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Across much of the United States, utilities are once again facing one of their greatest seasonal challenges: extreme heat. Record-breaking temperatures are driving unprecedented electricity demand as air conditioners run longer and harder, placing additional strain on the electric grid. At the same time, heat remains the deadliest weather-related hazard in the United States, making reliable service and timely communication more important than ever.
While utilities cannot control the weather, they can control how they prepare customers before conditions become critical. Proactive communication not only helps reduce peak demand, but also builds trust, encourages community participation, and keeps customers informed if grid conditions worsen.
Maintaining grid stability during periods of extreme demand is a shared responsibility. Utilities play a critical role in monitoring system conditions and making operational decisions, but customers also have the ability to make small changes that collectively have a significant impact.
This is where proactive communication becomes essential.
Rather than waiting until reliability is threatened, utilities should begin communicating with customers as soon as forecasts indicate elevated demand. Conservation campaigns give customers the opportunity to voluntarily reduce energy usage before more disruptive measures become necessary.
Clear communication helps customers understand why they’re being asked to conserve. When people understand that their actions can help prevent outages and protect critical infrastructure, they’re more likely to participate.
Although they’re often discussed together, conservation appeals and load shedding serve two very different purposes.
Conservation messaging is a proactive request asking customers to voluntarily reduce electricity usage to help maintain grid stability.
Typical conservation messaging includes guidance such as:
A simple message like this can make a meaningful difference:
“There is a high demand for electricity in our area due to extreme weather conditions. To help avoid periodic outages, we are asking all customers to voluntarily reduce their electricity usage now. Please help by adjusting thermostats and turning off non-essential lights, electronics, and large appliances.“
These seemingly small actions become powerful when thousands of customers participate together.
If conservation efforts are not enough or grid conditions continue to deteriorate, utilities may need to implement controlled, temporary outages, commonly referred to as load shedding.
Unlike conservation appeals, load shedding is not voluntary. It is a necessary operational measure designed to protect the overall electric system and preserve service for critical infrastructure such as hospitals, emergency responders, and other essential facilities.
During these situations, customers need timely, transparent updates that explain:
Helping customers understand the progression from voluntary conservation to mandatory outages reduces confusion and builds confidence in utility decision-making.
While conservation appeals and load shedding are both designed to maintain grid reliability, Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) serve an entirely different purpose.
During periods of extreme wildfire risk, utilities may proactively de-energize portions of the electric grid to reduce the likelihood of power lines sparking catastrophic wildfires. Unlike load shedding, PSPS events are not driven by electricity supply shortages or excessive customer demand. They are a last-resort public safety measure intended to protect lives, property, and first responders.
WILDFIRE ALERT: To protect lives and property, we may temporarily turn off power in your area (PSPS) when fire risk is high. We will notify you in advance if your address is affected, with ongoing updates on restoration. Visit [utility URL] to prepare and register for support if you have medical or accessibility needs.
Because these events can significantly disrupt daily life, utilities must communicate early, often, and consistently. Customers should understand:
Timely, transparent communication helps customers prepare while reinforcing the safety rationale behind these difficult operational decisions.
Extreme heat events don’t always result in rolling blackouts and proactive communication can play an important role in preventing them.
During California’s extreme heat emergency in the summer of 2022, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) issued its highest-level Energy Emergency Alert as electricity demand reached record levels. Before ordering rotating outages, utilities launched widespread conservation campaigns encouraging customers to voluntarily reduce energy consumption.
Working with California utilities, Convey supported these conservation efforts by delivering communications at a scale of 1.5 million customer messages per hour, while providing real-time reporting, carrier-certified delivery receipts, and proactive notifications to critical infrastructure providers including hospitals and care facilities. The rapid, coordinated outreach helped reduce customer confusion, lower inbound call volume, and most importantly, contributed to avoiding the need for rolling blackouts during the event.
Read our California case study to see how proactive communications helped utilities avoid rolling blackouts during one of the state’s most challenging summer grid emergencies.
One of the biggest opportunities for utilities is moving beyond one-size-fits-all communication.
Every customer has different energy usage patterns, service needs, and communication preferences. Sending identical messages to every customer can reduce engagement and create unnecessary noise.
Instead, utilities should use personalized, segmented communications that deliver the most relevant information to each situation. During a heat wave, not every customer faces the same risks or requires the same information. Modern utility communications should be personalized based on customer location, energy usage patterns, outage status, communication preferences, and individual needs.
For example:
Personalized communications reduce unnecessary alerts, improve customer engagement, and increase the likelihood that customers will take meaningful action.
Different situations require different communication channels.
For proactive events like heat waves, email provides an opportunity to educate customers with detailed information, conservation tips, links to available programs, and additional resources. Customers generally prefer email when the goal is education rather than urgent notification.
As conditions become more critical, SMS and voice notifications become increasingly important because they deliver immediate, high-visibility alerts.
An effective communication strategy uses multiple channels together, ensuring customers receive information in the format that’s most appropriate for the situation.
The most successful utilities don’t build communication plans during an emergency. They prepare well before the hottest days of summer arrive.
Best practices include:
Preparation allows utilities to communicate quickly while maintaining consistency across every customer touchpoint.
Utilities should never be expected to respond alone. During periods of extreme heat, wildfire risk, or large-scale outages, the strongest community responses happen when utilities, local governments, emergency management agencies, public health organizations, and nonprofit partners communicate with one voice.
Coordinated messaging helps ensure residents receive consistent guidance regardless of where they look for information. Local governments can reinforce conservation appeals through municipal websites and social media, while emergency management agencies share preparedness information, cooling center locations, transportation resources, and emergency shelter availability.
This collaboration becomes especially important for supporting vulnerable populations, including older adults, customers who rely on electricity for medical equipment, residents with limited mobility, and individuals without reliable transportation.
By establishing communication protocols and mutual aid partnerships before an emergency occurs, utilities can improve operational coordination while strengthening community trust.
During the Palisades Fire in January 2025, utilities worked alongside regional partners, the City of Los Angeles, county public health agencies, the American Red Cross, and local nonprofit organizations to coordinate shelter operations, wellness checks, transportation assistance, and public communications. These partnerships demonstrated that resilient communities depend on more than reliable infrastructure, they depend on coordinated, trusted communication.
Utilities across the country rely on Convey to deliver timely, multi-channel customer communications before, during, and after high-demand events.
Whether supporting conservation campaigns, outage notifications, restoration updates, or ongoing customer education, Convey helps utilities deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time.
By combining audience segmentation, personalized messaging, and automated workflows, utilities can encourage meaningful customer participation, improve transparency, reduce unnecessary call volume, and strengthen community trust during periods of grid stress.
Extreme weather is changing how utilities prepare for summer. Heat waves, wildfire risk, and periods of peak demand are no longer isolated events, they are becoming part of annual operational planning.
Whether encouraging voluntary conservation, implementing temporary load shedding, or managing a Public Safety Power Shutoff, success depends on delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time.
Utilities that invest in proactive, personalized communications, strengthen partnerships with local governments and emergency organizations, and prepare messaging before an event occurs will be better positioned to protect grid reliability, support public safety, and build lasting trust within the communities they serve.
Preparation starts long before temperatures peak. Utilities should have pre-approved communication plans, customer segments, and message templates ready to deploy as forecasts indicate increasing demand. Convey enables utilities to launch proactive, multi-channel conservation campaigns across email, SMS, voice, and other digital channels, helping customers take action before grid reliability is threatened.
Not every customer should receive the same message. A customer in an area under a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) warning requires different information than someone simply being asked to conserve energy. Likewise, commercial customers, medically vulnerable customers, and customers with historically high energy usage all have unique communication needs.
Convey helps utilities deliver personalized, segmented communications so every customer receives timely, relevant information based on their location, service status, communication preferences, and other available data.
Different situations call for different channels.
Email is ideal for proactive education, conservation tips, preparedness resources, and program information. SMS and voice notifications are most effective for urgent conservation requests, load shedding notifications, Public Safety Power Shutoff alerts, and restoration updates.
Convey’s omnichannel engagement platform allows utilities to coordinate communications across multiple channels while maintaining a consistent customer experience.
During elevated wildfire conditions, utilities must communicate quickly and clearly with affected communities. Convey supports advance PSPS notifications, ongoing event updates, restoration messaging, and targeted outreach to customers who may require additional assistance, including those with medical or accessibility needs.
By automating workflows and delivering messages across multiple channels, utilities can keep customers informed throughout every stage of a PSPS event.
Yes. Providing customers with timely, accurate, and proactive information helps answer questions before they become calls to the contact center. Conservation campaigns, outage notifications, restoration updates, and self-service links give customers the information they need when they need it, reducing uncertainty and easing pressure on customer service teams.
Successful emergency communication extends beyond the utility. Convey helps utilities coordinate messaging with municipalities, county emergency management agencies, public health organizations, and other community partners by delivering consistent, timely communications across multiple audiences.
Whether sharing cooling center locations, emergency preparedness information, transportation resources, or restoration updates, coordinated communication helps communities respond more effectively while building trust among residents.
Preparation is just as important as response. Convey helps utilities establish communication workflows before peak demand season by creating reusable templates, audience segments, escalation paths, and automated messaging campaigns for conservation appeals, load shedding events, Public Safety Power Shutoffs, and restoration communications.
When every minute matters, utilities can activate pre-built workflows instead of creating communications from scratch.
Convey combines intelligent customer segmentation, personalized messaging, omnichannel delivery, and utility-specific workflows into a single engagement platform. From proactive conservation campaigns to emergency notifications and post-event restoration updates, utilities can deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time, helping protect grid reliability, improve customer satisfaction, and strengthen community resilience.
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