2015 General Rate Case. Customer Service Volume 1 Policy

Transcription

1 Application No.: Exhibit No.: Witnesses: A SCE-0, Vol. 01 E. Furukawa C. Prescott K. Payne (U -E) ERRATA 01 General Rate Case Customer Service Volume 1 Policy Before the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California Rosemead, California 01

2 SCE-0: Customer Service Volume 01 - Policy Table Of Contents Section Page Witness I. INTRODUCTION...1 E. Furukawa K. Payne II. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IS CRITICAL TO MEET CUSTOMERS EVOLVING NEEDS AND TO ACHIEVE ENERGY POLICY... A. B. Customer Engagement Enables SCE to Meet Customers Evolving Needs and Expectations... Customer Engagement Drives the Achievement of State and Federal Energy Policy Goals Engagement on Rate Design Transition Policies... Engagement on Smart Grid Policies... Engagement on Environmental Policies... C. SCE Will Maintain Customer Care and Expand Engagement Options for Hard-To-Reach Customers... III. SCE S CUSTOMER SERVICE MODEL AND ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY... A. B. Energy Solutions... Intelligent Delivery and Energy Advisory Services Intelligent Delivery... Energy Advisory Services...1 C. D. E. Effective and Enabling Customer Interactions...1 Technology is Core to Achieving Customer Engagement...1 Empowered Employees...1 IV. SUMMARY OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICE 01 TEST YEAR FORECAST...1 C. Prescott A. Summary of Request Customer Service O&M Forecast...1 -i-

3 SCE-0: Customer Service Volume 01 - Policy Table Of Contents (Continued) Section Page Witness. Customer Service Capital Forecast...1 B.. Customer Service OOR Forecast Edison SmartConnect Costs and Benefits...1 C. Prescott Background Edison SmartConnect Program O&M Costs and Benefits Edison SmartConnect Program Capital Costs and Benefits Edison SmartConnect Program Costs and Benefits... Appendix A Witness Qualifications... -ii-

4 I. INTRODUCTION SCE s Customer Service Operating Unit (CSOU) has primary responsibility for communicating with our customers and providing customer care. In 01, we provided customer care to five million SCE customers, ranging from individual residences to some of the largest commercial, industrial, agricultural, and public sector facilities in California. We focus on providing effective customer service in a safe and efficient manner, consistent with our franchise obligations. A significant aspect of delivering reasonable customer care is meeting our customers needs and expectations for customer service, and working to achieve state and federal energy policy goals that rely on utility customer participation. For Test Year 01, CSOU has forecast $. million in O&M expenses. This forecast. represents a. percent increase from the 01 adjusted recorded base. For capital expenditures, CSOU has forecast a total of $1.0 million for $1. $.1 Our customers needs and expectations are largely driven by the increased availability of information from smart meters and the Smart Grid, significant and rapid technological advances adopted by customers, and innovative energy management services created by new market participants and marketed to customers through various channels. Our customer service model will help customers meaningfully engage in energy management, empowering them to make informed decisions about their energy needs and helping them manage their energy bills. We have fully integrated this vision of our evolving customer service model into our 01 O&M and capital forecasts. In this Volume, we describe our customer service delivery model and customer engagement strategy during the 01 GRC period (i.e., 01-01). In our 01 Phase 1 GRC Application (A.- -01), we described the need to move toward a technology-enabled customer service model and forecast our 01 costs based on that model. We are currently in the process of deploying this customer service delivery model. This model allows SCE to provide reasonable and sensible options for customers to choose when and how to interact with SCE. The refinement of our customer service delivery model incorporates three key components: (1) innovative energy solutions, () intelligent delivery and energy advisory services, and () effective and enabling customer interactions. Technology and appropriately trained employees form an important foundation to enable these three components. This model leverages efficient organizational design for optimized operational costs in CSOU. 1

5 Figure III-1 SCE s New Customer Service Model A. Energy Solutions Energy solutions are the rate options, demand-side management (DSM) programs, and energyrelated services we offer to meet our customers needs and expectations. Energy solutions include traditional utility services, such as turn-on/turn-off and pay bill, and traditional products and rates, such as DSM programs and rate choices. Our portfolio of energy solutions will also include enhancements to solutions that SCE only recently began to offer, such as smart meters, HAN, and PEV support. One example of how we are enhancing a recently implemented SCE product is a project to modify certain systems and processes to support incremental volume increases in HAN program enrollment and troubleshooting. The HAN enhancements are further described in Exhibit SCE-0, Volume. In addition to offering traditional services and enhancing recently added products and services, we will introduce new products and services in the timeframe. For example, we are proposing to expand our payment options by offering optional prepaid electric service to qualifying customers who are interested in a different means of payment for their energy. This will allow customers to avoid paying a deposit in order to establish or re-establish credit and to match energy payment due dates with their personal finances. For more detail about the Prepayment program, please refer to the testimony in Volume. An example of a new rate we will offer is a default critical peak

6 field crews. We also launched web and mobile applications that allow customers to view key outage information, report outages, and request status updates via , text, or phone. For our Medical Baseline customers, we implemented a system to send outage notifications via text, text telephone (TTY), , or automated phone message. We also implemented procedures in which field employees will contact impacted Medical Baseline customers if an outage is expected to last more than 1 hours and we are unable to make direct contact with someone at the premises. For our business customers, we implemented automated messages during both planned and unplanned outages. We also doubled the notice time for planned outages to ten days in advance; previously, we provided three to five days advance notice of the planned outage. The improvements to outage communications are described further in Volumes and of this Exhibit. We have optimized our customer service organizational structure in support of our goal to deliver effective and enabling customer interactions. For example, our Business Customer Division (BCD) has optimized its operational model to achieve efficiency in serving our non-residential customers and to increase the effectiveness of customer interactions. As a result, we implemented operational changes such as assigning customer account management resources based on service needs, Demand Side Management potential, and other customer-specific factors rather than making such assignments based solely on customer size. BCD was also able to streamline some operational areas, such as management and oversight support, administrative support, and project management services. The refocusing our Business Customer Division is described in Exhibit SCE-0, Volume. D. Technology is Core to Achieving Customer Engagement Because SCE s 01 customer engagement model relies significantly on system enhancements, $. we require capital investments to implement our strategy. We forecast $. million in capital funding for projects in the timeframe. These investments will enable us to modernize our customer service practices and procedures to match customers new expectations of basic service. For example, we request $1. million to implement capital projects that support an increase in customer self-service options by expanding the digital customer experience. The Digital Customer Experience Program includes integrating SCE.com with our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, making upgrades to our interactive voice response (IVR) system, developing our Customer Data Warehouse, implementing an Alerts & Notification System, and enhancing our Outage Communication System. The Customer Service capitalized software projects, including the Digital Experience software project, are further described in Exhibit SCE-0, Volume, Part 1. 1

7 IV. SUMMARY OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICE 01 TEST YEAR FORECAST This chapter summarizes the results of the Customer Service forecasts for operations and maintenance expense (O&M), capital expenditures, and other operating revenue (OOR) for the 01 GRC rate period. A. Summary of Request The Customer Service forecast for the 01 Test Year consists of O&M expenses, capital expenditures, and OOR components. We forecast the O&M expenses for 01 through 01, which incorporates the enhanced customer engagement approach. For the years 01 through 01, we forecast the Customer Service capital needs for general capital expenditure and specific systems that will enable the enhanced customer engagement. The Customer Service OOR forecast is shown for Customer Service O&M Forecast Customer Service forecast $. million of O&M expenses for the 01 Test Year, $. $.1 which is an increase of $.0 million over the 01 recorded/adjusted base. This forecast starts with the Customer Service 01 recorded/adjusted base and adds the costs for known program changes for new ongoing activities in 01. This forecast also includes an estimate of expected customer growth, as most of the Customer Service core customer service functions are affected by customer growth. Finally, the 01 Test Year forecast reflects increased productivity gains that SCE anticipates will occur prior to and during the Test Year. These 01 Test Year forecast components are shown in Figure IV- below. 1

8 Figure IV- Summary of 01 Test Year Forecast (Constant 01 $ Millions) (1.) (1.) Customer Service Capital Forecast For the 01 GRC, Customer Service forecasts the general capital needs (including $.1 metering capital) at an average of $. million per year for 01 through 01. The general capital forecast includes new growth and replacement meters, radio frequency (RF) mitigation equipment, equipment for our Field Service Representatives and meter shop, Energy Education Center structures and improvements, and specialized equipment for operational purposes. These capital expenditures are For Customer Service, the 01 authorized component was based on business-as-usual due to Edison SmartConnect (ESC). Accordingly, this bears no relationship or usefulness in determining or reviewing the forecast costs in our current fully deployed ESC state. 1

9 essential to delivering customer service and operating the Customer Contact Center, Revenue Services Organization, Meter Services Organization, Customer Programs & Service, and the Business Customer Division. Customer Service s general capital forecast is provided below in Table IV-1. $. Customer Service also forecasts the capital requirements of $. million for capitalized software projects. These projects represent fundamental building blocks for the enhanced customer engagement model described earlier in this Volume. The capitalized software systems projects are described in Exhibit SCE-0, Volume, Part Line No Table IV-1 Customer Service General Capital Forecast (Nominal $Millions) Forecast Class of Plant 1 Structures and Improvements $ 1.1 $.00 $ 1. $ 1. $ 1. Specialized Equipment Meters Total $ 0.1 $. $.1 $. $ Meters Total $1.1 $.0 $0.1 $. $1.. Customer Service OOR Forecast For the 01 Test Year, SCE proposes updated service fees to reflect our current cost of providing services that are recovered through OOR. Overall, the forecast of OOR is decreasing by $1. million from 01 recorded levels because of the delay in the 01 GRC decision, where 01 OOR recorded costs reflect 00 authorized fees. The reduction in our average cost to perform these services will result in the proposed changes to our residential service fees shown in Table IV- below. For more details on Customer Service OOR, please refer to testimony in Volumes and. As a result of Customer Service s process improvements, Customer Service s capital expenditure forecast reflects savings of $0. million in 01, $0.0 million in 01, and $0. million in 01. 1

10 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARED TESTIMONY OF ERWIN FURUKAWA Q. Please state your name and business address for the record. A. My name is Erwin Furukawa, and my business address is Walnut Grove Avenue, Rosemead, California 10. Q. Briefly describe your present responsibilities at the Southern California Edison (SCE) Company. A. I am the Senior Vice President of Customer Service. I am responsible for industry-leading demand-side management programs, innovative customer products and services, customer engagement and call center operations, field services, account management, customer satisfaction, and billing and metering operations. Q. Briefly describe your educational and professional background. A. I hold a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in marketing from the University of Southern California, and an MBA in management from the University of San Francisco. I have worked for Southern California Edison for more than six years. Prior to becoming the Senior Vice President of Customer Service, I was the Vice President of Customer Programs & Services division within Customer Service. I was responsible for improving the customer experience for SCE s business and residential customers through innovative tools, technologies and engagement strategies. Before joining SCE, I held executive leadership positions at AT&T, SBC and Pacific Bell where I led a number of sales and marketing organizations. Q. What is the purpose of your testimony in this proceeding? A. The purpose of my testimony in this proceeding is to sponsor portions of Exhibit SCE-0, Volume 1, entitled Customer Service - Policy, as identified in the Table of Contents thereto. Q. Was this material prepared by you or under your supervision? A. Yes, it was. A-1

11 Q. Insofar as this material is factual in nature, do you believe it to be correct? A. Yes, I do. Q. Insofar as this material is in the nature of opinion or judgment, does it represent your best judgment? A. Yes, it does. Q. Does this conclude your qualifications and prepared testimony? A. Yes, it does. A-

12 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY QUALIFICATIONS AND PREPARED TESTIMONY OF KEVIN M. PAYNE Q. Please state your name and business address for the record. A. My name is Kevin M. Payne, and my business address is Walnut Grove Avenue, Rosemead, California 10. Q. Briefly describe your present responsibilities at the Southern California Edison Company. A. I am the Senior Vice President of Customer Service. I am responsible for industry-leading demand-side management programs, innovative customer products and services, customer engagement and call center operations, field services, account management, customer satisfaction, and billing and metering operations. Q. Briefly describe your educational and professional background. A. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and I am a registered Professional Engineer in the state of California. I have worked for SCE for over years, holding a variety of leadership positions. Prior to my current position, I was Vice President of Engineering & Technical Services for Transmission & Distribution. My responsibilities included Electric System Planning, Engineering, Advanced Technologies, FERC Contracts, Real Properties, Business Process & Technology Integration, and Edison Carrier Solutions. Other positions I have held include Vice President of Enterprise Resource Planning, Director of Qualifying Facilities Resources, and several leadership positions in Customer Service including business customer account management and technical positions. I began my SCE career in 1 in the Engineering & Construction department. Q. What is the purpose of your testimony in this proceeding? A. The purpose of my testimony in this proceeding is to sponsor portions of Exhibit SCE-0, Volume 1, entitled Customer Service - Policy, as identified in the Table of Contents thereto. A-1

13 Q. Was this material prepared by you or under your supervision? A. No, the testimony was prepared under the direction of Erwin Furukawa, formerly SCE s Senior Vice President of Customer Service. I have reviewed and am adopting this testimony. Q. Insofar as this material is factual in nature, do you believe it to be correct? A. Yes, I do. Q. Insofar as this material is in the nature of opinion or judgment, does it represent your best judgment? A. Yes, it does. Q. Does this conclude your qualifications and prepared testimony? A. Yes, it does A-