Unlocking Energy Savings: Targeted Marketing and Pre-Enrollment as Solutions
By Dr. Andrew Jones
The Department of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant is funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, totaling $550 million, and is intended to support eligible state, local, and tribal entities. As the next round of funding applications prepares to close, a concerning question is how the disbursement and benefits of the sub-grants will reach those in need.
Tools such as the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) and Low-Income Energy Affordability Dataset (LEAD) answer questions about “where should funds be disbursed?”, with some going as granular as the block location. However, what is left unanswered is “which households in the areas should we target?” Currently most households have to self-identify as needing assistance, but many do not have time to fill out lengthy applications. In such cases, while unintentional, requiring households to self identify leads to a continuation of supporting exclusionary practices.
Enrolling oneself into programs that can be used as an indicator found in tools such as CEJST and LEAD requires a household to (a) know that a program exists and how to apply, (b) understand and can complete the applications, and (c) be willing to acknowledge they need support. Each of these can pose a barrier, which in some cases continues to exclude those who the programs are designed to support.
Approaches such as targeted marketing and pre-enrollment can aid in lowering these barriers. Pre-enrollment based on household characteristics or enrollment in similar programs streamlines the process. Consider a household that receives the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Pre-enrollment may look like one application for multiple assistance-based programs such as the Low-Income Home Energy Affordability Program. However, one step further can also be the integration of energy providers that can automatically send a notification to utility customer assistance programs to enroll them. Such actions would require leveraging connections between agencies.
We at Peoples Energy Analytics also believe that energy behavior, both typical and abnormal, can further aid in identifying and reaching households. Consider a household that uses abnormally low electricity—relative to similar households—during the summer months, where the days consistently reach highs of the mid-90s. With customer identification processes attuned to this behavior in combination with other indicators, contacting this household reveals that a 67-year-old tenant, who qualifies for LIHEAP and SNAP, has not turned on their AC in fear of an energy bill that they would not be able to afford. Targeted marketing can be used to inform them that there does not have to be a tradeoff between cooling their home and having an affordable energy bill.
We see many benefits for combining the targeted marketing with pre-enrollment in customer assistance programs where they will need to opt out rather than sign up. This can circumvent several of the barriers mentioned above.
People Energy Analytics can support efforts to identify individual customers and strengthen objectives to disperse benefits to where they are most needed. Our proven approach leverages our individualized models guaranteeing that benefits are directed to inefficient homes, those overburdened, those at risk of infrastructural deficiencies, and those who lack adequate equipment. Individualized household insights can strengthen the quantification of outcomes for awardees and for those seeking awards.