Working With Segments

Segments define the customer populations you want to explore in FLEX Insights.

You can create a Segment using energy usage, detected end uses, load disaggregations, property characteristics, customer attributes, or a combination of these criteria. Once created, you can use a Segment in Reports to analyze that population or compare it with other populations.

For example, you could create Segments for:

• Customers with high evening peak demand
• Residential customers with detected EV charging
• Customers with electric heating in a particular climate zone
• Customers on a specific rate
• Customers with high cooling loads

Creating a Segment

To create a Segment:

1. On the FLEX Insights Home Page
2. Select Create New within the Segment section.
3. Enter a name for the Segment.
4. Add the criteria you want to use to define the population.
5. Configure the value for each criterion.
6. Review the resulting population.
7. Save the Segment.

Give your Segment a name that makes the population easy to recognize later, particularly if you expect to use it in multiple Reports.

Choosing filters

Filters determine which customers are included in a Segment.

FLEX Insights organizes filters into five categories: Disaggregated Energy, End Use Detections, Electricity Usage, Property Attributes, and Customer Attributes.

The filters available within each category depend on the data available for your organization.

Disaggregated Energy

Disaggregated Energy filters let you define populations based on estimated energy consumption associated with specific end uses and technologies.

These can include loads such as baseload, cooling, discretionary usage, electric heating, EV charging, and solar generation.

Use these filters when the amount of per-meter energy associated with an end use is important to the population you want to identify.

For example, you could identify customers with particularly high estimated cooling consumption or EV charging load.

End Use Detections

End Use Detections let you define populations based on whether FLEX Insights detects a particular technology or end use.

For example, you can identify customers where FLEX Insights detects home EV charging, electric heating, or central air conditioning.

Use a detection filter when you want to identify customers based on the presence of a particular end use or technology, rather than the amount of energy associated with it.

Electricity Usage

Electricity Usage filters let you define populations based on electricity consumption characteristics.

Available measures can include annual usage, annual peak, evening usage, evening peak, peak usage, percent peak, and other energy and demand characteristics.

Use these filters when you want to identify customers based directly on their load characteristics and time-of-use (TOU) energy allocations.

For example, you could create a Segment of customers with high evening peak demand to investigate the customers contributing most to demand during evening hours.

Property Attributes

Property Attributes let you define populations using characteristics associated with a customer’s property or location.

Available attributes can include city, postal code, climate zone, home size, and other property information available for your organization.

Use these filters when geography or building characteristics are relevant to the population you want to understand.

Customer Attributes

Customer Attributes let you define populations using customer and account information available in FLEX Insights.

These can include energy provider, NAICS code and group, rate code, sector, and other customer information included in the underlying data.

Use these filters to explore populations based on characteristics such as customer class, industry, rate, or sector.

Combining filters

You can combine multiple filters to create more specific customer populations.

For example, you could start with customers where home EV charging is detected and narrow the population to residential customers within a particular city.

Combining different types of criteria allows you to move from broad populations to groups that reflect a particular analytical question.

Understanding the population count

As you build or modify a Segment, FLEX Insights shows the population estimation that meets your criteria.

Use the estimated population counts as a quick check that your filters are producing the population you intended.

If substantially more or fewer customers match than you expected, review the filters and values before saving the Segment.

In some use cases, small populations may also be subject to privacy restrictions that limit the results available for analysis.

Editing a Segment

Edit a Segment when you want to change an existing population's definition.

To edit a Segment:

1. Find the Segment of interest within the FLEX Insights home page.
2. Click on the edit icon (pencil).
3. Add, remove, or modify the filters that define the population.
4. Review the resulting customer population.
5. Select Save to apply your changes.

Changes to the Segment affect the population it represents. Before saving, review the filters and resulting population to make sure they still represent what you intend to analyze.

Note: Modifying Segments can change existing reports where those segments are utilized.If you want to create a similar population without changing the existing Reports, clone the Segment instead.

Cloning a Segment

Cloning lets you use an existing Segment as the starting point for a new customer population.

When you clone a Segment, FLEX Insights creates a new Segment based on its existing criteria. You can then change the name, add or remove filters, or modify filter values without changing the original Segment.

Cloning is particularly useful when you want to create related populations for comparison or refine an existing population.

For example, if you already have a Segment of residential customers with detected EV charging, you can clone it and modify the EV criterion to create a corresponding population of residential customers without detected EV charging. The shared criteria remain consistent while the characteristic you want to compare changes.

To clone a Segment:

1. Locate the Segment you want to use as your starting point.
2. Select Clone.
3. Give the new Segment a descriptive name.
4. Update the filtering criteria that should differ.
5. Review the resulting population.
6. Save the new Segment.

Deleting a Segment

Delete a Segment when you no longer need the population definition.

Locate the Segment you want to remove within the FLEX Insights home page and select the red delete icon (trash can). Confirm the deletion when prompted.

Deleting a Segment removes it from FLEX Insights, so make sure you no longer need it before confirming the action.

Important: [We should confirm exactly what happens when a Segment used by an existing Report is deleted. If FLEX Insights prevents deletion, removes it from Reports, or preserves the Report’s existing analysis, document that behavior here.]

Using Segments in Reports

A Segment defines is the population of customers you want to analyze. A Report is where you explore how that population uses energy.

Once you have created a Segment, add it to a Report to explore its energy characteristics, end uses, and other available analyses.

You can also add multiple Segments to the same Report when you want to compare populations.

For example, you could create separate Segments for customers with and without detected EV charging and include both in a Report to compare their load characteristics.

Continue to Working With Reports to learn how to analyze the customer populations you create.