A data-driven pilot program aims to identify utility customers in need of aid and enroll them in assistance programs.
Pittsburgh-based utility Peoples Natural Gas is partnering with local startup Peoples Energy Analytics to identify customers at risk of defaulting on payments and sign them up for available assistance.
“We believe every person who is eligible to participate in our assistance programs should benefit from them,” Rita Black, Peoples community assistance programs director, said in a press release. “Collaborating with PEA has already helped us better identify individuals and areas in Allegheny County to target for additional outreach.”
The collaboration, which has been in place for several months, uses customer data Peoples Gas has about households’ past energy usage, and data algorithms developed by Destenie Nock, CEO of Peoples Energy Analytics, who is also an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
Nock said the algorithms use factors such as historic gas usage, past billing data, and temperature levels to identify customers who are struggling. The effort doesn’t just look for households where bills might be too high, but also where bills might be too low — for instance, if a customer is setting their thermostat at only 50 degrees during cold weather in an effort to save money and is at risk of having their pipes freeze.
Identified customers will be contacted by email and encouraged to sign up for Peoples Customer Assistance Program, also known as CAP, which lowers monthly bills for most eligible households. A family of four can earn up to $3,900 monthly, or $46,800 a year and qualify for the program.
Just under 20,000 Allegheny County customers are enrolled in CAP. Based on U.S. Census data, Peoples Gas believes approximately 22% of eligible customers are currently participating in the program.
As with other assistance programs, people might not be enrolled because they don’t know about it, or find the application difficult to complete. Some households might be enrolled in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which is administered by the state, but not enrolled in utility-administered assistance programs. (A recent data-sharing agreement aims to make it easier for customers to enroll in both programs.)
“A lot of times, when people don't sign up for these programs, it's because they're not aware that they even qualify. And also they're not aware of the full benefit that they may receive from these programs,” Nock said.
The companies are working together as part of a pilot program in Allegheny County for the 2024-2025 winter heating season.
Despite their similar names, the companies are unrelated to each other. Peoples Energy Analytics grew out of research at Carnegie Mellon University.
Advocacy groups for low-income customers have been pushing utilities for some time to utilize available data to boost enrollment in customer assistance programs.
“This really is an opportunity to utilize data in a really great way,” said Elizabeth Marx, executive director of the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project, which assists low-income customers. “And I hope more utilities will take advantage of the same kind of tactics to make sure that we're reaching underserved populations.”
To learn more about Customer Assistance Programs, please visit peoples-gas.com/help or call 1-800-400-WARM (9276).
