Not so long ago, I was presenting about the benefits of offering community solar together with other energy options, as one way to engage with utility customers in reinventing utility service for the age of renewables. Understand that I was addressing the Peak Load Management Alliance, so my audience already had experience pushing the energy-information rock uphill. Some in the audience wished that their favored solutions, from new rate designs to  energy storage systems, were as popular as solar panels. They were ready to consider working with utility solar managers and solar developers on new, packaged solutions.

Their viewpoint—which I share—was that if (in fact) the utility is engaging less than 15 minutes per year, either personally or digitally, with the average customer, then they’d better make it relevant, and (I mean this in the healthiest way) they’d better make it viral.

Of course I know that not every utility is going to offer community solar packaged with other options; our CSVP Solutions Toolkit is specifically designed for customization, so you can meet whatever your immediate and long-term program needs might be. But I also know it is time for customer engagement to be about much more than real-time outage reports and paperless bills. And I will tell you why.

Check out the latest ESource PowerWalking update, a series of man-on-the-street interviews created by the inimitable Bill LeBlanc. The latest interviews are almost as funny as they were in 2011… suggesting, if not exactly proving, that utility customers still need much better understanding about everything electric, with the possible exception of the today's widely-held notion that “Solar energy is … the thing of now.”

Does the content of your engagement with customers matter? I’d say, yes, because even though JD Power tells us that customers are more satisfied with their utilities than ever, those barely grounded customer relationships are wired for disruption.

According to the most recent Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) Consumer Pulse and Market Segmentation Study, the smart grid is reasonably well known; I’d hazard to guess that most people are more comfortable thinking about smart grids, smart appliances and energy apps than they are with the disembodied kilowatt-hour. For example, the SGCC study found that 58% of customers are interested in rooftop or shared solar, and 56% are interested in smart thermostats. It found sweeping interest (75%) in energy storage systems that could provide backup power for their homes.

When interviewed by GreenTech Media last year, SGCC President Patty Durand said, in effect, that today’s utilities should be ready for the teachable moment, whenever customers call, text, or scroll through. Utilities should be the trusted advisor, helping to identify the best option or options for customers, even if their initial interests are a little vague. SGCC research showed that 44% of utility customers surveyed identify with the statement, “Smart technologies fit our environmentally aware, high-tech lifestyles.” Doesn't that sound like somebody your utility could see as more than a customer—perhaps as a partner in your ongoing transformation?

I’ve been looking for an updated metric on how much the average conversation with a customer service representative costs the utility; if you have taht citation, contact me. But even without a quotable number, it’s safe to guess that every encounter with a customer is precious. And it's safe to guess that it’s not just passive engagement, but empowerment that most customers seek.

You can push too hard or too fast, of course. But in many regions, community solar attracts those prospective partners, who are self-selected for wanting to do something meaningful, for themselves and for the community at large. Get ready to talk to these customers about how they can share in beneficial solar plus demand response, low-tech storage or batteries, and talk to them about what reinventing the utility for this new Century means. Whether you ultimately decide to package your offers, or to put out a menu a la carte, it’s time to educate program staff and customer representatives to work with customers, who already want to to be what SGCC calls your Green Champions.

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For most of my long career, I've focused on promoting renewable energy. Distributed renewables, to be exact, along with the energy efficiency and load management strategies that minimize the cost and maximize the effectiveness of this approach. I was an early proponent of utility solar, telling a crowd at the ASES Solar 2006 conference that utilities would be smart to take a strategic approach to distributed solar, possibly leasing well-sited roof-space for their own systems or working out PPAs, which were still at that time prohibited in several states. I recall asking, wouldn't it be better if the utility helped to solarize a whole school, rather than hitching up a half-dozen kW or so? The audience response was sharply divided. Except for some notable exceptions, the utility folks remained skeptical for their reasons, and most of the others were opposed, for theirs. I stressed that we needed gigawatts of solar–soon–in order to meet climate goals. I proposed that utilities were best-positioned to deploy lots of solar affordably, and that while I remained a stalwart solar advocate, I no more wanted to buy a solar system for house than I wanted to buy a gas plant to put beside it.

Well, last month, we got solar on our roof. It's a great little system–about 3 kW, which is a badge of honor for having done my energy-efficiency homework. It has a nice new inverter, and is easy to build out, when I decide to get an EV. It even looks sharp. But it's a little bittersweet, because if I'd had a high-value, utility-based community solar option, I'd be twice as proud.

Here's why: Our highly professional solar vendor sent a sales guy out twice. Then, once my husband and I signed the contract, the solar designer came out. There was a flurry of additional paperwork, including the building permit and interconnection application, and news that we would have to pay extra to match the AMR meter at our house. Three guys came out for the install, which was great–they were done in about five hours, despite an unexpected snow storm. Another guy came to check it out. Then there was the county inspector. Then the meter installer. Then some folderal about turning it on. Six weeks later, some paperwork got lost in the mail, but once that turns up, we will be done. Solarized. Understand that I am a satisfied customer, but also keenly aware of why I'm working on a Department of Energy SunShot project, aimed at solar soft-cost reduction.

The utilities (and the regulators that so greatly influence them) have a great opportunity here to find the sweet spot between one-off solar projects like mine and giant centralized solar projects that preclude many flexible-grid benefits. I am agnostic about utility ownership (though I kind of like the benefits of utilities working with innovative, customer-focused biz partners). I think utilities would be surprised by customer readiness for additional clean electrification and load management options (not just EVs, but also controlled water heaters, pre-cooling, and smart appliances), and customers might be surprised by the delightful feeling of participating in a community solar project that offers shares that just about anyone could afford. 

I would go so far as to say that community solar itself could be an interim step, before utilities learn to incorporate high-percentages of distributed solar and other DER on the system, as their standard operating procedure. Yes, I know, I've been wildly optimistic about solar before. My vision is not quite realized in my own backyard, but I think it's coming. Maybe by the time I get that EV, I'll be able to offset its electricity needs by buying in to a community solar project instead.