Challenge
A major U.S. regional utility set ambitious clean energy goals ahead of new state climate rules, committing to retire coal plants while scaling solar capacity. To make the shift successful, it needed to clarify how it would meet the needs of its diverse market while activating demand-side enablers like storage, distributed energy, and flexible use.
While early efforts like a green pricing program were in place, giving some customers an option to pay a premium for cleaner energy, the utility recognized it needed to build a more wide-ranging and structured strategy. It partnered with Innosight to better define the market and develop strategic opportunities aligned with its goals for generation and system reliability.
Discovery
We helped the utility’s clean energy program team better understand the renewable power landscape and identify both opportunities and risks to its business model. This involved analyzing both demand and supply trends, such as policies, competitors, infrastructure, and shifting customer expectations. Through working sessions, the team developed strategic themes and program ideas. We also facilitated conversations with the CEO and leadership team to ensure alignment and support across the organization.
A key part of the discovery phase was examining the demand side. We supported the team in conducting extensive external and internal interviews and using a jobs-to-be-done framework to build a set of customer archetypes. This revealed wide variation in how customers value clean energy, along with clear disconnects between the utility’s existing offerings and what residential, commercial, and industrial users actually wanted.
For instance, many residential customers were found to focus primarily on cost, but offerings were not positioned around cost savings. Many commercial and industrial customers had public ESG commitments or sought custom renewable solutions outside of utility programs, but lacked clear pathways or resources to act independently.
Impact
This work was a critical enabler of the utility’s long-term clean energy transition. It helped prioritize ten strategic opportunity areas, each tied to a long-term ambition, and led to a portfolio of offerings with a three-year rollout plan across market segments. These included flexible options to match power usage with renewables, a donor-funded program for low-income customers, and a full-scale community solar initiative.
The effort created momentum for broader transformation. After the project, the utility publicly advanced several goals in its clean power strategy, accelerating its coal retirement timeline and committing to major solar and storage investments. The clean power team has continued to lead efforts, working with Innosight to evaluate additional offerings, including a smart home product to help residential customers manage energy consumption.
