The Value of Stakeholder Engagement Prior to Program Launch; The PowerCentsDC Pilot

By Karen Schultz, Sr. Marketing and Community Outreach Manager

PowerCentsDC ran a Smart Meter pilot. That’s not too unusual in itself. However, what was unique about the initiative were two strategic steps taken that turned out to be key to the successful outcomes of the pilot:

1. Collaboration – PowerCents DC is actually made up of multiple organizations - the utility, PepCo, plus stakeholders, with potentially competing interests,  that were identified and requested to “have a seat at the table”.
2. Consumer Feedback – Resources were invested to get consumer insights about dynamic pricing (i.e.; the value of texts, phone calls and emails during peak and non-peak pricing) and other facets of the program that would entail consumer engagement with the meters once deployed. The feedback began with in-person meetings – yes, face to face gatherings with consumers!

Both tactics reveal environmental awareness of the sensitive political-economic environment of the geography, here D.C. and an intentional strategy to have buy-in for the eventual program to launch well. By involving an array of stakeholders there was also an opportunity to glean critical market information that would eliminate barriers to success.

Additionally, the tactics employed indicate that PowerCentsDC had an understanding of the initiative’s particular issues, such as consumer concerns about privacy, energy pricing and the complicated nature of trying to understand and manage energy use … and how that may, or may not as they found out, vary along income levels.

The results:

1. Cost and Execution - PepCo leaders believe the overall cost and execution time for Smart Meter deployment in their larger service area will go down.
2. Engagement (aka “buy-in”) - The consumers, low-income and otherwise, in the pilot program want the program to continue.

Putting energy (excuse the pun) and resources into technological initiatives on the front end and involving key stakeholders can not only build buy-in for programs, but help to run them more efficiently and cost-effectively. The PowerCentsDC pilot program is a good example for this. For more information and some great videos about the PowerCentsDC pilot, go to: http://www.powercentsdc.org/.