Applications Being Accepted
Now through March 27, 2023

Agenda Format for RMUE

The agenda will explore best practices and lessons learned about initiatives related to energy (gas and electricity) efficiency, water conservation, strategy, issues, and integration with renewable energy, flexible load management, strategic load growth, and other customer-facing initiatives. Share with us how your organization is collaborating with utilities and/or other allies to take a customer-oriented approach to achieve greater impacts in residential, commercial, municipal, and industrial end-use applications.

The agenda format will include 90-minute workshops and sessions, with ample time provided for audience discussion. Current plans are for the agenda to include two workshops, the roundtable, and seven general sessions to be presented over four days. Each session will be facilitated by an Advisory Committee member. The preferred submission is a 20-minute general session presentation followed by 10 minutes of audience Q&A. In-depth, interactive workshop submissions up to 90 minutes may also be proposed. Panel discussion submissions are encouraged.

Selection Process

Preference in the selection process will be given to submissions by Rocky Mountain region utility staff who present case studies that focus on the challenges of designing and implementing comprehensive utility/customer solutions/experiences in ways that demonstrate utility-ally collaboration. Presentations from and about utilities in other geographical regions will be considered if relevant to/replicable in the Rocky Mountain region.

During the agenda development process, the Advisory Committee will rank all submissions and group them by topic. All submitters will be notified of acceptance (or not) prior to agenda publication. Presenters will be required to attend an online coordination meeting/rehearsal and must register to attend the Exchange in-person to confirm their acceptance. Subsequent online coordination meetings and rehearsals with the facilitators and other presenters will be conducted on a session-by-session basis as needed.

Submission Considerations

Presentation submitters are asked to choose the best fit for their submission from the broad topics listed below. When choosing a topic, consider some of these potential themes for how the session facilitator may relate your presentation with the others that will be included in your session for discussion.

Session topics and themes of primary interest to the Advisory Committee are: (these change with consultation of the committee and our own knowledge of what’s happening or hot in the industry each year).

Federal/State Funding Resources & Partnerships

• Inflation Reduction Act highlights
• State & federal grants
• New direct pay option for commercial projects
• 179D tax deductions assignable to non-profits
• Home projects
• Impact on existing programs
• Partnership opportunities
• $80,000–$150,000 median income
• Workshop led by a CEO
• Customer experience and contractor experience: How many application forms? Where can they go to get information? etc.
• Grant writing

Commercial Programs

Silo-Busting Collaboration, Partnership, Innovation Development & Paradigm Shift

• Which DER is the first priority?
• Breaking down internal (as well as external) silos: Planning, program, and operations
• Coordinating with multiple departments for future DER needs: Embrace or be afraid of all the different opinions?
• When and how to share the lessons learned of energy efficiency programs
• Value proposition for trade allies and engagement strategies
• Impact to contractor bidding practices

Distributed Energy Resources

• Interconnections: How to connect with customers for the “right solutions”
• Is a “one stop shop” approach the best approach?
• Distributed energy resource management systems and controls
• Storage’s role: Ahead of and behind the meter, utility scale, and site specific
• Impacts on both EE and PV (and increasing storage) program considerations, both from a participation lens but also a rate perspective
• EE as an enabler of utility goals in a brave new world
• Does energy efficiency belong in the mix?
• The need to build customer relationships for the utility of the future
• New buildings, new homes
• EV charging load impacts/management: Load building opportunity or grid system failure
• To EV or not to EV
• Flexibility or control
• Rate design/communications and general consumer energy literacy
• Cross-marketing TOU adoption with EVs
• Electric vehicles
• Energy ffficiency
• Microgrids: What are they? Examples of where they have been successfully implemented
• Microgrid funding: State and federal
• Microgrid technology options: What constitutes a microgrid?

Consumer Engagement with Communication Strategies and Tactics That Work

• Best in class ways to communicate complex utility concepts to and from customers
• Underserved customers and how to reach them
• Reaching customers where they are: Technology, marketing, and analytics that work
• Rate design/communications and general consumer Energy Literacy
• What does the changing utility-consumer relationship look like today?
• Lessons learned from TOU rates or demand charge launches: What do consumers need to know in order to assess value of program offerings, and/or be accepting of new and sometimes strange rate options?
• Smart meter communication tools
• Communicating renewables: RECs vs new construction, etc.
• Builders’/developer voices
• Demand response engagement
• Lessons learned regarding EVs, solar
• Engaging trade allies in engagement strategies
• Workforce development

Evolution of Utility Leadership in Business Models/Markets

• Utility business models that incorporate partnerships with new technologies and the customer as a generator
• Ways that utilities can create programming to boost satisfaction and provide sufficient consumer choices with the prospect of potential CCA competition
• Markets: What can they do for utilities?
• Capacity/Consumption considerations and transmission needs: HVDC, East/West/ERCOT intertie upgrades, large scale storage placement, etc.
• Carbon benefits and the value proposition for 2030 and beyond
• Marginal gas price management and communication

Equity and Income-Qualified Program Considerations

• What does it mean to program design and portfolio mix? Is a shift needed from higher income potential free riders to those who can’t make the investment or lack the information to make informed decisions? Often both (i.e. more funding toward LMI consumers)?
• Income-qualified program evolution and engagement
• Equity as a consideration in new infrastructure proposals for unprecedented focus on frontline or underserved communities
• Rural areas facing just transition issues as well as overall economic concerns for small communities

None of the Above: Now for Something Completely Different
Suggest a topic not mentioned above with a proposed theme for 3 presentations about this topic