The energy affordability crisis is well understood. What's less clear is what's actually holding up as credible solutions from inside the system. Meena Beyers knows. As Vice President of Business and Community Development at NICOR Gas — serving 2.3 million customers across Northern Illinois — she's doing that work right now.

In this conversation with host Carolyn Parrs, Meena takes us inside several of NICOR's on-the-ground initiatives — from a Smart Neighborhood built with Habitat for Humanity to a Community Connection Center linking customers to over 350 social service providers — and shares what it actually takes to scale what's working. She also makes the case for customer choice over mandate in a region where 95% of buildings heat with natural gas, and what she'd tell policymakers still asking the wrong questions.

Highlights

• The Community Comfort Pilot in action: How NICOR flipped the traditional weatherization model — bringing contractors and bulk purchasing directly into a targeted neighborhood — and delivered a 20% reduction in winter energy bills for participating households.
• Why Illinois is different: With 95% of buildings heating with natural gas and one of the most robust storage systems in the country, Meena explains why energy diversity is Illinois's superpower — and why a planned transition looks very different here than anywhere else.
• From pilot to scale: What Meena is learning about why good pilots stall, what regulated utilities need from their regulators to move faster, and why building "change agility" is now a core utility competency.
• Customer choice, not mandate: Why policies that restrict gas access — through building codes or municipal ordinances — are landing differently in communities than policymakers intended, and what that market response is telling us.
• What policymakers need to ask: The questions that too rarely get asked — about real costs, real benefits, and who's actually at the table — and why Meena says it's okay to change course when the world has changed.

Referenced in this podcast

Nicor Gas Smart Neighborhood: Nicor Gas Smart Neighborhood – Making sustainable living affordable

Video: Community Connection Center: https://youtu.be/4wVTqcPnpnw?si=WnXippVhz6nub6o4

About our guest, Meena Beyers: Meena Beyers is the Vice President of Business and Community Development at NICOR Gas. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenabeyers/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

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What if the most radical thing a utility could do right now isn't build more infrastructure — it's decide that how it cares for customers is just as important as how it powers their homes?

Utibe Bassey grew up in Lagos, Nigeria without reliable power. Today she is Vice President of Customer Experience at Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility. She brings to that role a personal philosophy she calls Love as a KPI — the idea that love, defined not as sentiment but as a genuine commitment to the greatest good of another person, can be taught, measured, and operationalized. In this conversation, Utibe speaks both as a utility leader navigating one of the most challenging affordability moments in recent memory, and as a thinker who believes the human dimension of this work is not separate from the business case — it is the business case.

In this episode:

• Why there's no single message that works for every customer — and how to think about what actually resonates with the person in front of you
• How Dominion embeds empathy across its entire organization, from call center training to website copy to leadership modeling
• What it actually took to put contact center agents live on the news — and why the team was already ready
• How grace, one of the five indicators of Love as a KPI, shows up within the real constraints of rate structures and collection policies
• Why every Dominion employee is a de facto community ambassador, and how the company equips them for it
• What love-led leadership looks like in the age of AI — and why the human dimension will matter more, not less
• The one shift Utibe would ask of every utility leader navigating this affordability moment

Referenced in this podcast: VIDEO: How do we express Love through business?

About our guest, Utibe Bassey: Utibe is Vice President of Customer Experience at Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility. dominionenergy.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utbassey/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

🔔 Never Miss an Episode of This Series! Subscribe Now.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJustPowerPodcast?sub_confirmation=1

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Like, comment, and share this episode with a friend, policymaker, or energy provider who needs to hear this.

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The utility industry says affordability is a priority. So why do half of struggling customers expect to lose power in the next 12 months — and 80% don't even know help exists?

That number — nearly 50% — comes straight from a national E Source survey conducted in February 2025, and it stops you cold. In this episode of our "Leading Through Energy Affordability" series, Ben Nathan, Director of Affordability and Equity at E Source, returns to Just Power to lay out the full scope of the affordability crisis hitting utilities and their customers right now.

From the $5.5 billion in outstanding customer debt accumulating on utility balance sheets, to the 80% of eligible customers who have no idea help even exists, Ben brings the data — and the honest assessment of what a credible industry response actually looks like.

Highlights

• The numbers are getting worse, fast. 62% of surveyed customers report higher bills year over year, a third are cutting food to pay their utility bills, and the window for a customer to recover from missed payments has dropped from three months to just one or two.
• Awareness is the biggest barrier — and it's fixable. 80% of eligible customers don't know utility assistance programs exist. Ben breaks down why community-based messengers, mobile outreach, and faith-based partnerships are proving more effective than bill inserts alone.
• What a real affordability strategy looks like. Most utilities still don't have one. Ben describes what a holistic, portfolio-based approach — with actual KPIs and stacked program offerings — looks like, and why new organizational structures (think: Chief Affordability Officer) may be necessary to make it stick.
• Data centers and the communities hosting them. Utilities are beginning to negotiate community affordability agreements — direct contributions to energy assistance funds, efficiency program funding, and workforce development commitments.
• Customer debt is now a business crisis, not just a social one. With $5.5B+ in arrearages hitting utility balance sheets, Ben explains why drawing down that debt through proactive outreach and program enrollment is becoming a financial imperative.
• Demand-side investment as essential infrastructure. Weatherization and efficiency programs aren't charity — they reduce grid load, lower utility capital costs, and deliver real quality-of-life gains for customers. Ben makes the case for why these programs belong in every credible affordability strategy.

About our guest, Ben Nathan: Ben is the Director of Affordability and Equity at E Source. https://www.esource.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-nathan-676a83b5/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

🔔 Never Miss an Episode of This Series! Subscribe Now.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJustPowerPodcast?sub_confirmation=1

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