VaasaEtt Global Energy Think Tank

Testimonials

“The report is so full of terrific information”

Lori Burkhart
Legal Editor
Public Utilities Fortnightly, USA

“Philip Lewis is a worldwide leader in the field of utilities marketing, customer behavior and customer loyalty. His knowledge and interpretations of customer’s psychology and segmentation give you a much wider view, far over the energy industry alone. In the time of full market opening and competition progress in the energy sector his expert opinion is more than suggested in creating the marketing strategies. He is an inspirer and an excellent speaker.”

Tomaž Orešič
Member of the Board
Electro Maribor, Slovenia

“Philip did a survey on Smart Metering for us. He gathered primary and secondary information in a record (short) period of time. The results were of high quality and very usable for us”

Pieter Wijnmaalen
Manager
EnecoEnergie, Netherlands

“The report has become my reference bible…both readable and rigorous…!”

Henry Edwardes-Evans
Managing Editor, Power in Europe
Platts (McGraw-Hill)

“Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert… I found Philip to be a valuable expert, sounding board and open to providing advice on Energy in the Nordics. Philip has a keen and up to date view of what shapes prices for Electricity and the various forces that shape the market………found his output always timely, useful and accurate.”

Nicole Everett,
Shell Energy Europe B.V.

“Philip Lewis is a very appreciated expert with an unique competence in customer psychology in energymarkets. His deep knowledge and the ablity to communicate clearly combined with an easyness to collaborate with makes him highly valuable. He is a very good speaker and is a highly ranked chairman at international conferences and events. In business he is very concerned about the customer and the quality of the assignment as well as the results. He is good at new strategies aiming to develop and deepen customer relations and new collaborations with the aim to improve and gain better results.”Christina Öhman

The Interactive Institute, Sweden

“Dr Lewis’s extensive research on customer switching provides helpful insight into recognizing new ways to analyze customer behaviors in an electric deregulated market.”

Suzette Sondag,
Account Manager,
EC Power, USA

“Dr Lewis is an inspirational and motivating person who has the ability to apply thorough academic knowledge to everyday business.”

Sami Akseli
Development Manager, CRM, TDC Song, Finland

“Philip is a meticulous individual who has the great ability to digest complex information, and present it back in a concise manner - keeping in mind the audience and clear commercial / strategic objectives.”

Tim Wolfenden
Senior Product Manager, uSwitch.com, UK

August 16th, 2007

Past Projects

The following sample of projects illustrates the breadth and variety of experience and expertise of the staff of VaasaETT (VaasaETT’s staff have been responsible as described below for the projects mentioned below, while employed for VaasaETT or - where stated - in their former employment).

Various Leading Events 2008
Co-hosted a leading international conference/exhibition together with Synergy Events, Smart Metering Scandinavia, a 200 attendee event. Other events in which we were or will be partners in 2008 include Metering America, Metering Design Congress, USA, and Metering Russia/Baltic States and more (yet to be announced)

Leading Dutch/German Utility 2007/2008
Provided advanced price elasticity and price margin analysis for the purpose of identifying market entry potentials in various European markets.

Cap Gemini 2007/8
Provided Demand Response benchmarking data and best practice case material to assist a major European Utility client in its Demand Response R&D programme.

Leading (Fortune 50) US Assurance/Insurance Company, 2007
VaasaETT managed a detailed service-development product feasibility study for a large blue chip player contemplating entering the US utilities market. The project involved identifying the market potential for the proposed product including marketing barriers and requirements for success, and potential partners within the US utilities industry. Particular attention was paid to researching and understanding the US utilities industry and the psychology of its customers. The project report, conducted to assist Corporate Business Development in their strategic decision-making, was ultimately reported to the CEO of the client organization. A variety of VaasaETT’s US-based partners cooperated to assist the client.

CapGemini, 2007
Major collaboration partner in the development and writing of the CapGemini European Energy Markets Observatory, a global publication of Cap Gemini headquarters in Paris. Focus on competition, churn and pricing in European retail markets.

Finnish Energy Market Authority, 2006
Project director and report writer (Dr Philip E. Lewis, while in his former employment at the University of Vaasa) for a report that proposed a clear best practice definition and process for the purpose of customer switching data collection in Europe. This Universal Indicator of Customer Switching Activity was ultimately developed for ERGEG on behalf of the Finnish Energy market Authority.

Peace Software / First Data, 2007-2008
Director of research analysing global customer loyalty trends in the electricity and gas industry. Compiled the world’s most comprehensive analysis of switching trends in deregulated energy market. This is an ongoing project and trend data is updated on a quarterly basis, see: www.peace.com/customer-switching

ERGEG (European Regulators Group for Electricity & Gas), 2005
Project director and report writer (Dr Philip Lewis, while in his former employment at the University of Vaasa) in 3 major reports prepared for the European Regulators Group for Electricity and Gas. The reports benchmark, describe and analyze regulations and procedures relating to Customer Protection, Customer Switching and Price Transparency throughout Europe (23 countries). The reports were conducted based on responses to a questionnaire designed and completed by members of ERGEG. These reports provided a key basis of subsequent ERGEG best practice proposals.

Finnish Ministry of Trade Industry, 2006
Directed (by Dr Philip Lewis, while in his former employment at the University of Vaasa) a major project given to Finish parliament  to analyse and assess the impact of unbundling and other law changes on the prices, customer switching and competition in the liberalised Finish electricity and gas markets.

Finnish Ministry of Trade & Industry, 2003-2004
Directed (by Dr Philip Lewis, while in his former employment at the University of Vaasa) a pan Nordic (Finland, Sweden, Norway) project to evaluate the behaviour of end-user electricity prices in relation to wholesale (NordPool) prices.

August 16th, 2007

Demand Response Tracker

This page is currently being updated and will be available soon with much more information. Sorry for any inconvenience.

August 15th, 2007

Utility Customer Switching Research Project

The most comprehensive and uniform source of comparable switching statistics in the electricity and gas markets worldwide.

The Utility Customer Switching Research Project was founded jointly in 2004 by Paul Grey of First Data Utilities (formerly Peace Software), a world-leading developer of utility billing software and provider of outsourced billing and payment services, and Dr Philip E. Lewis, an international expert in the field of utility customer behaviour and the head of VaasaETT, an energy think tank for global markets. Since then the project has become a global leader in its field.

The Project monitors switch rates and trends in all fully-liberalised energy retail markets worldwide and has provided the first global view of utility customer switching activity. The Project continues to be the most comprehensive and uniform source of comparable switching statistics in the electricity and gas markets worldwide, and provides analysis of observed trends and explanations for utility customer switching behaviour.

Customer switch rates are an important dimension of energy market competitiveness and have the advantage of being objective, measurable and comparable between markets. Many energy market commentators tend to focus on the wholesale aspects of the utility value chain as a measure of restructured market success, such as generation sources, transmission interconnections and wholesale market trading.

The Utility Customer Switching Research Project contends that both retail and wholesale markets must be successful for consumers to receive the full benefits of competition. In this context, the Project focuses its research on energy retail competition and those market participants that are all too frequently ignored: the customers.

For more information about the Utility Customer Switching Research Project, and a variety of downloadable information, visit www.utility-customer-switching.com or contact Philip Lewis at +358 40 529 5852 (firstname.secondname@vaasaett.com“).

August 15th, 2007

VaasaETT Customer Activity Regulator®

12 years of extensive research into the effects of regulation on energy utility (electricity and gas) customer psychology and behavior in liberalized energy/utilities markets, including experience of leading major strategic projects for public, governmental and regulatory organizations such as ERGEG (European Regulators Group for Electricity and Gas) and the Finnish Energy Market Authority, have led to clear strategies for managing customer activity.

The VaasaETT Customer Activity Regulator® is a carefully modeled tool, in the form of a low-cost simple off-the-shelf customizable piece of PC software. It is designed to guide regulators as they develop and implement measures to enhance customer activity in the market.

This state of the art solution, which incorporates the VaasaETT Churn Radar® and VaasaETT’s full customer research and management experience and expertise, essentially enables regulators to rapidly and simply assess the likely impact of given regulatory and communication scenarios, on the rate of customer switching.

Regulators are consequently able to make more informed strategic decisions with less effort, risk, or consultation, and because the Customer Activity Regulator uses the VaasaETT Churn Radar’s mechanics, it takes account of the ever changing environment dynamics within which regulator activities occur: Research has found that the impact of regulations, communications and marketing change over time because of their inter-dependency with all other customer and market variables. What may work at one time, may not work another time. The Customer Activity Regulator considers such dynamics in order to facilitate time-specific predictions and suggestions.

Benefits of the Customer Activity Regulator® Include:

• VaasaETT Utility Churn Radar® Simple & rapid prediction of impact of regulation, regulatory measures and other market changes on customer switching
• Low-cost, off-the-shelf customizable PC software
• Reduced need for external consultation
• Self-learning mechanics (the VaasaETT Churn Radar and Customer Activity Regulator tools are regularly updated and improved to take account of the findings which these tools observe in practice. All clients are provided with updated formulas on a regular basis, as and when they become available.
• Scenario-games. With this tool it is possi®®ble to try-out (on your PC) multiple virtual regulatory measures and observe the predicted impact on customer switching and churn.
• Adaptable to any liberalized electricity or gas (or dual fuel) market environment

For more information concerning The VaasaETT Customer Activity Regulator, please contact Philip Lewis on: Tel +358 40 529 5852 or email firstname.secondname@vaasaett.com.

August 13th, 2007