Automatic Customer Verification for Energy Efficiency Rebate Programs

Hoosier Customer?

Hoosier Energy, a generation and transmission cooperative serving 18-member electric cooperatives in Indiana and Illinois, provides power for 686,000 people. They also provide an online marketplace through AM Conservation Group (AMCG), which offers utility customers discounted energy efficiency, water conservation, and weatherization products. Think lightbulbs, smart thermostats, weatherstripping, efficient shower heads, etc.

As a coop that serves various communities in two states, Hoosier Energy needed a way to verify that customers purchasing energy efficiency products from AMCG were valid customers—that is, people who live within one of their cooperatives. Without ensuring that customers fall under their jurisdiction, Hoosier Energy wouldn’t be able to properly claim savings or be eligible for allocated incentives. They needed a tool.

Hoosier Partner?

Well…If you need a tool to parse, verify, and report on data, you think of Launch Consulting. The Launch Energy team banded together with AMCG to develop a verification tool and, more importantly, secure the one-two punch of savings and incentives for Hoosier Energy.

Once we dug deep into Hoosier’s needs, stakeholders, and desired outcomes, we discerned that the right solution was the simplest solution: the API tool from our flagship Energy Efficiency Collaboration Platform (EECP). By installing this tool, Hoosier Energy could:

Even better: The API tool needed zero tailoring or re-tooling. It suited the needs of Hoosier Energy and AMCG exactly—after the implementation and training period, the clients were essentially able to “plug and play.”

• Validate that an AM Conservation customer was a valid residential customer for HoosierEnergy and therefore eligible for the rebate program
• Absorb and track all purchases made by utility customers
• Accurately track savings, as well as incentives that need to be repaid to AMCG during year-end reconciliation

What's your outcome?

Launch Energy’s API tool is robust. It tracks a wide breadth of data. That means its users are privy to a detailed view of customer activity, which affords several benefits:

1. Reports of purchase records and trends allow Hoosier Energy to prepare proactively for future orders of in-demand energy efficiency products.
2. Since online, the API also makes it easier for AMCG to supply required reports toHoosier Energy; instead of tedious manual reporting, reports can simply be sent to Hoosier’s existing EECP platform.
3. Finally, Hoosier Energy can now wrap energy savings into their DSM portfolio, without having to import additional spreadsheets or auxiliary reports like they had previously.

Greener homes in the cooperative. Fewer mistakes in the data. More savings and incentives paid out. If efficiency is the goal—for energy and for operations—Launch’s API tool is a big step in the right direction.