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Jeff Hill

Senior Business Operations Analyst

October, 2009

Duke Energy’s Payment Strategy

Utility Payment Conference

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U.S. Franchised Electric & Gas

5 states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky

47,000 square miles of service area

28,000 MW of regulated generating capacity

4 million retail electric customers

500,000 retail gas customers

History of Duke’s Walk In Payment Processing

Since 1988, Duke has used an on-line cash system for real time (or pending) payment posting. Real time payment information is vital for debt management activities and customer satisfaction.

Several upgrades via in-house developed systems (i.e. automatic reconnect orders).

Late 2007, RFP sent out to vendors and Global Express selected as vendor for Duke’s SE pay agent network.

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Previous Walk-In Payment Strategy

Network of Payment Centers and authorized pay agents

Utilize in-house developed cash drawer systems

Payment centers are Duke Energy owned/leased and staffed by contractors

Duke contracts directly with each pay agent

Customer support (connect, disconnect, high bill) is performed via customer service phone to Call Center

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Current Walk-In Payment Strategy

Move away from Duke supported infrastructure (i.e. workstations, broadband, banking, and support)

Utilize network of vendor managed pay agents

Evaluate existing Payment Centers and add vendor managed pay agents to provide customers additional options or potentially move to all vendor pay agents when timing is right

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CPI – Common Payment Interface

A web service enabling 2-way communication between Duke and our various pay channels.

Search capabilities for various pay channels. For example, pay agents can search by customer name, address or phone number to locate a customer’s account without a bill stub.

More information provided to the pay channel for customer’s benefit, i.e. balance owed (current and past due), disconnect date and amount to avoid disconnect. Helps optimize self-service channels for customers and provides consistency across all channels.

Communication back to pay channel so customer is aware of what action will take place. For pay agents, messaging is printed on the receipt such as “Disconnect Stopped”.

Provides common channel to route all information flowing between Duke and its payment vendors (pay agent, IVR/Phone, e-Bill).

Enables future adoption of new payment methods (kiosks, cell phone, etc.) and is scalable for new acquisitions or mergers.

Customer Benefits of CPI

Immediate recognition of payment such that correct account balances will be recognized and quoted by the IVR and WEB

Immediately stops disconnection or issues a reconnect where feasible, reducing disconnects in error

No manual intervention -- eliminates the need for a customer to call back and supports Duke’s efforts for first call resolution

Builds customer confidence that credit actions are taken care of properly based on confirmation messages

Customers will have access to multiple self-service channels to obtain current account information and make payments (i.e. IVR, WEB, e-Bill)

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Future Strategy

More choices/options for customer convenience

Push to lower cost channels and self service models

Evaluate remaining Payment Centers

Expansion of pay agent network

Evaluate kiosk approach that would integrate real time payments via CPI

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Questions?

Speaker Information:

Jeff Hill

Senior Business Operations Analyst

704-382-5993

jeffrey.hill@duke-energy.com

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