California utility leader engages solar customers to save energy and money with personalized, AI-driven insights delivered by Oracle Utilities Opower

OAKLAND, Calif. and AUSTIN, Texas, June 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the United States, is helping customers decarbonize and save on their energy bills one solar installation at a time. Building on its long collaboration with Oracle, PG&E is the first utility to deliver the new Oracle Utilities Opower Solar Home Energy Reports (HERs) to its customers. Today, 350,000 households are getting personalized insights into their net energy use, help understanding net metered bills, and actionable tips on how to save.

"Home Energy Reports have been a highly successful tool to create awareness amongst our customers on how taking small actions at home have a big collective impact on our environment," said Aaron August, PG&E Vice President for Utility Partnerships and Innovation. "With the energy landscape changing more in the past few years than it has in decades, we are always looking for ways to bring our customers along in this transformation. The solar HER is just one example of this strategy in action. Leveraging Opower's artificial intelligence and behavioral science capabilities, we can give our solar customers simple insights into their solar-powered energy use and personalized tips on how to get the most savings from their upgraded homes."

First launched in 2011, PG&E has delivered HERs to more than three million customers in California. PG&E's Opower program has delivered over 1.5 terawatt hours of electric savings, nearly 53 million Therms in gas savings, and $542 million in estimated customer bill savings. In recognition of these efforts, PG&E was recognized as the Environmental Impact winner in the annual Oracle Utilities Energy and Water Awards in March.

Let the sunshine in
PG&E is committed to realizing California's clean energy vision of a decarbonized and climate-resilient economy. This includes providing a customer experience that helps all types of customers make emissions-reducing home upgrades and save money with their new equipment. PG&E's rooftop solar customers now receive a personalized welcome report that orients them to how their solar-powered home uses energy. Monthly progress reports then follow with solar-specific insights and benchmarks that encourage customers to take actions to get the most out of their rooftop solar investment by saving energy. 

"The entire solar customer experience we are providing aligns with our corporate purpose to deliver for our hometowns and serve the planet," added Michelle van Tijen, PG&E Manager of Residential Energy Efficiency. "By expanding our behavioral program's reach with solar HERs, we are now able to regularly engage with this fast-growing class of customers and deliver the experience they need from PG&E." 

Since the launch of the Solar HER, Oracle and PG&E have seen high customer satisfaction and digital engagement. So far, the most common satisfaction score customers give the experience is a 5 out of 5. Early results show customers receiving these new solar HERs are clicking through to PG&E web tools at a rate 180% higher than other customers receiving HERs. 

PG&E is achieving extraordinary rates of digital engagement and self-service across their most complex residential customers. For example, PG&E provides Opower HERs and web tools for EV drivers with disaggregated EV charging use and personalized EV charging advice. PG&E customers receiving EV HERs are opening the reports at a rate 36% higher than customers receiving standard HERs. Customers receiving EV HERs are engaging with PG&E's Opower web features 280% more often than standard HER recipients, and they are taking valuable action on pge.com. For example, nearly 18,000 customers have used PG&E's Opower rate comparison tool on their way to select an EV rate plan that encourages off-peak charging.

"As complex residential customers like EV drivers and solar system owners grow in number, PG&E's digital experience is becoming an increasingly important and effective asset for engaging customers, influencing them to act, and serving them well," said Matt O'Keefe, group vice president of Oracle Utilities Opower. "By optimizing experiences for various types of customers who all use and generate energy differently, PG&E is showing the industry the power of using data, AI, and human-centered design to create an experience that helps people to take action and enjoy the journey."

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