Xcel Energy Recognized as an Industry Leader in Customer Engagement

Oct 9, 2020 – Atlanta GA, Today, Apogee Interactive, Inc., one of the nation’s leading providers of proactive customer engagement solutions for the energy industry, announced Xcel Energy, a client since 2017, was selected as a finalist for Chartwell’s People’s Choice Awards in the category of Best Video. Chartwell’s People’s Choice Video Award recognizes outstanding, and creative achievement in short video marketing/communications efforts.

The Xcel Energy personalized videos have been distributed across their eight-state service territory to millions of customers whose bill increased by more than $15 from the previous month. Each video used the customer’s billing history and current consumption to compute and show the factors causing the bill to change due to weather, days-of-service, rate change, and behavior in the home and monetized the impact of each factor. Videos ended with a COVID-19 response offering assistance and links to payment options and other services. Survey results from the videos show a boost in Xcel’s Net Promoter Score of 7 points, now totaling 36 points, well above the industry standard of 15. The personalized messaging showing concern for customers during the pandemic produced extraordinary engagement results with open rates of 58 percent, click-through rates of 14 percent, and 87 percent of participants rated the content very or somewhat useful.

CLICK HERE to read full press release.

On October 13, 2020, the Connected Communities funding program will select projects that will demonstrate how groups of buildings combined with other types of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as electric vehicle (EV) charging and photovoltaic (PV) generation, can reliably and cost‐effectively serve as grid assets by strategically deploying efficiency and demand flexibility. It is a collaborative effort across three Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) offices—the Solar Energy Technologies Office, Vehicle Technologies Office, and Building Technologies Office—and the Office of Electricity.

DOE expects to make up to $65 million of federal funding available for new awards under this FOA, subject to the availability of appropriated funds. EERE anticipates making approximately 6-8 awards under this FOA. EERE may issue one, multiple, or no awards. Individual awards may vary between $3 million and $7 million, but DOE reserves the right to adjust these amounts depending on the applications submitted.

Key Dates:

Additional Information:

Download the full funding opportunity on the EERE Exchange website.

Learn how to apply for a funding opportunity.

Read the DOE press release about this funding opportunity announcement.

For FOA-specific support, contact [email protected].

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October 8, 2020, Irvine, California. SmartElek, a smart and connected 30A (Level2) and 16A (Level 1) EVSE by Smartenit, joins the short list of EVSEs certified by ETL to comply with strict UL standards. The charger wirelessly connects to the Internet of Things with virtually all popular IoT protocols available today: Zigbee, WiFi, and LTE-M/NBIoT. A wide choice of connectivity and many intelligent features make the SmartElek a sure bet for residential, multi-dwelling and commercial large campus deployments.

Abundant connectivity, stand-alone or network load management, and over 7.5kW of power in a package that is only 3.5” x 4.5” x 2.25”, place the SmartElek ahead of its competitors for power density, reliability and value. Patent-pending load switching technology makes for extremely low stand-by power and contactor longevity.

CLICK HERE to read the full press release.

Tucson Electric Power, a subsidiary of UNS Energy, is taking a significant step to integrate various smart devices meet the energy demands of our territory. The Tucson, AZ based utility, is releasing a global Request for Information (RFI) that will help in the development of a future Request for Proposal (RFP) that will incorporate demand response, load shifting/shaping capabilities for our residential sector, with the potential for future exploration in our commercial space.

The RFI will inform the design of our load management initiatives, including the ability to respond to peak demand and provide greater customer energy efficiency savings.

The information obtained through the RFI process will help TEP seek a partner or partners through a future request for proposal process to implement the pilot program, and share learnings with our team members.

Key Dates for the RFI:

CLICK HERE to read the full RFP.