects of their lives, including from their utility providers. They want to know exactly what's happening with their service-whether it's understanding their energy usage in real time, receiving immediate updates on outages or getting rapid responses to their inquiries. Through a powerful collaboration, Smart Energy Water (SEW) and Itron are leveraging Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) data and distributed intelligence (DI) to redefine how utilities engage with consumers and deliver personalized energy insights.

By combining SEW's customer experience platform with Itron's DI ecosystem, utilities can offer tailored energy-saving tips, optimized rate plans and real-time alerts that meet the unique needs of every consumer.

Tracking the Evolution of Smart Meters
Let's look back to when smart meters were first deployed. Utilities envisioned a smart energy future where consumers become masters of their own energy destiny by logging on to real-time consumption data, selecting alternative rate plans that fit consumer's energy profiles and profiting from energy consumption management programs. Customer satisfaction and engagement would follow, leading to operational excellence and better revenue management.

Today, approximately 77% of households in North America have smart meters, with 61% in Great Britain and nearly 50% in the APAC region. A recent study has been tracking the industry's progress toward these milestones. Here's a preview of the key findings:

• While three in four consumers have a smart meter installed at their residence, only one in six (17%) is aware of the actual benefits of a smart meter beyond just reading numbers, submitting and paying bills.
• "Oh! My smart meter? Yes, I use it- to take a picture of my meter reading, send it to my provider and pay the regular bill."
• "I was told that smart meter can save me money, but I haven't seen any difference. It just seems like another complicated gadget I don't really need."

These are real-life scenarios highlighting the gap. And, smart meters aren't just about tracking numbers or paying bills. They serve as a gateway to profound knowledge and control over energy usage. They provide consumers with the ability to transition from passive users to active "prosumers"-people who produce, store and manage their own energy. They are a gateway to valuable insights into energy-guzzling appliances, help reduce unnecessary consumption and optimize operational efficiency for utilities. Data coming from smart meters also empowers consumers to manage their costs with timely notifications, avoid high bills and take advantage of time-of-use tariffs.

The Integrated Value of Smart Meters
The real value lies in how this data can be transformed into actionable insights that enhance customer experience (CX) with the power of artificial intelligence (AI), improve grid efficiency and ensure load balance across the network. That's where SEW's vertical-specific AI-powered customer and business experience platform comes in-designed to convert granular data into meaningful insights, addressing the unique needs of both utilities and consumers.

10 essential benefits of a connected platform include:

1. Personalized Energy Education & Billing Insights: SEW's vertical-specific CX platform leverages smart meter data to provide consumers with tailored energy-saving tips and optimized rate plans based on their unique consumption patterns. By analyzing real-time energy usage, the platform not only educates users on efficient appliance usage but also offers personalized billing recommendations, helping utilities improve customer segmentation and deliver more relevant services.
2. AI-Powered Energy Plans Based on Data Trends: Vertical-specific platforms allow energy providers to offer personalized rate plans based on consumer usage patterns, reducing operational costs and empowering consumers to choose plans that fit their exact consumption needs, like Time-of-Use or tiered rates.
3. Advanced Usage Forecasting: Leveraging real-time data, the platform helps end consumers predict their future energy usage and costs. This goes beyond simple meter readings by utilizing historical data and patterns, enabling users to proactively manage their energy use and avoid bill surprises.
4. Proactive Energy Alerts & Savings Recommendations: With deeper data analytics, consumers can receive tailored alerts when their energy consumption spikes, or usage patterns change unexpectedly. The platform translates these insights into actionable recommendations, such as suggesting energy-saving strategies or notifying users of more cost-effective consumption habits.
5. Real-Time Grid and Outage Management: The vertically-integrated connected platform goes beyond simply alerting customers for their usage-it actively helps in guarding customer's home. Leaks? Spikes in energy usage? Equipment malfunction? SEW's platform's advanced Edge AI detects anomalies and informs utilities in real time, and ensures faster resolution times, increased reliability, and a better customer experience.
6. Optimized EV Charging Based on User Data: For consumers with electric vehicles, smart meter data integrated with a connected platform allows for optimal charging times, aligning with grid capacity and energy prices, all while ensuring minimal impact on the network
7. Demand Response Participation for Grid Optimization: For utilities, balancing the delicate ecosystem of supply and demand is a 24/7 challenge. The vertical specific platform can leverage smart meter data to enable utilities to offer demand response programs, where consumers are incentivized consumers to adjust their energy consumption during peak demand times. This not only helps maintain grid stability but also allows consumers to reduce their bills by participating in energy-saving initiatives.
8. Dynamic and Predictive Pricing Models: Rather than flat-rate billing, the platform supports dynamic pricing by analyzing usage trends and grid demand, offering consumers the chance to access lower rates during off-peak hours and participate in demand response programs for incentives.
9. Enhanced Consumer Support with Data-Driven Insights: The platform enables customer service representatives to access real-time, granular data about a user's energy consumption, resulting in more efficient, tailored support. This reduces time to resolution and helps mitigate customer frustrations by delivering quick, data-backed solutions.
10. Revenue Realization and Efficiency for Utilities: By eliminating inaccuracies, missed meter reads, and reducing manual intervention, utilities can maximize revenue collection, streamline operations, and enhance overall grid management through seamless data integration between the smart meter and the CX/BX platform.

These key benefits demonstrate the transformative potential of smart meter data when combined with a vertical-specific, AI-powered platform. By harnessing this data, utilities can deliver more personalized, efficient and innovative customer experiences while optimizing grid management and revenue streams.

SEW and Itron's Collaboration
Itron and SEW's collaboration marks a significant step toward unlocking the potential of smart meter data, turning it into actionable insights that enhance consumer experience, improve grid efficiency and create new revenue streams for utilities. Consumers gain deeper control over their energy usage, while utilities can optimize operations and foster more meaningful relationships with their consumers. The collaboration with Itron also ensures the SEW platform has seamless and secure access to relevant grid edge data via Itron's DataHub, reducing integration costs and time to market. We look forward to continuing our collaboration to drive more sustainable, efficient and reliable energy management.