Putting Customers in the Driver’s Seat! Shaping Loads through Inverted Block Rates APPA Business & Financial Conference September 24, 2007 Austin, Texas Sheila Boeckman Manager of Business Operations & Development Waverly Light and Power

In Waverly, Iowa 4,958 customers  31 MW System Peak Home of Wartburg College Concern for environment Help meet new load requirements with Energy Efficiency programs Price Signals become important

Goals Send price signal “Energy Efficiency Counts” Put Customers in the Driver’s Seat Reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions Move Customers closer to cost of service  Board goal is 85% for residential class  Reduce interclass subsidies  Reward those with low usage

Customer Driving their bills We want to directly influence  Energy Efficiency measures  Usage habits  Purchasing habits  AND have happy / comfortable customers

Waverly Light and Power

37% 38% 17%10% 73% 27% AVG Home w/ AC

Zero in on Cost of Service Summer peaking Utility  Differentiate between seasons Inside this rate class  Home Based Businesses  Line extensions = no cost to customer Larger lots, spreading out in rural areas  Transformers serving fewer customers kVa per home, Now 7 kVa per home

Send the price signal... and pay WLP’s bills! Be aware what revenue is at risk Take it slow, find out if customers will respond to signal with reduced usage We can tweak over the years

A few tricky wickets Don’t penalize low income customers  Lowered 1 st tier rate from $.087 to $.085 all year  Meant to reward low usage vs. low income Watch out for Electric Heat customers  Retained flat rate in winter w/ heating discount  They still have inverted summer rate

The Big Tricky Wicket Marathon Water Heaters  Remember, we lowered the rate on 1 st tier usage  Users with timer historic $14 / month discount In reality, due to lowered 1st tier rate we should have also LOWERED discount  Get serious, this won’t fly  Customer perception = we promoted using Electric Water Heaters and now are punishing them!  Talk with them person to person

Residential Inverted Rate Move to a 4 tier rate July 1, 2007  June - September Maintain current flat rate at other times Price increases as kWh usage rises Customer Charge increase $2 / month  Overall 3% Utility revenue increase

New Rate Design July 2007 Customer Charge $10 a month all months Winter Flat Rate $0.085 all kWh’s used Summer June through September:  First 600 kWh used$  Next 500 kWh used$  Next 400 kWh used$  Over 1,500 kWh used $0.1701

Under $2 per month in summer $2-$17.50$18-$47$48 and up

Board puts money in beliefs November Board meeting  8 decision makers  5 Board, 1 Guest Board, 2 City Council Liaisons Orally presented personal usage habits  1 = 2 nd Tier customer  7 = 4 th Tier customers With one of the 7 using the 8 th largest average on system in this rate class GO FOR IT!

The Drivers Seat Campaign Send Key Account budget lettersNOV ’06 On Board agenda 3 timesNOV ’06, MAR, APR ’07 Key Accounts NewsletterMAR, APR ’07, JUNE ‘07 Press Releases MAR, APR ‘07 Employee MtgsMAR, APR ’07, JUNE ‘07 Set date for public hearing MAR ’07 Hold public hearingAPR ’07 60 day notice by direct mail APR ’07 Internal Utility and City distributionNOV ’06 & Each Month New rate schedules mailed APR ‘07

The Drivers Seat Campaign (con’t) Website postings MAR-JULY ’07 Public speaking engagementsMONTHLY Driver’s manual direct mailMAR ’07 Commercial NewsletterMAY ’07 Post card-direct mail MID JUNE ’07 RadioJUN-AUG ’07

Reaction (so far) During speeches customers cheered!  They all thought they were low tier of course Phone calls during spring mailing  22 customers called asking for Energy Audits  48 total phone calls with questions, not complaints  1 letter to editor about Electric Water Heater usage  7 calls logged as complaints

Put Customers in the Driver’s Seat!