Customer-Centric Excellence Recognized with Chartwell’s 2025 Best Practices Awards
ComEd, EPB, Hawaiian Electric, Manitoba Hydro, PECO, Peoples Gas and Tampa Electric, and PSEG Long Island have taken the top honors in Chartwell’s 22nd annual Best Practices Awards. In addition, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has received the 2025 Award for Excellence in Customer Transformational Leadership, and Evergy has been recognized for its Notable Achievement in Strategic Customer Investments.
The awards recognize excellence among electric and gas utilities with respect to projects, programs, and service initiatives. The categories include Billing and Payment Programs, Customer Experience, Digital Experience, Electric Vehicle Programs, Marketing and Communications, Serving Business Customers, Serving Vulnerable Customers, and Customer Transformational Leadership.
Gold Award winners will discuss their initiatives during EMACS – The Customer Experience Conference, Oct. 7-9 in Dallas, TX. All Best Practices Award winners and finalists will be recognized during an awards luncheon on Oct. 9.
The conference will feature more than 30 sessions focused on timely topics, including engaging small and mid-sized business customers, affordability, equity, leveraging data and technology, electric vehicle program enhancements, and much more. A special rate is available to attendees who register by Sept. 5.
Best Practices Award judges are tasked with selecting the best entries across a wide range of programs and initiatives demonstrating thought-leadership and customer centricity. This year’s selection process was once again challenging, with more than 100 entries submitted across nine categories, including People’s Choice – Video. This year’s winners and finalists include:
Billing and Payment Programs
EPB is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Gold Award for Excellence in Billing and Payment for offering more flexible payment options to customers while maintaining data integrity. EPB revitalized its billing and payment experience in 2024, expanding payment options to include Apple Pay, Venmo, Google Pay, and PayPal. The utility has also successfully increased enrollment of its AutoPay option by nearly 40% in less than a year. As a result of these measures, EPB has successfully bolstered participation in its billing and payment self-service options and received positive customer feedback, particularly related to the simplicity of its AutoPay option.
Con Edison is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Silver Award for Excellence in Billing and Payment for its personalized video solution. The videos, tailored to align with past energy behaviors and usage, educate customers on relevant billing options and programs. In the design process, Con Edison conducted research to gauge customers’ knowledge of and feedback on various billing programs, insights it leveraged to enhance videos and increase enrollment in featured programs.
Con Edison is also the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Bronze Award for Excellence in Billing and Payment for its email-based arrearage communications program introduced in 2024. Through this initiative, Con Edison improved customers’ experience and achieved operational excellence by ensuring that all available communication-driven strategies are exhausted prior to service interruption. Since launching, Con Edison’s arrearage-based emails have achieved open and click rates over 50% and 36%, respectively, and facilitated the collection of more than 350,000 payments.
Customer Experience
Hawaiian Electric Company is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Gold Award for Excellence in Customer Experience for its Customer Service University (CSU). Despite rising demands and limited resources, CSU was developed to empower employees to go beyond meeting expectations and lead with confidence. Hawaiian Electric understands that its customer service employees are being asked to adapt to new technologies, navigate complex programs, adjust to a rapidly changing landscape, and operate under resource constraints. CSU was designed to bridge these gaps, and the program has shown that a mindful investment in teams not only builds skills but also constructs a better organizational future.
Southern California Edison (SCE) is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Silver Award for Excellence in Customer Experience for its multi-pronged data analytics approach to improving customer satisfaction. SCE combined advanced technologies, including machine learning and large language models, with proven processes to identify operational functions that ultimately led to customer experience and satisfaction gains.
Manitoba Hydro is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Bronze Award for Excellence in Customer Experience for its inside-out operational transformation. Within the utility’s Customer Experience Center, improvements including long-term forecasting and real-time adherence tracking automation have laid the groundwork for a culture of proactive planning, accountability, and efficiency. Customer Experience Center enhancements have resulted in reduced wait times for customers, measurable gains in productivity, and an improved employee experience.
Digital Experience
Peoples Gas and Tampa Electric are the recipients of Chartwell’s 2025 Gold Award for Excellence in Digital Experience for the successful introduction of its MiMove portal. The self-service and agent-facing move-in application offers customers 24/7 access to complete a move-in while enabling customer service representatives to transfer customers from one address to another in one step. The MiMove portal has handled 45% of start service requests since launch, surpassing project goals. The portal has also successfully reduced call volume, improved contact center service levels, and strengthened the customer and representative experience.
Hydro-Québec is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Silver Award for Excellence in Digital Experience for its generative artificial intelligence chatbot, Voltère. In a time of rapid electric vehicle adoption, the tool was launched in late 2024 on the utility’s website devoted to public charging to provide real-time, 24/7 customer support through advanced natural language processing. Voltère was tested, vetted for cybersecurity compliance, and trained on website content prior to going live. The chatbot has successfully reduced customer requests via the utility’s web-based “contact us” service by more than 27%.
Duke Energy is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Bronze Award for Excellence in Digital Experience for the utility’s successful deployment of voice biometrics. Since the utility launched this technology, Duke Energy customers can now self-authenticate via the utility’s IVR, prompting enrollment in biometrics by way of device, voice pattern, customer behavior, and network information. The incorporation of voice biometrics has resulted in record-breaking IVR satisfaction and multi-million-dollar operational savings for Duke Energy.
Electric Vehicle Programs
ComEd is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Gold Award for Excellence in Electric Vehicles for its Beneficial Electrification Plan programs launched in early 2024. The programs included in this plan have incentivized more than 5,500 new public and private EV charging ports as well as the purchase or lease of nearly 1,500 new or pre-owned electric fleet vehicles to date. According to ComEd, 78% of the funds supplied by the utility have been allocated to support low-income and equity-eligible customers. ComEd’s efforts prioritize access, affordability and trust, along with the facilitation of stakeholder collaborations ranging from the State of Illinois to multiple private and public sector partners. In tandem with the rollout of the Beneficial Electrification Plan, electric vehicle registrations in Illinois grew rapidly in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024.
NV Energy is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Silver Award for Excellence in Electric Vehicles for its use of artificial intelligence to analyze diverse charging behaviors, including pinpointing high-impact, peak demand accounts with 98% accuracy. Through strategic trial programs in Las Vegas, NV Energy delivered personalized, timely, and gamified “three-strikes” communications to effectively achieve a two-to-four kW per vehicle load shift. Detailed consumption analysis gained from examining 100,000 customers and conducting a targeted managed charging trial are now shaping NV Energy’s 2025-2027 Transportation Electrification Plan to achieve a more intelligent and resilient grid.
Ameren Missouri is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Bronze Award for Excellence in Electric Vehicles for its Charge Ahead program. The program originally launched in 2020 with the goal of increasing charging port installations and enabling the widespread adoption of electric vehicles among Ameren Missouri customers. Throughout the process, Ameren Missouri has developed a network of more than 100 installation partners. At the conclusion of the program in December 2024, Ameren Missouri had fully supplied $6 million in funding to enabling the outfitting of 1,208 Level 2 or direct current fast charging at public, workplace, or multifamily-based charging ports within its service territory.
Connexus Energy receives an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Electric Vehicles for its endeavor to “be the easiest utility to own an EV with.” Starting in 2010 with an overnight charging rate, Connexus Energy now offers multiple electric vehicle rate options, including a new flat-rate subscription model. The utility has also revamped its website, adding a list of trusted EV charging installation electricians. Connexus Energy has identified and contacted unregistered EV users to offer free program enrollment and installation, while facilitating relationships with fleet pilot supporting partners, including large retailers and city governments.
Marketing and Communications
PECO is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Gold Award for Excellence in Marketing and Communications for its “The Elephant in the Room” marketing campaign combining humor and a computer-generated elephant to convey the message to commercial and industrial customers that energy waste is unignorable. The campaign resulted in nearly 400 project opportunities, representing more than 56 million kWh in energy savings and $4.7 million in potential project incentives, demonstrating the power of outside-of-the-box messaging.
LG&E and KU are the recipients of Chartwell’s 2025 Silver Award for Excellence in Marketing and Communications for its energy efficiency tip video series created with Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) partnerships with twelve student athletes at the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky. The utility crafted scripts and concepts complementing each athlete’s specific sport and natural talents. In-season videos were shared on athletes’ Instagram pages and boosted during athletic competitions to boost visibility.
Enbridge Gas is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Bronze Award for Excellence in Marketing and Communications for its equity-focused Home Winterproofing Program campaign. Throughout its outreach, Enbridge Gas strove to eliminate barriers to participation in a free energy efficiency program using a trust-building, multilingual, and testimonial-driven approach. The campaign resulted in 1.2 million print impressions and above-goal channel targets, resulting in installations exceeding program expectations.
Serving Business Customers
PSEG Long Island is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Gold Award for Excellence in Serving Business Customers for its Business First initiative launched in 2024. The program fosters a utility-wide commitment to supporting local business vitality through simplified access to energy efficiency, economic development incentives, and account support. Business First Advocates now serve as employee ambassadors, championing business customer needs and strengthening awareness of available resources. PSEG Long Island’s holistic business customer-centric approach has generated tangible economic benefits for businesses, enhanced grid efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, and strengthened PSEG Long Island’s role as a supportive business partner.
Ameren Missouri is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Silver Award for Excellence in Serving Business Customers for its Renewable Solutions Program. The utility’s Customer Enrollment Team partnered directly with Ameren Missouri business customers in 2024 to fully subscribe the Cass County Solar Energy Center via an online auction. The program offered business customers the opportunity to subscribe to a renewable wind and/or solar energy solution to support sustainability goals, contribute to environmental conservation, and advance renewable energy sources.
CPS Energy is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Bronze Award for Excellence in Serving Business Customers for its Energy2Business (E2B) program. E2B is a mobile, concierge-style initiative designed to support more than 90,000 small and medium businesses through personalized outreach, rebate and grant education, and conservation programs. The program has increased adoption of digital services, grown budget plan and demand response program enrollments, recovered more than $5 million in overdue balances, improved customer satisfaction, and effectively mitigated disconnections.
Serving Vulnerable Customers
Manitoba Hydro is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Gold Award for Excellence in Serving Vulnerable Customers for its process improvements tied to its “Neighbours Helping Neighbours” grant. While Manitoba Hydro seeks to support vulnerable customers facing disconnection, it also sought to expedite lead time for vulnerable customers awaiting crisis grant financial support. The utility’s improvements dramatically expedited funding applications, yielded operational efficiencies via the elimination of manual steps, reduced contact center volume related to funding delays, and improved the overall customer experience for grant recipients.
Entergy is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Silver Award for Excellence in Serving Vulnerable Customers for the launch of its digital LIHEAP platform. The 24/7 online application allows customers to submit applications, upload documents, and receive status communications in real time. The digital LIHEAP platform also enables expedited issue resolution, preventing unnecessary customer disconnections and facilitating reconnections within minutes.
Consumers Energy is the recipient of Chartwell’s 2025 Bronze Award for Excellence in Serving Vulnerable Customers for the launch of its My Personalized Offerings online tool. Through this initiative, the utility uses data-driven insights and personalized interactions to better connect with and improve the experience for its low- and moderate-income customer base. Consumers Energy has increased awareness of available programs, smoothed the path to program enrollment, and provided tailored recommendations, resulting in more than 53,000 customers engaging with My Personalized Offerings, with 71% reporting ease-of-completion and 72% indicating a high likelihood of recommending the service to fellow customers.
Navajo Tribal Utility Authority receives an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Serving Vulnerable Customers for its annual Light Up Navajo (LUN) program. A unique humanitarian mutual-aid initiative, LUN endeavors to extend electricity to as many Navajo homes as possible for the very first time, with the support of electric line workers from throughout the U.S. Through LUN, the utility’s primary goal is to improve the standard of life for Navajo families.
Customer Transformational Leadership
The Award for Excellence in Customer Transformational Leadership is Chartwell’s capstone award that recognizes a utility operating in the United States or Canada that has undertaken groundbreaking efforts to lead its customers and stakeholders toward the clean-energy future, as well as the individuals in executive leadership positions who are the driving force behind those initiatives.
PG&E will receive the Award for Excellence in Customer Transformational Leadership in recognition of its strategic integration of innovation and advanced technology, most notably the impactful implementation of artificial intelligence. These advancements have consistently kept customers at the heart of PG&E’s transformation, resulting in more personalized, efficient, and proactive customer experiences. From enhancing service delivery to modernizing internal processes, every initiative has been anchored in a commitment to understand and exceed customer expectations to deliver “10 out of 10” experiences. PG&E’s leadership has demonstrated how technology guided by purpose and empathy can drive meaningful and measurable improvements across the entire customer journey. This recognition reflects how PG&E’s forward-looking approach continues to build trust, elevate the standard of service, and put innovation to work in the communities it serves.
Evergy will receive special recognition for its Notable Achievement in Strategic Customer Investments for its steady digital evolution. Over the past six years, the utility has transformed its customers’ self-service experience by examining analytics, implementing project process improvements, developing strategic business cases, leveraging strong executive support, and committing capital resources. The utility’s systematic and incremental approach has reduced contact center volume by 43% since 2019, freeing up customer service representatives for more complex calls. Evergy’s pragmatic and consistently successful approach underscores the power of strategic, data-informed decisions in driving meaningful progress.
If you have any questions about the awards or the upcoming conference, please email Keith Pierce, Senior Research Manager.
ABOUT CHARTWELL
Based in Atlanta, Chartwell Inc. is a specialized information provider for the utility industry. We provide strategic research and facilitate issue-targeted forums for collaboration among industry peers. Our wide range of services ensures that our members have access to the best, most timely information available to make their business decisions. For more information, visit www.chartwellinc.com.
