Per the Decision, a primary purpose of the default pilot is to “fine-tune customer education… prior to full rollout of default TOU.” SDG&E recasts this into primary marketing objectives for its default pilot: to determine how best to maximize, at reasonable cost, customer awareness of the fact that they will be defaulted onto a new rate unless they opt out, to inform customers about the options they have if they want to opt out to the tiered rate or choose a TOU rate that is different from the default rate, to determine cost-effective ways of educating customers about how to manage their energy use and control costs under TOU rates, and to provide tools for managing seasonal bill volatility in order to retain customers on TOU rates over time. To achieve the above objectives, SDG&E proposes to provide customers with variations of pre-default notifications, welcome communications, seasonal communications, end-of-bill protection notices and other ME&O materials from across SDG&E’s other business areas not specific to TOU, and to gauge their relative success using outcome metrics including opt-out rates and customer perceptions. SDG&E’s proposed variations include ten variations in pre-default notifications with respect to channel, granularity of rate comparison information (annual and seasonal or monthly) and number of rate options provided in the rate comparison. SDG&E also proposes to test whether including an energy efficiency item or an offer for an energy efficiency item (e.g. an LED light bulb) along with its welcome communication serves to enhance customer perceptions of TOU. Finally, as part of it summer seasonal communications, SDG&E will test 1) an educational campaign designed to encourage the use of programmable thermostats, 2) a campaign to promote enrollment in its level pay plan program (to address seasonal bill volatility associated with TOU) and 3) tailored messaging based on SDG&E’s customer personas versus more generic messaging. SDG&E has not yet determined the exact messaging and design for its M&EO materials and will consider the results of current and future planned customer research in creating the final ME&O materials.
Per the Decision, a primary purpose of the default pilot is to “fine-tune customer education… prior to full rollout of default TOU.” SDG&E recasts this into primary marketing objectives for its default pilot: to determine how best to maximize, at reasonable cost, customer awareness of the fact that they will be defaulted onto a new rate unless they opt out, to inform customers about the options they have if they want to opt out to the tiered rate or choose a TOU rate that is different from the default rate, to determine cost-effective ways of educating customers about how to manage their energy use and control costs under TOU rates, and to provide tools for managing seasonal bill volatility in order to retain customers on TOU rates over time. To achieve the above objectives, SDG&E proposes to provide customers with variations of pre-default notifications, welcome communications, seasonal communications, end-of-bill protection notices and other ME&O materials from across SDG&E’s other business areas not specific to TOU, and to gauge their relative success using outcome metrics including opt-out rates and customer perceptions. SDG&E’s proposed variations include ten variations in pre-default notifications with respect to channel, granularity of rate comparison information (annual and seasonal or monthly) and number of rate options provided in the rate comparison. SDG&E also proposes to test whether including an energy efficiency item or an offer for an energy efficiency item (e.g. an LED light bulb) along with its welcome communication serves to enhance customer perceptions of TOU. Finally, as part of it summer seasonal communications, SDG&E will test 1) an educational campaign designed to encourage the use of programmable thermostats, 2) a campaign to promote enrollment in its level pay plan program (to address seasonal bill volatility associated with TOU) and 3) tailored messaging based on SDG&E’s customer personas versus more generic messaging. SDG&E has not yet determined the exact messaging and design for its M&EO materials and will consider the results of current and future planned customer research in creating the final ME&O materials.
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