Building utility customer programs for an affordable energy future

Join us for an interactive workshop for utility program leaders responding to the market trends reshaping customer programs, from rising energy costs and affordability demands to growing regulatory scrutiny. We’ll dig into practical solutions to build trust with and offer support to customers facing rising rates, advance innovative program models, reduce energy burdens, and build portfolios that provide lasting value for residential and commercial markets.

Alongside utility peers from across the country, attendees will examine approaches to addressing affordability and grid capacity, including:

• Engaging customers directly to design programs that reflect their real needs.
• Examining innovative program models and tools that deliver measurable energy savings and improve customer affordability.
• Exploring evolving demand-side management (DSM) approaches to support long-term system and affordability goals.

Agenda

Tuesday, May 19

Arrivals and welcome dinner

Wednesday, May 20

8:30 AM     Breakfast

9:00 AM     Opening remarks: The market forces reshaping utility customer programs 

We’ll begin the workshop by unpacking the major forces redefining the utility program landscape: demand growth, rising bills, grid reliability, electrification, and energy security. We’ll explore how traditional DSM models are evolving, where the biggest opportunities lie, and what it takes to put affordability at the center of your strategy.

Topics include: 

• Understanding the new energy efficiency ecosystem, covering major market drivers and key stakeholders.
• How affordability challenges are being addressed today.
• The future of grid-integrated, customer-centric utility programs.
• Reliability and resiliency implications, including energy security and economic impacts.

9:30 AM   Communicating affordability with credibility: Strategic messaging and marketing tactics

As utilities work to engage customers amid rising costs and grid investments, there is an opportunity to rethink the ways that customer programs take shape. This session examines how utilities can develop a holistic communication and engagement strategy in partnership with their customers, using insights to tailor messaging for residential and commercial markets, building trust with communities, regulators, and internal stakeholders, and articulating targeted relief for those most impacted.  

10:00 AM   Break

10:15 AM   Beyond incentives: What real-world insights reveal about program design and customer engagement

Hear from utility leaders about emerging program designs that strategically funnel resources toward customers with the highest energy burden, incorporate technologies that help customers better understand their energy bills and manage payments, and leverage data-driven, community-informed marketing strategies to improve customer engagement and satisfaction while delivering verifiable grid relief.

11:00 AM   How to design customer programs that support an affordable, reliable energy future

During this session, attendees will outline an updated program model incorporating three practical strategies to see what they could look like in real utility environments. Strategies will include customer-informed communication and marketing, braiding utility programs with complementary non-utility programs, and strategic targeting of DSM funds. Groups will pressure-test assumptions, surface tradeoffs, and identify the barriers and enablers that determine whether and how a strategy can be deployed within their existing programs to address affordability concerns.  

12:00 PM   Lunch

1:00 PM   Building program concepts for today’s evolving utility challenges

This afternoon session pushes the morning’s work from diagnosis to action. Groups will take their solution concepts and shape them into near-term frameworks, developing a delivery model, affordability and grid impact projections, key risks and mitigations, and a practical launch roadmap to bring back to their organizations.This fast-paced, collaborative session is designed to help participants move from discussion to decision-ready concepts, leaving with tangible frameworks, shared language, and ideas they can advance within their organizations.

2:00 PM     Closing