Developing Software for Successful Programmes
Developing Software for Successful Programmes
Uppsala Energy supplies electricity to about 70 000 households. Together with its bills, the company will send out discount vouchers that will entitle consumers to purchase up to six CFLs from any of the retailers in the town with whom Uppsala Energi has an agreement for distribution of the lamps. The cost of lamps bought with the vouchers is added to the subscriber's next six utility bills, spread over a period of two years, and no money is paid at the shop. The utility collects the filled-in vouchers from the retailers once a week.
The lamps available are Philips and Osram integral CFLs. Uppsala Energy has negotiated a bulk purchase order for 50 000 lamps and an option for another 50 000 directly with the manufacturers, obtaining a very favourable wholesale price and allowing the retail price to be correspondingly reduced. Uppsala Energi's domestic subscribers will pay SEK 108 (about US$ 18) per lamp, which is considerably cheaper than the normal average price of appr. SEK 150 (appr. US$ 25) charged by most retailers.
To avoid the risk of lamp shortages, vouchers have been sent out over a period of several months. As of mid-March the response rate has been about 5% and an average 5,3 lamps per voucher has been sold. Customers that do not respond will be contacted again, says Uppsala Energi campainger Bo Wallin: "With our data-processing routines we can pick out special customers for intensified efforts."
The project is being supported by NUTEK, the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development.
Several Swedish utilities use the same data-processing company for dealing with their bills, covering about 20% of all Swedish electricity subscribers. The routines now being developed will be applicable throughout the country.
For information contact:
Ingvar Wahlander
Uppsala Energi
Box 125, 751 04 Uppsala, Sweden
Tel: +46 18 27 27 00
Fax: +46 18 14 66 57