Energy Marketplace 2.0
Description
New York State utilities have each deployed an online marketplace to offer customers products and services that increase the adoption of clean energy solutions. REV Connect invites innovative ideas and business models that work in partnership with utilities to scale these marketplace platforms by expanding offerings and pursuing additional opportunities that create value for customers, utilities, and the market.
Possible utility partnership opportunities could include:
- Expanding marketplaces to other customer sectors such as commercial and industrial
- Offering financing options for clean energy solutions
- Providing a variety of tools and education materials on managing energy use, budgeting energy-related expenses, and implementing other energy solutions
- Engaging customers through new business models that promote:
- Smart home technologies that operate with the forthcoming advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) rollouts
- Residential solar
- Community distributed generation (DG) subscriptions
- Insulation, air sealing, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) services
Utility-Specific Interests
| Utility | Propose Ideas Via | Interests |
|---|---|---|
| Central Hudson | REV Connect | Interested in offering new products and services via the CenHub marketplace—specifically, services to match customers with ESCOs and community DG providers |
| Con Edison | REV Connect | Interested in expanding the Connected Homes and Building Energy Efficiency demonstrations |
| NYSEG and RG&E | REV Connect | NYSEG has a community-based project connecting customers in the Ithaca area to solar providers as part of its NYSEG Smart Solutions project Interested in ideas for new products and services that provide additional value to customers and could be supported by the existing marketplace platform and platform partner |
| National Grid | REV Connect | Interested in partnerships that enhance the marketplace and connect customers to energy-saving household products and services with instant rebates and other incentives to drive participation |
| O&R | REV Connect or the O&R marketplace Program Manager (Donald Kennedy) | Interested in new products and services to list on the marketplace as well as advertisers interested in purchasing ad space, especially given the additional information that will be available after AMI rollout (see Utility Profile for more information) |
REV Context
Energy marketplaces help connect customers with DER providers and solutions. Energy marketplaces support a range of REV goals including enabling customer engagement and building an active market for products and services.
The utilities adopted the online marketplaces in their initial round of REV demonstration projects. These marketplaces offer a wide variety of capabilities and products such as new program enrollment, e-commerce marketplaces, customer engagement portals and customer energy reports. Initial products that have been launched through these marketplaces include: wifi thermostats, LED lights, solar panels (leads), and energy efficiency services.
New York utilities have the opportunity to propose and earn shareholder performance incentives—known as earnings adjustment mechanisms—for supporting customer engagement and energy efficiency. They may also earn new revenue—known as platform service revenues—from enabling transactions that occur on their marketplaces.
Resources
For more information, see:
- Marketplace websites:
- REV Connect Utility Profiles: Provides summaries of each utility’s marketplace demonstration