Client: Consumers Energy –

Marshalltown, IA

Project:
Consumers Energy Headquarters Building

Completion Date:
September, 2006 - View Press Release

Business Situation:

Consumers Energy of Marshalltown, Iowa is a member-owned energy delivery and energy management cooperative that serves four counties in central Iowa. 82% of their customers are residential and many of those are in rural locations.Consumers Energy has always been technology focused and has taken great strides to embrace alternative energy sources such as wind power, geothermal heating and cooling, and more. They began to look for ways to increase their member’s understanding of new technologies and alternative energy sources.Quality Attributes Software developed an internet based GreenTouchscreen® as a way of addressing these concerns. The kiosk allows visitors at the headquarters building, as well as online visitors, to learn about alternative energy technology and energy savings through interactive tools and cost savings calculators.

Major Goals:

• The application must educate members and potential customers about energy conservation, energy safety, and alternative energy.
• The application must provide a quick, inherent display of current electricity use data.
• The application must provide a quick, inherent display of current weather information from the local Campbell Scientific weather station.
• The application will assist in the marketing of Consumers Energy as a cutting edge energy solutions cooperative.
• The application will help foster ties between Consumers Energy and the community through educational outreach programs.

Solution:

GreenTouchscreen® began by getting a thorough understanding of Consumers Energy, their mission, goals, and method of operation. After a visit to their facility and meeting many of the staff members, the GreenTouchscreen® design team created a friendly layout with a family and rural look and feel. The result was an internet-based, Adobe Flash developed application that had a detailed background panning screen animation and lots of interactive energy savings tools.

The finished kiosk consists of four main sections:

• The Home section welcomes users, provides multiple fun facts about Consumers Energy, and displays images of the facility and organization. Live weather data from the local weather station is provided at the top of the kiosk.
• The Energy Technology section describes the many new alternative energy types. It includes live data from the two Consumers Energy web turbines, a historical graph depicting the output and capacity of the wind turbines, a real time wind turbine animation, and an interactive wind turbine diagram. It also describes the benefits of geothermal systems through a 2D simulation and allows users to learn about solar energy and biofuels.
• Kiosk visitors can calculate the amount of money they can save by replacing a certain number of incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs in the Energy Savings section of the kiosk. They can also learn about the various types of residential heating systems and compare the operating costs of each to a geothermal system. The section also provides valuable information about energy efficient water heaters and how energy audits performed by Consumers Energy can help save them money.
• Kids have their own section on the kiosk that describes what energy is and provides some important energy safety rules.

Solution Benefits:

The finished kiosk is used in a multitude of ways by Consumers Energy. The physical nature of the touchscreen and the friendly look and feel make it more usable to those members who may otherwise be technology adverse. This fact, along with the internet based nature of the application allows the kiosk to be viewed by a large audience. Consumers Energy continually uses the kiosk to expand this audience by bringing the kiosk to tradeshows, including it in presentations and allowing local radio stations and schools to use the kiosk’s live and local weather information.

Consumers Energy uses the kiosk not only as a marketing tool, but also as a sales tool. Sales representatives talk to members who visit the headquarters building about the benefits of energy savings items such as geothermal systems and compact florescent light bulbs that are sold by Consumers Energy. After showing the members a display and providing them with a flyer, the salesman takes them to the kiosk and allows them to calculate the savings themselves, which drives home the facts that the salesman has been talking to them about. In this regard, the kiosk becomes not just another source of information, but another sales tool.

Summary:

The GreenTouchscreen® developed by Quality Attributes Software not only meets the original goals set forth at the beginning of the project, it has proven valuable in other uses as well. By using the kiosk as an educational, marketing, and sales tool, Consumers Energy can help their members and their community understand what they are doing with regard to alternative energy and energy savings.