Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Snapshots is a relaunched program that aggregates insights into the electric industry’s journey towards a carbon-free future. It features market intelligence reports based on two semi-annual pulse surveys: one utility survey (winter) and one industry survey (summer). These surveys will capture information about the progress, challenges, and opportunities within each of SEPA’s five focus areas: Resilience, Transportation, Emerging Technology, Policy, and Energy Storage. We will also have a specific focus on  Energy Equity

The Snapshots Program aims to enhance awareness of industry efforts in reducing carbon emissions, foster collaboration among stakeholders, and provide actionable insights to drive progress towards shared climate goals.

Participation offers a chance to shape the industry narrative, recognize contributions to clean energy, and gain insights from SEPA’s own research. SEPA members and Snapshot survey participants will also get exclusive early access to the Market Intelligence Reports.

The Snapshots Market Intelligence Reports will be released in the fall of 2024, following the aggregation of data from both Pulse surveys.

The SEPA Utility Pulse Survey, an integral component of SEPA’s Snapshots program, serves to both collect and unlock insights from utility representatives. These insights are instrumental in supporting the electric utility industry’s shift towards a carbon-free future. Covering SEPA’s core focus areas—Resilience, Transportation, Emerging Technology, Policy, and Energy Storage—the survey will also incorporate an additional focus area pertaining to Energy Equity.”

The utility pulse survey is open for participation from February 13 until mid-March.

The survey is open to employees of investor-owned utilities, public power companies, or electric cooperatives who possess knowledge and expertise in at least one of the survey’s focus areas (Resilience, Transportation, Emerging Technology, Policy, Energy Storage, and Energy Equity). Participation is voluntary, and all data will be kept confidential. Reporting of the data will be anonymized.

Eligible participants received an email and will receive email reminders throughout the fielding period with a personalized link to the survey. If you’re not already in SEPA’s system but are an employee of a utility and are interested in participating, you can also access the survey via this <link> or through our website.

The Utility Pulse Survey encompasses several modules, each dedicated to one of SEPA’s focus areas: Resilience, Transportation, Emerging Technology, Policy, Energy Storage, and an additional module on Energy Equity. The survey is designed to capture utilities’ experiences of adopting programs, solutions, and technologies within these focus areas. This includes implementation processes, barriers encountered, and perspectives on the industry’s future.

The survey should take approximately 15-30 minutes to complete, depending on how many survey modules a respondent fills out. Each respondent can answer up to 3 survey modules, depending on their reported expertise. Respondents may complete part of the survey and come back to where they left off by simply reopening the link provided in the email. The survey software will save all progress by default.

The SEPA Industry Pulse Survey serves as a complementary follow-up to the Utility Pulse Survey, with the shared objective of gathering insights to bolster the industry’s journey towards a carbon-free future. Covering akin topics and focus areas as the Utility Pulse, this survey targets diverse industry stakeholders, including technology and solution providers. Anticipated for release in summer 2024, it aims to offer a comprehensive perspective across the sector.

The Industry Pulse Survey will be open to private corporations (e.g., technology and solution providers), regulators, and policymakers that serve or operate within the electric or clean energy industry. Eligible participants will include employees of such organizations who have expertise in at least one of the survey’s focus areas. Participation is voluntary, and all data will be kept confidential.

The Industry Pulse Survey will launch in June and field for approximately one month. Specific dates will be announced closer to the launch date.

The Industry Pulse Survey will encompass modules dedicated to SEPA’s focus areas: Resilience, Transportation, Emerging Technology, Policy, Energy Storage, and an additional module on Energy Equity. Specific question topics will be released closer to the launch date.

SEPA plans to conduct these Pulse Surveys annually as part of the Snapshots program, gathering timely insights to inform the industry and foster collaboration towards carbon reduction goals.

Yes. For the Utility Pulse Survey, the first 500 participants will have the option to receive a $15 gift card or a charity donation. Additionally, all participants will gain exclusive early access to SEPA’s comprehensive Market Intelligence Reports. Details about incentives for the industry pulse survey will be released closer to the launch date.

For any further questions, please contact SEPA at [email protected].

No. SEPA encourages all utilities and industry partners to share their progress and insights in the Pulse surveys! However, if you’d like more information on the benefits of being a SEPA member, please let us know.

Until 2020, SEPA surveyed U.S. electric utilities annually to collect and assess deployment data for grid-tied solar power, energy storage and demand response (DR). In 2020, in recognition of the increased focus on carbon reduction, both within the industry and economy-wide, SEPA launched the Utility Transformation Challenge (UTC) — an initiative to assess and present a holistic view of U.S. electric utilities’ progress in transforming the energy system to a carbon-free system that is safe, affordable, reliable, resilient and equitable. The Utility Transformation Challenge expanded SEPA’s previous annual industry surveys by focusing on utility leadership, initiatives, programs and innovation, among other activities. Now, the SEPA Snapshots program is structured around our 5×25 focus areas plus Energy Equity. Compared to the UTC where the final deliverables were case studies, benchmarking, a leaderboard, and annual profiles, the key deliverables coming from the SEPA Snapshots are shorter Market Intelligence snapshot reports. The Snapshot Pulse Surveys are also much shorter in length than the UTC survey.

The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) is dedicated to helping electric power stakeholders address the most pressing issues they encounter as they pursue the transformation to a carbon-free energy system. We are a trusted partner providing education, research, standards, and collaboration to help utilities, electric customers, and other industry players move towards carbon-free. Through educational activities, working groups, peer-to-peer engagements and custom projects, SEPA convenes interested parties to facilitate information exchange and knowledge transfer to offer the highest value for our members and partner organizations.

To join SEPA or to find out more about SEPA membership benefits, visit sepapower.org/community/membership/become-member.