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Home My WebLink About2022-01-27; Clean Energy Alliance JPA; ; Receive Update and Provide Direction Regarding Clean Energy Alliance 100% Renewable Green Impact Marketing Program~ CLEAN ENERGY ALLIANCE Staff Report DATE: January 27, 2022 TO: FROM: Clean Energy Alliance Board of Directors Barbara Boswell, Chief Executive Officer ITEM 10: Receive Update and Provide Direction Regard ing Clean Energy Alliance 100% Renewable Green Impact Marketing Program RECOMMENDATION 1) Approve Green Impact marketing program name: Green Impact Champions. 2) Select Green Impact Champions logo. 3) Approve Business and Residential Green Impact Champions programs. BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION CEA offers three power supply products: • Clean Impact -minimum 50% Renewable Energy • Clean Impact Plus -75% Carbon Free Energy-$.001 per kWh premium (average $.35 per month) • Green Impact -100% Renewable Energy -$.0075 per kWh premium (average $2.65 per month) Each of our three cu rrent operational member cities have selected Clea n Impact Plus as the default power supply for their communities. Our newest members, Escondido, and San Marcos will be selecting their default power supply products in September 2022 as part of plan ning for their April 2023 launch. Individual customers may voluntarily opt up to Green Impact or opt down to Clean Impact Plus. Through December 31, 2021, CEA customers have made the following elections: • Clean Impact Opt Downs o 115 Residential -110 Non-Residential -5 • Green Impact Opt Ups o 365 City of Del Mar Municipal Accounts -39 City of Solana Beach Municipal Acco unts -40 Residential -266 Non-Residential -20 • Includes Encina Wastewater Authority and Leucadia County Water District accounts January 27, 2022 Green Impact Program Page 2 of 4 At its regular meeting September 30, 2021, the Clean Energy Alliance (CEA) Board requested staff research development of a program encouraging customers to opt up to CEA's 100% renewable power supply, Green Impact. Based on Board direction, staff researched 100% renewable energy opt-up marketing campaigns offered by other Community Choice Energy (CCE or CCA) programs in the state to get an idea of cost and effectiveness. A survey on this same topic was also posted by another CCE age ncy to the Marketing and Communications group of California Community Choice Association (Ca lCCA) the professional association for CCE programs. There was not much response to the survey, however those t hat did respond indicated that the programs tend to not generate a large increase in customer opt ups. Below is information taken from one of the survey results which includes some good reso urces: " ... opt up campaigns are expensive per enrollment and tend to bear relatively little fruit. That's not an argument against opt up campaigns: they raise awareness, increase participation in green power programs, get customers engaged, remind customers of their choices, help with your brand, etc. But they are in no way a substitution for a change in default service level. Most opt- up efforts will result in single-digit percentage enrollments at best, whereas a change in default service will result in ~90% (100%-opt outs) of targeted customer enrollments. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) tracks these utility green pricing options and their success, through an annual data survey: https: //www. n re I .gov/ a na lys is/ a ssets/pdfs/green-p ri ci ng-top-10-2020-d ata-p I us-archives. pdf You can see that even after decades of marketing and outreach effort, the top ten programs nationally have opt-up rates of 5-26%. And the top ten tend to be utilities that have very low green premiums and spend$$$ on opt up campaigns on a sustained level for multi-year periods of time. NREL provides an annual summary of market activity here: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/779l5.pdf" Marin Clean Energy (MCE) the first community choice energy program, which started serving customers in 2010, has offered a variety of marketing and community programs to encourage enrollment in their 100% renewable energy product, Deep Green. Their efforts have resulted in limited success, summarized in the attachment. Based on the information gathered regarding effectiveness of opt-up campaigns and CEA's limited funds available for a significant program, staff recommends the Board consider a program that recognizes business customers that are enrolled in CEA's Green Impact program along with a sma ll incentive program for residential customers that have opted up. Green Impact Program Concept Staff and its marketing t eam from Tripepi Smith brainstormed to come up with ideas for a program that recognizes customers for making the choice to enroll in CEA's Green Impact product and from that process the idea for the program name Green Impact Champions was born. These customers are carrying the torch in accelerating CEA's goals to achieve 100% renewable for all customers by 2035. January 27, 2022 Green Impact Program Page 3 of 4 Staff proposes a marketing program that has minimal cost and provides value to the residents and businesses enrolled. LOGO OPTIONS With that program brand concept two logo options were developed for Board consideration: Option A: Option B: ,~. ,, ,Y100%~•• ~,, RENEWABLE ENERGY ~ 4 ~ , CONTENT CUSTOMER ~ r ~ ~ ~, ~•• ....... ,~ GREEN IMPACT CHAMPION Staff is seeking Board input on the preferred logo option. General Program Marketing & Outreach January 27, 2022 Green Impact Program Page 4 of 4 • Market Green Impact Champions program, benefits, and enrollment options through social media outlets; • Highlight a Green Impact Champion in a monthly social media post; • Send a letter to customers previously enrolled in San Diego Gas & Electric's 100% renewable program that are not enrolled in Green Impact that provides information regarding CEA's 100% renewable product and how to enroll. Business Recognition To recognize business customers who have enrolled in CEA's Green Impact the following is proposed for Board consideration: • Develop window clings from the logo selected for customers to use at its pl ace of business; • Create a Green Impact Champions webpage that lists enrolled businesses (with approval from the business); • Research feasibility of a policy that enables business customers to use the Green Impact Champion logo on its website and marketing materials. Residential Customer Program • Hold a monthly drawing for one residential customer to receive monthly bill credit for premium cost of Green Impact product FISCAL IMPACT Estimated cost of program is $3,000 including window clings, webpage creation, and residential customer bill credit. ATTACHMENTS Summary of Marin Clean Energy (MCE) Deep Green Marketing and Community Campaigns Item 10 Attachment SUMMARY OF MARIN CLEAN ENERGY (MCE) OPT UP PROGRAMS MCE has done a number of Deep Green opt up campaigns. Here's a quick snapshot: Community Campaigns • Fairfax Gift of Green Campaign (2015-2016): o Including a BMQMD grant for $6,000 to cover the cost of going Deep Green for 100 customers for a year. o Run time: Approximately 2 years o Enrollment: 100 customers o Cost: Around $1 Ok, fair amount of staff time o Tactics: present at community events, partnership with Fairfax Climate Action Committee to attend events, dedicated webpage, banner placed prominently in the community. • El Cerrito 100 for 100 Campaign (2017): o Partnership with the El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee and the City of El Cerrito for their 100th anniversary. o Run time: 1 year o Enrollment: 50-100 customers o Cost: lower cost (marketing materials only) and extensive staff time o Tactics: present at community ~vents, partnership with El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee to attend events, dedicated webpage, advertising placed in the community. • Lafayette Give a Gift of Green Campaign (2018): o Partnership with Sustainable Lafayette and the City for the City's 50th birthday. o Run time: Approximately 1 0 months o Enrollment: 150 customers o Cost: Around $5k, extensive staff time including a high number of evening and weekend events. o Tactics: present at community events, partnership with Sustainable Lafayette to attend events, dedicated webpage, advertising placed in the community. • Living Lightly Campaign (2019): o Competition based campaign, focused on spiritual organizations, to opt up as many folks as possible and beat the leader board. o Run time: 1 year o Enrollment: 100 customers o Cost: Less than $1 k, fair amount of staff time o Tactics: present at community events, dedicated webpage. • 20k by 2020 Deep Green Campaign (2020): o Focus on member communities, small businesses, EV customers, and solar customers. o Run time: 1 year o Enrollment: ~1,000 customers o Cost: $1 Ok, largest amount of staff time o Tactics: direct engagement with member communities and small businesses, direct email to EV and solar customers, call to action for local community groups to work within their networks to opt up customers. Marketing Campaigns • Earth Day Campaign 2016: Direct mail campaign. • #OptUP Campaign 2017: 000 advertising, social media, print media, community advocacy. Of MC E's 540,000 accounts, just over 12,000 (2%) are Deep Green. That's an average of 1,000 accounts opting up each year of service.