A complex decision-making environment and layers of stakeholders make municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals, abbreviated as MUSH, challenging to engage. Yet helping these public service organizations can yield tremendous benefits to the organization, the utility, and to the communities the organizations serve. 

Uplight’s recent research found that MUSH institutions are searching for an agnostic, trusted energy advisor that will help them navigate a growing ecosystem of energy solutions–a natural fit for utilities. Uplight’s research pointed to seven things utilities can do to better serve and engage municipalities, universities and colleges, schools, and hospitals.

1. Help organizations measure, monitor, and meter with better data. The foremost need emphasized by MUSH organizations is transparent access to more accurate, granular, real-time data, including sub-metering and disaggregating different buildings and energy usage types.
2. Surfacing the best opportunities for organizations. Help energy managers make sense of the best energy opportunities by deriving insights from usage and bill patterns and rank-ordering energy improvements.
3. Devote staff to partner with MUSH energy managers. Respondents wanted a more hands-on, customer-focused approach in which  utilities work to understand their unique business, user experience, and pain points.
4. Understand each segment within MUSH and their unique needs. For example, demand response can be inappropriate for healthcare because of this sub-segment’s inability to reduce load critical to patient care and comfort.
5. Help this sector take advantage of efficiencies when replacing or upgrading equipment. Educate energy managers and other decision makers on alternatives and their benefits in advance of required replacement since they may lean on existing knowledge instead of conducting thorough market research.
6. Help them save money on consumption so they can fund other projects. Dollars from energy savings can be invested back into the core business by contributing to balancing tight budgets and also opens the door to more energy projects.
7. Make it easy to participate in recommended programs by eliminating as much red tape as possible. This sector simply does not have the time for manual and complicated eligibility checks or enrollment processes.

Interested in learning more about our non-residential research? Get our new eBook, Easing Energy Decision-Making: Getting to ‘Yes’ with Municipalities, Universities, Schools & Hospitals.