PSEG Long Island’s award-winning approach to TOU rates

Join us in congratulating our partner, PSEG Long Island, for their Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative 2024 Best Practices Award win! They will be receiving the Consumer Engagement Award for their immensely successful Time-of-Use (TOU) program, which we are proud to have played a role in implementing.

As part of their Utility 2.0 initiative, in 2021 PSEG Long Island embarked on a rate modernization initiative for its 1.1 million customers in Long Island, NY. It began as an opt-in pilot with the goal of enrolling 6,500 customers over the following two years. They ended up more than doubling that number with 14,000+ taking part in the program.

We know that offering modern rates is becoming a priority to meet regulatory mandates, manage a complex grid, integrate distributed energy resources, and achieve decarbonization targets. But oftentimes it’s easier said than done. Rates need to be designed and analyzed to ensure they are not unfairly impacting customers. Plus they need to be marketed in a way that educates customers on the bill impact and ways they can modify behaviors to help them succeed on the new rates.

Extensive research reaffirmed the need for customers to understand “how does this impact me,” leading to the deployment of a rate comparison tool for MyAccount, personalized savings included in direct customer communications, and a “1-Click” no log-in solution to easily select their best rate plan option. Bill designs were enhanced to provide clear and concise information on TOU energy usage and costs. The engagement campaign strategically targeted customers through owned channels such as email, website, direct mail, and video marketing tactics.

With a great approach came great results. In addition to doubling the number of participants, customers shifted load, with 90% saying that they felt very successful in doing so, and saved an average of 10% on their bills!

PSEG Long Island took a customer-centric approach when implementing TOU rates and the response was increased engagement and winning results, which ultimately created the vital foundation for the Long Island Power Authority approving a full scale default roll out of TOU rates to all 1.1 million of their customers.

We are proud to partner with PSEG Long Island on this initiative and look forward to continued success in the future.