Someday Soon Your Utility Will Help You Select Your Next Car

Utilities are — and have been for a long time — seeking better ways through which they can engage with their customers.  According to Jeff Hamel, director of energy and housing partnerships at Google, the Nest smart thermostat, which is part of the hardware product line that Google provides, is a good example of a simple way that utilities are partnering with their customers.

Google’s program is called Rush-hour Rewards, and it allows customers to agree to let their utility adjust their thermostat during times of peak energy demand, like during the very hot and humid days that have plagued the Northeast this past week.  (ISO New England reported peak power prices multiple times over the past five days.)  In exchange for allowing their utility to adjust their thermostat, customers get monetary rewards.

Online marketplaces are another example of how utilities are looking to help customers make good decisions about their energy use, said Hamel.

“There is a phrase where utilities want to become the ‘trusted energy adviser’ for their customers, he said, explaining that, for example Eversource customers in New England would look to their utility “for anything that [they] may be needing — from a smart thermostat to a new air conditioning unit all the way to bigger electric appliances like an electric vehicle,” he said.

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