Customer Satisfaction Key to Ramping up Home Energy Efficiency

While making a single home more energy efficient may be relatively simple, upgrading 225,000 homes across an entire state is a different challenge. Convenience and high levels of trust among consumers are critical to the success of such an initiative.

"Easy to participate, easy to afford, easy to pay: that is the key," said Jan Mueller, policy associate at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI).

That was the take-home message of last Friday’s presentation by EESI and the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina (ECSC). The presentation was part of a conference on innovative approaches to promoting home energy efficiency hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy Better Buildings Program.

EESI and ECSC are partners on a "Rural Energy Savings Program" pilot project to retrofit homes across South Carolina. Once deployed at full scale, the program could save co-op members $280 million a year in energy costs. The Rural Energy Savings Program is designed to create an easy and convenient way for all electric customers − lower and higher income, renters and owners − to finance and implement energy-efficiency upgrades to their homes. Simple measures such as weatherization, duct-sealing and replacing electric resistance strip heating with efficient heat pumps can dramatically reduce energy use.

The retrofits are financed through "on-bill" loans coordinated by the cooperatives. A loan is attached to the electric service account, not the home or individual, and repaid through monthly charges on the participating member-customer's bill. The efficiency upgrade provides enough cost savings that customers can repay the loan and reduce their overall monthly payments at the same time. An "energy advisor," typically electric cooperative staff, assists the member-customer through the entire process.

Mueller and Mike Couick, ECSC President and CEO, highlighted the advantages of the member-customer focused business model used by electric cooperatives. Because the cooperatives are local-based − and members are, in fact, co-owners that are integrally involved in governance and financial decision-making – the cooperatives have developed an especially close relationship with their customers.

In South Carolina, electric cooperatives are part of community life, including publishing a highly-regarded magazine "South Carolina Living" that covers energy and a variety of other topics. South Carolina electric cooperatives aim to expand the programs to 225,000 homes to reduce energy demand by 10 percent in 10 years. Independent measures show that South Carolina cooperatives consistently enjoy customer satisfaction greater than 85 percent, compared to a national average of 74 percent.