In the summer of 2002, SmartPower was introduced to the ratepayers and local officials of Connecticut as an organization founded to create a strong and sustainable voluntary market for clean energy. Five years later, the groundbreaking efforts of SmartPower and our original partner, the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, we proudly and rightfully claimed across Connecticut, “Clean Energy. It’s Here. It’s Real. It’s Working!” There is no question that because of SmartPower, the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund and our many partners, there is more clean energy in and around Connecticut.
Challenge
SmartPower was tasked by our client, the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund to increase overall renewable energy sales. The state was launching a residential switching program and the Clean Energy Fund was challenged by the Governor’s office to realize over 200 GWh of renewable energy sales by 2006.
Elements
SmartPower designed the SmartPower 20% by 2010™ campaign and the sister program, the Clean Energy Communities campaign to effectively create marketing partnerships between municipal officials and households across the town/city. We provided municipal incentives per 100 customers but also other incentives for the city that could achieve greater customer acquisition. This model took advantage of the entire campaign that consisted of advertising, field marketing, collaborative/stakeholder outreach and renewable energy incentives. The program confirmed that municipalities understand that the best billboard for solar is a solar PV.
Though flexible to meet the needs of any given client, in the case of Connecticut for a community to qualify as a Clean Energy Community, it had the following elements:
- Commit to the SmartPower 20% by 2010™
- Achieve 100 sign-ups in that respective community
-or-
- 10% of households in a community
-or-
- Realize a 1 GWh of clean energy purchase from a Commercial, Industrial, or Institutional customer,
This level of increased clean energy sales would result in a 1kw PV system ($10,000 value) being given to the respective city or town for every milestone reached.
Strategies
One example of the outreach performed by SmartPower to increase clean energy sales in communities across Connecticut was the advent of our Clean Energy Community Challenges. These competitions between city mayors effectively tapped into community pride to maximize clean energy customers in a given community. These competitions first started with a contest between Mayor John DeStefano of New Haven and Mayor Scott Slifka of West Hartford. The result of this friendly competition between these two Mayors and their municipalities was a customer penetration and acquisition rate that far surpassed all other cities and towns in the state, regardless of size or demographics.
Further, as part of our nationally recognized and award winning marketing strategy, SmartPower created two pivotal websites that increased attention to clean energy as well as enhancing the ease by which consumers could purchase clean energy. These websites, first created in Connecticut and then exported to other states with similar programmatic goals were:
Results
The success of this special event can be measured in both media attention and the number of new clean energy customers that were generated.
Media attention on voluntary renewable energy purchases is often limited at best. However, SmartPower was able to realize significant media coverage and ongoing publicity for this campaign that far out-paced any attention previously given to clean energy in Connecticut.
We are proud of our accomplishments we realized in Connecticut. The partnership between SmartPower and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund resulted in:
- 80+ cities and towns (and still growing) committing to the SmartPower 20% by 2010sm Campaign
- 50+ cities and towns (and still growing) achieving the status as a Connecticut Clean Energy Community
- Close to 25,000 (and still growing) customers of the CTCleanEnergyOptions sm program
- A growing number of Commercial and Institutional customers of clean energy across Connecticut.
- Polling data that clearly demonstrates a dramatic increase in the public awareness of the viability and availability of clean energy in the state
- A 20% by 2010 commitment for the State of Connecticut for all public buildings and universities.
Relevance
With SmartPower as a public awareness and outreach partner, clients have access to an organization that can quickly and effectively create marketing strategies and associated outreach tools that are proven to maximize renewable energy and energy efficiency awareness and market penetration.
All this and more was born from an idea created in Connecticut.
