Delivery

The way that Behavioral Demand Response communications are delivered varies by communication type:

Print Channel: The print channel is used to send print materials designed to motivate customers to save energy during peak events and reward them for their participation. Delivery of print reports requires the utility purchase the appropriate channel fee.
Email Channel: The email channel is used to send communications to customers before and after the peak day event. Pre-event emails are sent to customers the day prior to a peak event is scheduled to begin. Post-event emails are sent to customers in the days following a peak event. Results are sent as soon as they are calculated.
Voice Channel: The voice channel is used to send automated pre-event and post-event voice messages to customers. Pre-event voice messages are sent to customers the day before a peak event begins. Post-event voice messages are sent to customers in the days following a peak event. Customers will never receive more than one voice message a day. If results have been calculated, but a voice message has already been delivered that day, then the results are held until the following day. Otherwise, results are delivered when they are calculated.
SMS Channel: Through the SMS channel, customers receive automated pre- and post-event text messages that are sent the day before a peak event begins. Post-event messages are sent to customers in days following the peak event.

Delivery Rules

Behavioral Demand Response messages are not regularly scheduled communications. They are triggered according to when peak day events are scheduled during the peak event season. These messages must be delivered within a specific delivery window. Anything outside of the specified delivery window is considered the blackout period (also known as quiet hours). Oracle Utilities will not send text or voice messages during quiet hours. For additional information, see Requirements and Limitations.

Delivery Window: Email, voice, and SMS messages must be delivered during legally mandated waking hours, 8am-5pm local time. Oracle Utilities and the utility client will mutually agree on quiet hours. Clients cannot choose the time of send. Pre-event messages can be delivered on all days, however, post-event messages are only delivered on business days (Monday - Friday).

All requests for IVR timing must be handled by your Delivery Team, as there are specific vendor requirements that must be met, which may impact the delivery window.

Delivery Frequency: Each Behavioral Demand Response message is sent only once for each peak event. For example, at the beginning of the peak event season, the pre-season postcard is only sent one time. If a customer does not receive the postcard, it is not resent. Customers will receive a pre- and post-event message for each peak event, but messages are not resent or duplicated for a single event. If the utility schedules more than one peak event season in a year (summer and winter events), this sequence repeats for each season.

Emails and Attachments: For email alerts, the email content is delivered directly in the email message with no attachments. This makes it more convenient for customers to quickly view the information, and it makes the emails less likely to be blocked by spam filters.

Multi-day Peak Event Feature: The multi-day peak event feature is designed to resolve issues arising from consecutive peak event days, peak event days in close proximity, and delayed peak event customer data (required to produce an insight). This feature ensures that customers do not receive more than one IVR notification per day by bundling pre-event messages with available post-event insights. Post-event insights may also be bundled in a single post-event IVR notification if multiple insights are available and no pre-event IVR notification is scheduled for that day. Additionally, this feature provides a variation to the messaging contained in pre-event email notifications during consecutive peak day events.