Date: August 2023

Time-of-use (TOU) and other innovative rate designs are critical to managing an increasingly complex grid, achieving decarbonization goals, and integrating DERs. To achieve meaningful results, more energy customers need to adopt them. Southern California Edison (SCE) wanted to get its customers on new rates in a way that ensured a positive experience and delivered impact to the business. The utility's transition began with an opt-in pilot in July 2016 and a default pilot of 400k customers in 2018. The full TOU rollout started in Oct 2020 and ran through June 2022, with over 1.9M customers defaulted. 

SCE knew that managing a program of this scale would require an analytics-driven approach and a focus on putting customers first. The result of its approach was strong engagement and an added benefit: significant peak load reduction in August 2022, making it equivalent to the third largest program in SCE's DR line up. 

During the summer of 2022, SCE used its innovative Rate Coach Program, powered by Oracle’s "Opower Behavioral Load Shaping" solution, to send specialized weekly communications to approximately 800,000 customers to help mitigate the effects of a record-breaking heat wave. 

Speakers:
Peter Bergeron, CPower
Eva Molnar, Southern California Edison
Scott Engstrom, GridX
Vanessa Richter, Oracle Energy and Water