Utilities are increasingly under pressure to deliver secure, clean, and affordable service while continuing to fortify their infrastructure and better serve and engage customers. The annual Oracle Energy and Water Awards recognize the trailblazers that are achieving success in these areas by driving sustainability, business transformation, and innovation. This year’s winners include Arizona Public Service (APS), City of Carmel, Indiana Utilities, FirstEnergy, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

“As customers continue to be more integral to all aspects of our operations, better protecting their services and fostering mutually beneficial relationships are paramount to utilities and the ecosystem’s success,” said Creighton Oyler, general manager, Oracle Energy and Water. “Our award winners collectively demonstrate the power that creative vision, effective planning and partnerships, and careful execution can have to achieve profound industry change and results.”

Initiative of the Year Winner – City of Carmel, Indiana Utilities

A municipally owned utility in central Indiana, City of Carmel, Indiana Utilities provides water, wastewater, and trash services to households and businesses. With innovation at its heart, the organization wanted to eliminate manual processes and transition to the cloud for future expansion and planning. They also wanted to simplify customer service actions for employees and provide more in-depth, transparent information to their citizens. In coordination with ESC Partners, the utility implemented Oracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service to provide a single interface for both customer visibility and meter data transparency. Customers now benefit from easier account access and timely, personalized data. City of Carmel, Indiana Utilities reports that it has also significantly decreased manual processes, freeing its small service team to focus on more impactful priorities.

Innovation Winner – FirstEnergy

Ohio-based FirstEnergy has 10 operating companies across six states serving six million customers. With the growing unpredictability of extreme weather events and the emergence of evolving distributed energy resources (DERs), the company wanted to replace its existing outage management system with a modern grid management platform that could scale and evolve with its business, customers, and regulatory demands. FirstEnergy implemented Oracle’s Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) and Oracle Utilities NMS Flex Operations to support outage management, switching, power flow analysis, and distribution automation processes. With improved outage response and enhanced system reliability, FirstEnergy can better meet their top priority of ensuring their communities and customers receive the electricity they need.

In addition, FirstEnergy is using behavioral energy efficiency from Oracle Opower to engage Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) customers to reduce energy usage during peak demand times and support affordability for the most vulnerable members of its communities. Powerful Opower affordability analytics together with Home Energy Reports (HERs) and home device optimization powered by EnergyHub is helping First Energy to deliver peak demand savings, increase customer satisfaction, and support those in need with bill assistance and money-saving energy efficiency programs.

Environmental Impact Winner – Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)

PG&E provides natural gas and electric service to approximately 16 million people in northern and central California. As part of its commitment to customers and the environment, PG&E and Oracle Utilities Opower launched a Home Energy Report (HER) program in 2011 to 50,000 residential households. Today, three million households benefit from the program with neighbor comparisons and personalized tips to save money and energy. Since its inception, the program has fueled 1.5 terawatt hours of electric savings, 53 million Therms in gas savings, one million home energy checkups completed, and $542 million in estimated customer bill savings (calculated using average kWh and therm rates from 2022). Additionally, a Continuous Energy Feedback Program (CEFP) launched in 2021 has introduced new services such as Bill Forecast Alerts, a Time-of-Use Rate Coach, EV HERs and, most recently, solar HERs that have made a significant impact by encouraging customers to lower their energy use.

Strategic Vision Winner – Arizona Public Service (APS)

APS generates clean, reliable and affordable energy for 1.3 million Arizona homes and businesses. To address the high peak demand that results from Arizona’s extreme summer heat, the company developed a personalized way to help customers reduce energy use. APS needed solutions to shift load outside of the on-peak period, advance benefits for the grid and keep customers comfortable and in control. Leveraging its long-term success in helping customers conserve energy with Home Energy Reports, behavioral load shaping offered the utility an opportunity to partner with customers on time-of-use rates. Through its personalized Oracle Behavioral Load Shaping tool, known as “Plan Coach,” APS is digitally engaging customers with timely reminders to reduce energy use during peak periods and shift to off-peak time periods. This novel approach has helped APS improve its customer experience, increase customer savings, and manage grid load. APS and Opower are exploring additional ways to increase customer engagement and encourage even higher utility program participation related to load shifting.

To learn more about these inspiring utility examples, follow the conversation on the Oracle Energy and Water blog or LinkedIn.