As energy suppliers gather more detail about customers, opportunities for segmenting and selling them will increase during the next five years.
As technology such as AMR and improved information-gathering systems enhance customer data, energy service providers will be well-positioned to segment load profiles into valuable blocks for sale. According to PHB Hagler Bailly's "Energy Industry Outlook 2000," this bottom-line-enhancing possibility will contribute to the changing customer-energy supplier relationship during the next five years.
"If you make the assumption that there will be big blocks of customers who are likely to stay with the incumbent company, then those become a very nice package or bundle to buy, sell, do things with," explains Dr. Roger Gale, president and CEO of PHB Hagler Bailly.
Whether or not customers switch energy suppliers, Gale says, the way they interact with the ESP will certainly change as AMR, bill payment via the Internet and other changes are implemented.