Weaving Energy Equity Into Customer Programs: Recommendations from Four Utilities

The universe of clean energy is immense, expanding, evolving rapidly, and flush with opportunities. It also can seem overwhelming, and its benefits may not be easily accessible to many people.

As awareness of energy inequity – past, present, and future – mounts, some U.S. electric utilities are working proactively and creatively to meet this challenge head-on.

Energy equity aims to ensure that the benefits and burdens of energy policies, programs, and technologies are fairly distributed and that the processes used to develop and implement them are inclusive and accessible. In October, the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) organized a roundtable discussion about how some electric utilities with diverse customer populations are weaving energy equity into their programs and initiatives. Drawing from their own journeys and on-the-ground experience, speakers from four utilities offered insights, guidance, and recommendations for other utilities that are embarking on this work. The participants:

• Jose Bodipo-Memba, SMUD, one of the nation’s largest public power utilities, serving 1.5 million customers in the Sacramento, California, area.
• Jamie Hill, Pepco Holdings, the parent company of Pepco, Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric, investor-owned utilities that serve electric customers in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
• Andrea Guadarrama, CPS Energy, a large public power utility serving 950,000 electric customers in the San Antonio, Texas, area.
• Alaric Babej, PNM, an investor-owned utility serving 550,000 customers – and New Mexico’s largest electricity provider.

The discussion, moderated by SEPA’s Mary Palmer, yielded a gold mine of common threads and actionable information. Key takeaways and recommendations are distilled and categorized by theme below.

Internal Alignment

• Ensure your leadership and board are fully invested in energy equity and that top-down messaging regarding the importance of energy equity flows throughout the organization.
• Cleary position energy equity as an overarching strategy and priority, both internally and externally. Commit to this work and progress by incorporating energy equity into your mission statement and including support for energy equity in your annual budget.
• Ensure that energy equity is a cross-cutting priority, rather than a siloed endeavor.
• Establish benchmarks and metrics to gauge progress on your energy equity journey and toward your stated goals.
• Align your internal culture with established external plans and priorities addressing energy equity.
• Train employees to engage effectively and work constructively with different types of communities.
• Recognize that progress toward energy equity is a long-term commitment and journey.

Engaging Customers and Communities

• Identify the “right” customers and communities to engage, based on the populations your utility serves. These could include low-income customers, moderate-income customers, rural and other underserved communities, non-native English speakers, and communities that historically suffered adverse environmental and health impacts.
• Physically enter the communities identified, to “meet people where they’re at,” and to understand gaps, needs, and priorities. Engagement can take the form of in-person town halls, open houses, and charrettes, as well as virtual meetings.
• If applicable, acknowledge previous harm to communities and work to rebuild their trust.
• Be prepared to have hard conversations.
• Ensure these communities are part of the conversation when developing long-term plans and targets, including strategic plans, climate action plans and decarbonization targets, community impact plans, economic development plans, workforce development plans, and grant strategies.
• Cultivate and maintain partnerships and positive relationships with trusted, on-the-ground community organizations, non-profits, and government agencies. These organizations can assist with outreach and engagement (including program outreach, eventually).
• Bear in mind that customers primarily want access to affordable, reliable energy that does not negatively impact their health or communities.

Putting Data to Use

• Assemble baseline data on your customers, including socioeconomic and locational data.
• To better understand customers and their needs, make use of reputable public datasets, mapping tools and modeling tools that focus on socioeconomics, poverty, climate change, energy burden and other salient issues. (As of this writing, examples of useful tools include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EJScreen and the Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.)
• Because accurate, comprehensive, and current data is not always available, consider designing your own tools to map priorities and track progress toward your energy equity goals. (For example, SMUD’s Sustainable Communities Resource Priorities Map analyzes current data – including state data and SMUD’s own data – to identify the local areas in SMUD’s service territory that are most likely to be underserved or negatively impacted by lack of community development, income, housing, employment opportunities, transportation, medical care, nutrition, education, and a clean environment.)

Program Design

• Use data and feedback gathered from engaging customers and communities to inform the design and implementation of customer programs. (For example, SMUD utilized the Sustainable Communities Resource Priorities Map it developed to engage and understand the priorities of under-resourced communities and customers. This process informed the development of SMUD’s 2030 Zero Carbon Plan and Community Impact Plan, as well as the evolution of its customer programs and program metrics.)
• Design programs and initiatives that support your overarching equity strategy, goals, and metrics.
• Ensure programs are relevant and accessible to a variety of customers, including moderate-income customers, renters, and small businesses.
• Stay informed about other utilities’ approaches to energy equity – including what has worked and what has not worked. Participation in industry events and working groups (including those organized and hosted by SEPA!) is beneficial.

External Alignment

• To the extent possible, use simple messaging to customers and communities.
• Coordinate with trusted, on-the-ground community organizations, non-profits, and government agencies to expand access to your programs and services.
• Support equity through workforce development and training opportunities in your communities, including underserved communities.
• Cultivate and maintain relationships with state and local officials and expand their understanding of energy equity.
• Be mindful of potential community concerns that utility infrastructure and resilience investments can lead to gentrification.
• For municipal utilities, coordinate with external departments and services (e.g., gas, water, health services, social services) to provide comprehensive assistance to the neediest customers.

Broader Benefits

• Recognize that pursuing and making progress toward energy equity is inherently good for utilities and their business, as opposed to something that is merely “nice to do.” Achieving progress helps improve overall customer satisfaction, which can lead to better regulatory outcomes and community support for planned infrastructure projects.
• Recognize that energy equity supports broader regional economic stability and success, as well as all residents’ quality of life.

And perhaps most importantly, in the words of one roundtable speaker, “You’ve got to deliver on what you say you’re going to do.”

How You Can Get Involved

SEPA is heavily invested in working with our members to support their energy equity and inclusion efforts. SEPA and its members are:

• Developing strategies to bridge the gap between utilities and regulators and the communities they serve.
• Working with utilities and regulators to develop inclusive and accessible programs and processes.
• Leveraging clean energy projects and technologies as vehicles to create regenerative economic opportunities.
• Convening stakeholders to develop and share best practices.

We invite you to explore our resources, including Embedding Equity in Utility Transformation and Benchmarking Equitable Transportation Electrification, and to reach out to SEPA regarding partnership opportunities by contacting Mary Palmer at [email protected].

In addition, SEPA’s working groups regularly explore energy equity from different industry angles. If you are a SEPA member, consider joining our Customer Programs Working Group, Electric Vehicles Working Group, Energy Storage Working Group, and/or Microgrids Working Group.