PG&E 2008 Annual Report Download - page 6

4
“We are convinced
that PG&E is suited
as well as or better
than any other utility
to continue perform-
ing well in a tough
economy.”
service for business and residential customers. Just several years
ago, we were in the third or fourth quartile.
 is progress re ects a broad e ort to better understand
and respond to the needs of individual customers.
Our Total Customer Engagement strategy is providing us
with a highly sophisticated new level of insight into customers’
individual preferences.
Last year we built the residential- and business-customer
database that is the engine behind this initiative. It is already
allowing us to become smarter and more cost e ective at
matching the right customers with the right products and
programs. For instance, by targeting our outreach better, we
have driven higher participation in various energy savings
initiatives. In turn, this is allowing us to get more mileage out
of our program-marketing dollars.
We also became more e ective at soliciting customers’
feedback. Timely phone surveys a er in-home  eld service
visits yielded an average overall satisfaction rate of 97.5 percent.
Another principal focus continues to be making it easier
to do business with PG&E, from resolving issues with one
contact to expanding service options to providing more timely
and accurate bills and other information.
Examples last year included putting automated self-service
bill payment kiosks in our local o ces to reduce wait times and
enhancing Spanish-language customer assistance.
Early last year, a refreshed version of pge.com went live to
customers. Additions to the site included content targeted more
carefully to the individual customer, as well as better energy
analysis tools. Further upgrades extended additional energy
analysis capabilities to the growing number of our customers
using SmartMeterTM technology.
Creating a New Energy Future
Developing cleaner, smarter energy solutions for customers is
one of the keys to our vision. Last year, we continued to meet
this challenge in di erent ways.
No example is more important than energy e ciency.
We believe energy e ciency is the single greatest resource
available to enable the United States’ transition to a sustain-
able energy economy. It is cost e ective; the technology
is immediately available; and the untapped potential is enor-
mous. In fact, over the next 10 years, PG&E plans to
meet almost half of customers’ new energy demand through
energy e ciency.
Most recently, we delivered outstanding results against
California’s three-year energy e ciency goals — the most
ambitious in the nation. From 2006 through 2008, savings far
exceeded the state’s targets, which set a new standard for utility
e ciency programs. In return, PG&E has earned $41.5 million
in incentives so far, making this e ort a tremendous win for
customers and shareholders.
 rough our 2006-2008 programs, customers saved enough
energy to power almost 800,000 homes and enough natural gas
to heat another 145,000 homes for an entire year.  e greenhouse
gases avoided were equal to taking 476,000 cars o the road for
one year. Along the way, we won almost 50 energy e ciency
awards, including two  ® awards in 2008.
In addition to energy e ciency, we are a leader in innovative
programs to manage energy demand. Last year, we added
two new demand response programs. PeakChoiceTM is making it
easier to engage large-business customers by allowing them
the  exibility to tailor a demand response option that suits their
unique needs. SmartRateTM is o ering incentive pricing for
residential and small-business customers. More than 10,000
customers signed up in the initial SmartRateTM o ering.
In the future, we see even greater opportunities for new
demand response capabilities and pricing incentives. Our
SmartMeterTM infrastructure is the foundation for this evolution.