Envisioning a customer-friendly utility company

In Collaboration with E.ON

 

BACKGROUND 

ChangeLabs worked with E.ON, one of the largest investor-owned utility companies selling power and gas to over 25 million customers. The company has facilites across Europe, Russia, and North America, and has an ambitious objective: To make energy cleaner and better wherever they operate. The company's mission seeks to benefit employees, customers, and investors alike. 

 

INTENT

Historically, power systems have been operated under the same basic approach: large-scale power plants are built to cover power demands as cheaply and reliably as possibly. However, due to disruptive innovations and technological improvements, there is a new "paradigm shift" in the energy sector. The more we rely on intermittent power generation (from solar and wind), the more this paradigm shift grows.

 

Power generation from renewable sources is increasing. In addition, the idea of decentralized power generation has also become more prominent over the past few years. More and more customers are installing micro-power generation plants in their homes or commercial sites. With the emergence of so-called "energy efficient platforms/solutions" and the introduction of "smart homes," a consumer’s home will become an important access point for utility companies to interact with existing customers, understand their behavior, and acquire new customers. 

 

IMPACT GOALS

Being more interconnected with customers and their homes creates significant strategic business advantages. Therefore, E.ON decided to work with a company called GreenWave Reality, a global innovator in the smart home services market, that focuses on energy management, connected lighting, and home monitoring services.

 

ChangeLabs worked with E.ON to address the following three goals: 

 

1. Identify the best target customers and design initiatives to persuade them to implement the GreenWave solution.

 

2. Design a platform to make it attractive, informative, and easy to use for the customer.

 

3. Increase customer engagement and retention. 

 

APPROACH 

A team was asked to design a concept and strategy to acquire the maximum number of customers. The team also worked on the design of a highly engaging platform -- and a business plan to monitize this solution -- with the goal of integrating possible on-site power solutions.