Introduction: Decarbonization Goals and Service Requests
According to the Smart Electric Power Alliance’s “2023 Utility Transformation Profile”, three-quarters of U.S. electric customer accounts are served by a utility or parent company with a 100% carbon reduction target. As a result, many states and utilities are pursuing clean energy and electrification initiatives to achieve their decarbonization goals. This is contributing to an influx of distribution-level and transmission-level service requests from customers, builders, developers and contractors. Driven by a variety of customer actions, the types of service requests are wide-ranging, with each enacting a particular utility process:
The sheer scale and complexity of service requests create significant friction in many utility processes, resulting in prolonged project activation lead times and non-transparent applicant experiences. These challenges impede utilities from reaching decarbonization goals and prevent broader customer benefits such as lower electric rates and expenditures1. They also negatively affect project developers/builders and may even deter customers from pursuing their DER/electrification projects.
Policymakers, regulators and standards developers are taking action to ensure prompt grid connection for new customers, timely service upgrades for existing ones and swift interconnection of new supply sources. Several regulatory and legislative efforts across the U.S. aim to reduce service request delays, including a few highlighted below.
- In July 2023, FERC issued Order 2023 to streamline the generator interconnection process for transmission providers.
- In October 2023, the Powering Up Californians Act was signed into law to address the delays in energizing projects.
- In September 2023, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) published Model Interconnection Procedures, 2023 Edition to enable faster and less costly interconnection of distributed energy resources (DERs).
As measures like these emerge and impose new requirements—including strict deadlines and public reporting—utilities must quickly adapt their processes and software systems to remain in compliance.
Problem: Factors Contributing to Service Request Delays
Today, many utility service request processes are buckling under new requirements with supply chain shortages and workforce constraints compounding the problem. Turnaround times are long, backlogs are growing and the queue is getting tougher to manage—leading to missed deadlines, sometimes costly fines, frustrated applicants and staff, and inconsistent reporting. Inefficient processes and inadequate, outdated software systems are primary causes of the endemic delays in processing service requests. Common contributing factors include:
- Inflexible workflows created by rigid software - Inflexible software constrains workflows, forcing teams into inefficient workarounds and manual tasks. Even minor software adjustments often translate into costly IT projects and long implementation timelines.
- Inconsistencies and inefficiencies due to poor document management and data collection – The handling of permits, site plans, easements or photo documentation in many disparate locations creates friction in the process. Inaccurate, inconsistent or incomplete data poses challenges for reliability and reporting.
- Lack of transparency resulting from disorganized project lifecycle tracking and task assignment - Lack of systematic workflows, statuses, coordination of tasks and tracking of project histories makes the review and administrative process burdensome and makes auditing project histories impossible.
- Extended project timelines due to inefficient or inconsistent stakeholder reporting and communication - Attempting to collect and distribute information to applicants, including tracking deadlines and statuses, bogs down staff. Reporting and coordinating tasks with internal personnel using various communication channels and disparate tools can be a drag on productivity and risks stalling projects.
- Stakeholder collaboration impeded by disparate systems - The inability to integrate seamlessly with other systems leads to manual data transfer, slower workforce deployment and inefficient workflows, such as disjointed payment collection and contract execution. Additionally, without access to reliable data on new, queued, and projected loads and supply resources, utility engineers and planners face challenges in efficiently analyzing proposed projects and planning capital network investments.
Opportunity: Workflow Automation Drives Operational Efficiencies and Delights Stakeholders
Utilities can expedite lead times, make the process transparent to stakeholders, ensure data is accessible and maintain flexibility to adapt to evolving requirements by implementing modern workflow automation software solutions.
Clean Power Research has extensive experience partnering with utilities to solve their most complex challenges with a scalable software-as-a-service solution. Through these experiences, PowerClerk® has become an industry-leading workflow automation solution, elevating operational efficiency and reducing lead times at over 65 utilities and energy agencies, encompassing more than 2.25 million energy-related projects to date. Clean Power Research’s extensive PowerClerk deployments across a wide range of use cases have led to the development of best practices, ensuring streamlined workflow automation efficiencies, including:
- Putting program managers in the driver’s seat - Service request workflows are highly complex, with frequent changes to business requirements. An effective workflow automation solution must come with a robust set of no-code, self-service capabilities for program managers to quickly and easily create, automate, integrate, deploy and modify their workflow without unnecessarily burdening IT staff.
- Eliminating garbage in, garbage out - Ensure data quality and reduce correction loops with an application form that dynamically adapts based on user-input, validates in real-time and allows auto-population of repeat information. Utilize validated data fields to prevent duplicate entry, automating downstream events such as document template population and pre-populating other forms for applicants or reviewers.
- Driving efficiency through transparency… and building trust in the process - Efficient project lifecycle management, user-specific views, seamless project routing and task assignment ensure highly productive and coordinated teams. An effective software solution must provide flexible role-based access control, enabling user-specific access to project information and facilitating relevant responses without overwhelming non-critical stakeholders.
- Letting automation eliminate drudgery - Automatic communications and self-service reporting ensure transparency of project status with notifications to applicants and other stakeholders, and make reporting a breeze. Automated creation of templatized documents (e.g., interconnection agreements), and management of workflow milestones and deadlines, can significantly reduce tedious manual tasks for the utility teams as well as applicants.
- Expediting critical-path workflows through built-in integrations - Seamless integration with third-party and legacy systems ensures data consistency, expediting workflows for payments, contract execution, billing, workforce deployment, and engineering reviews and studies (e.g., hosting capacity analysis and cluster studies).
Collectively, these best practices regularly shorten service request lead times, reduce backlogs and boost customer, partner and staff satisfaction.
Results: How Utilities Have Benefited from Workflow Automation
Leading utilities are automating their service request workflows and driving operational efficiencies while delighting their customers, partners and staff with PowerClerk. Below are some recent examples of how utilities benefit from partnering with Clean Power Research:
Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM)
After identifying the New Service Delivery Application Process as a pain point for both customers and employees, PNM’s New Service Delivery Team optimized its new construction and service upgrade application processes. PowerClerk brought visual workflows, 24/7 online access, automated communications, standardization of calculation of estimates and automated permit verifications. Overall, review times for all applications were expedited, and within six months of the project’s launch, PNM saw significant increases in customer satisfaction related to service installations and upgrades.
Arizona Public Service (APS)
In the face of surging FERC Generator Interconnection applications, APS turned to PowerClerk for a streamlined solution. By automating deadlines and manual tasks, and centralizing data, APS reduced application processing times from more than five days to as short as two days. This accelerated workflow is saving countless hours, and PowerClerk enables APS to navigate shifting Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) and FERC guidelines seamlessly.
Summary: Workflow Automation is Key to Modernizing Service Request Processes
Emerging service request requirements are creating complex challenges for already constrained utility teams often operating on outdated, inflexible systems. However, modern workflow automation software such as PowerClerk offers a comprehensive solution to many of the challenges utilities face.
By addressing issues related to lead times, team productivity, stakeholder communication and reporting, utilities can meet their decarbonization targets while efficiently managing their service request processes. As the energy landscape continues to digitally transform, flexible workflow automation is critical for utilities seeking the efficiency and agility necessary to navigate these challenges successfully.
[1] In addition to reduced energy and fuel costs associated with building and transportation electrification, increased kWh consumption from electrification will improve utilization of the grid infrastructure, resulting in downward pressure on electric rates generally (e.g., California SB 410).