With the proliferation of new energy programs resulting from the IRA, lean utility energy program teams are being overwhelmed by new administrative burdens. Growing programs—from solar interconnection to complex EVSE make-ready programs—increase the workload and project management demands on program managers and support staff. Expanded demands on limited human resources often lead to growing project backlogs, missed reporting deadlines and frustration, and even employee burnout and turnover.
Many utilities can extend their program management staff’s limited capacity using traditional desktop software such as email, shared spreadsheets and other tools. While these choices are certainly an improvement over paper processes, generally available desktop tools are not designed to manage customer education, thoroughly automate program management workflows or deliver deep insights through real-time, configurable reporting.
As renewable energy programs expand, tracking project status, deadlines and regulatory report due dates becomes progressively more challenging. For example, determining project status via email is especially difficult when trade allies such as solar or EV charger installers have multiple projects with a utility. Fortunately, more advanced software solutions are available to support program administrative staff through the energy transition, improving productivity levels and job satisfaction. These solutions allow utilities to digitize program management and automate processes, including customer education, application processing and complex program workflows.
Reduce Inbound Calls While Maintaining High Customer Satisfaction
Program management teams are already fielding more internal and external questions about distributed energy resource (DER) and electric vehicle (EV) programs. As the IRA continues to gain momentum, energy program teams should prepare for a significant increase in customer inquiries with increasingly complex EV and solar PV questions that require calculations that include customers’ personal energy usage.
Automating customer education through interactive, web-based software solutions can help answer complex questions about electrification choices, including solar and storage options, EVs and EV chargers. Customers can make informed, actionable decisions independently when utilities provide automated comparisons that consider personal energy usage, available incentives, and rate plan options. When customers are empowered to solve their own questions, utilities can reduce the number of time-consuming DER-related support calls.
Automate and Centralize Program Records, Communications & Workflows
Utility program workflows are complex and involve internal utility staff, as well as trade allies and customers. Program staff across the utility enterprise (including teams focused on PV interconnection, EVs and chargers, battery storage, building electrification, asset management, new service delivery and more) can all benefit from workflow automation. When utility program teams can access program and project information in an organized and secure online portal, outside an overstuffed email box, the program staff experience, as well as that of trade allies and customers, can be dramatically improved.
The solution? Workflow automation software designed for utilities. With these proven solutions, program managers can automate application intake from external parties, and create automated communications and deadline reminders for those parties who may, at any time (24/7), log in and view the status of their projects. eSignatures, electronic payment options and other integrations further streamline the process and improve customer satisfaction. The best solutions allow utility program staff to configure and adapt workflows and the forms within them without writing code, using familiar drag-and-drop motifs to accomplish these tasks. IT maintains its critical role in certifying these solutions and performing and maintaining integrations—which may or may not involve some custom development or coding—to on-premise or cloud-based utility and third-party systems.
Providing all three of these constituents—utility staff, trade allies and customers—with this transparency and automation can dramatically speed up application processing time, eliminate backlogs and reduce the likelihood of program staff burnout.
Simplify Regulatory Reporting
Creating and submitting periodic regulatory reports can be time-consuming and challenging for utility program administrators. Some utilities outsource the task to a vendor, which can be costly, while others manually create reports using disparate data sources. With the increasing complexity of regulatory reports, it's essential to automate and streamline the process of generating reports to save time and money for utilities and their program teams.
Automating regulatory reporting frees utility administrators to focus on higher-level tasks, such as planning and executing energy programs that meet decarbonization goals and provide value to customers. With accurate and reliable data, administrators can generate reports in-house, ensuring they meet regulatory requirements and are submitted on time.
Resources to Take Action and Learn More
The employee experience significantly impacts the success of decarbonization efforts, customer satisfaction, vendor relationships and regulatory compliance. Workflow and process automation software streamlines administrative processes to prevent backlogs, missed deadlines and staff fatigue. When considering a workflow or process automation software solution, utilities need to consider several variables including, but not limited to, the following:
- How easy is deployment? Time to market? How long will it take to train staff?
- Is an on-premise or cloud-based solution preferable?
- Has the solution been a proven success in other utilities?
- Is the solution secure? Does the vendor prioritize security using best practices such as SOC2?
- Is the software solution easy to scale to different programs of varying sizes?
- How does the software solution integrate with existing utility and third-party systems?
Learn more about what workflow and process automation software can do for your utility by joining Clean Power Research® at its upcoming conference, Reflow 2023™. Reflow is the virtual PowerClerk® conference dedicated to helping utilities learn how to leverage PowerClerk for workflow and process automation. This free and virtual conference is designed for utilities and energy agencies only. Reflow offers introductory sessions and features utility guest speakers for case study sessions, giving you valuable insights into successful energy program management implemented by utilities like yours. Reflow begins April 26, 2023. Register for free, and sample what Reflow has to offer with the two case studies below.
Future-proof Program Administration Processes Through Digitization: Orange & Rockland (O&R) and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) case studies
Orange & Rockland (O&R) improved the program administrator experience by automating and streamlining its EV make-ready program. As a result, O&R reduced the project lifecycle by an impressive 40% and exceeded complex New York state regulatory reporting requirements. Learn about their achievements in the case study, Streamlining a best-in-class EV make-ready program found here.
Like O&R, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s (REC) growing solar interconnection program presented new challenges, including high support call volumes, labor-intensive program management and monthly manual reporting requirements. See how streamlining the Co-op’s solar program, and automating customer education and regulatory reporting, saved program administrators a significant amount of time. REC also accelerated interconnection timelines from 2-4 weeks to just 2-4 days. Learn more in the case study, REC Streamlines Solar Processes, here.
