Find out how NV Energy used EVOLVE Intelligence to pull data insights from their third-party application portal to improve and monitor clean energy program management.
When it comes to managing clean energy programs, there’s a substantial amount of complexity. Tracking timelines and budgets, monitoring multiple projects, prioritizing workloads, reporting back to stakeholders and regulators—it all requires extensive coordination, not to mention end-to-end visibility across many data points and workflows.
Collecting and processing clean energy applications is a huge part of the equation. To do this, NV Energy uses an online application portal from a third-party provider. And while the portal has been an effective way to capture and process applications, the tool isn’t capable of producing analytics needed to streamline program management for the various clean energy programs NV Energy offers.
To bridge this gap, we used EVOLVE Intelligence to create a dashboard that pulls data from the online application portal and provides program visibility through data visualization. Below, I’ll share how this dashboard works to streamline NV Energy’s program management..
Keeping Energy Projects on Track
To meet regulatory guidelines and keep projects on track, it’s important to have visibility into how many projects are in the pipeline and how long they’ve been there. The Intelligence dashboard allows us to quickly see the number of applications submitted, which projects are underway—whether a solar, energy storage, or electric vehicle project—and where they are in the process. This insight helps us ensure that projects are moving forward. We can quickly determine if a project has been stalled and take proactive measures to troubleshoot, remove blockers, and meet regulatory requirements.
The EVOLVE dashboard also gives us a view into the multiple approval steps required for connecting a project to the grid—from the initial application to documentation review to setting the meter, and more. The ability to see where a project is in the process helps us swiftly address any issues and meet timelines established by regulators.
Additionally, we can also track valuable metrics such as megawatts that are applied and approved for solar installations, the number of customer accounts, and incentive dollars used. Having instant access to these metrics saves time and helps us to quickly pinpoint where we need to focus our efforts.
Collaborating More Efficiently
The dashboard enables tighter collaboration between DNV and NV Energy. NV Energy can quickly view progress against internal scorecards and pull reports that demonstrate regulatory compliance. They can see which contractors are participating in their programs and view a heat map showing the locations of installed systems.
The dashboard enables year-over-year or month-over-month comparisons of submitted applications, to inform projections on future volumes. The forecasting capabilities from the dashboard’s data position us to adjust workloads, forecast incentive spend, and pace the project pipeline. These insights also help NV Energy enhance customer support, since they can pull up market intel such as solar cost per watt and contractor volume.
Additionally, the dashboard provides visibility into application trouble spots, such as which contractors are repeatedly having issues in the system or inputting incorrect information. This insight enables NV Energy to help contractors improve their performance and support customers more effectively.
“The Intelligence dashboard has given us valuable insights to help us optimize our processes, forecast with greater accuracy, and manage our clean energy programs more effectively,” says Adam Grant, , Manager, DSM Program Delivery, NV Energy. “It has also been a huge time saver since we no longer spend hours manually building reports in Excel.”
Electric Vehicle Charging Station Incentive Projects
Current Solar Interconnection Application Review Timeline
Historical Application Review Performance
All statuses: 2020 Calendar YTD
Completed projects interactive map by solar kWh capacity
Streamline with EVOLVE Intelligence
The Intelligence dashboard has been incredibly helpful in streamlining clean energy program management for NV Energy. But really, the Intelligence capabilities I’ve discussed in this article are just the tip of the iceberg.
As part of the EVOLVE Digital Suite, EVOLVE Intelligence can connect multiple, disparate datasets to deliver highly actionable insights that can help power strategy development, optimize infrastructure usage, and identify patterns and trends. Intelligence is especially useful in leveraging AMI data to understand unique customer needs and identify highly targeted solutions for customers. In fact, my colleague, Armando Domingos, recently shared how Intelligence helps contextualize data to improve outcomes for clean energy programs.
If you’re wanting to optimize your clean energy programs through data insights, I recommend that you explore the full capabilities of EVOLVE Intelligence.
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