The New C&I Customer: Why Traditional Engagement No Longer Works

You’re about to walk into an account review with one of your largest C&I customers. You’re ready to show them usage trends and encourage them to sign up for a new demand response program. But before you can get started, their team mentions their decarbonization goals, plans for rooftop solar installation, and that they’re in recent discussions with a third-party energy advisor.  

Does that sound familiar? The C&I customer that your utility built its playbook around doesn’t exist anymore. Today’s customers are better informed, more strategic, and operating under pressures that go beyond their electricity bill. If your engagement model hasn’t kept up, you’re limiting your customer relationships from becoming partnerships. 

Your C&I Customers Have Changed—Have You?

C&I customers consume nearly 60% of all U.S. electricity, and the stakes of their energy decisions are at an all-time high. The U.S. and Canada have recently seen a big shift in both energy usage volume and customer identity.  

The passive, utility-dependent customer has been replaced by one who arrives with energy consultants in the room, on-site solar and battery storage already under evaluation, and sustainability targets validated by third-party frameworks. Internally, the stakeholder map has expanded from a single facilities contact to a web of professionals with different expectations of what a utility relationship should deliver.  

According to JD Power’s 2025 Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study, more than half of commercial customers selected a new rate plan in 2025, up from 43% in 2024. They’re not waiting for their Key Account Managers to guide them anymore. EY’s 2025 Utilities Sector Outlook explains that the experience for C&I customers trying to grow or electrify is usually slow and frustrating. There’s a mismatch between the speed of their business and the pace of utility processes. 

Three Driving Forces

There are three main forces reshaping what C&I customers need from their utility and KAM relationships: 

1. Electrification and Load Growth: EV fleet transitions and data center expansions are adding significant new load to the grid. Deloitte’s Power and Utilities Outlook predicts industrial electrification could add 25 GW of demand by 2030. Customers need utility partners in the planning conversation, not just for the final interconnection. 
2. Decarbonization Mandates: Companies are expected to prioritize greenhouse gas emissions reduction from both investors and customers. Clean energy procurement is a key way to hit decarbonization goals. Frost & Sullivan projects that corporate power purchase agreements will drive over 25% of global wind and solar development by 2035. 
3. Policy Volatility: Uncertainty around federal clean energy incentives and tariffs affecting equipment costs creates anxiety for customers making long-term infrastructure decisions. Customers navigating policy uncertainty need trusted advisors with relevant, timely information. 

What Modern Engagement Looks Like

Based on the driving forces, KAMs need to shift from just maintaining accounts to becoming a trusted energy advisor. Here are four tips you can implement now: 

• Show up with insights. Come prepared for every customer interaction by knowing their sustainability commitments, capital expenditure cycle, and operational pain points. Go beyond service updates and bring usable insights to the table including proactive load analysis or rate structure recommendations relevant to their operations. 
• Engage earlier. Customers making large decisions need their utility’s input during the planning process, not after it’s finalized. Early engagement builds trust and allows you to shape the conversation around grid capacity, incentives, and rate optimization to hit their goals, and yours.  
• Go beyond the bill. Demand response, interconnection timelines, EV charging infrastructure, and energy efficiency rebates are all in your KAM toolkit to make your customers successful. It’s a balancing act to have everything work together seamlessly. Utility Dive’s 2025 marketing trends analysis shows that personalization at scale is the baseline expectation for large C&I customers. 
• Break down silos in your utility. As the utility, your C&I customers expect you to connect them quickly to the right internal teams. Your ability (or inability) to do so is what defines your relationship. KAMs who are the connective tissue are harder to replace than those who manage the account passively and in isolation. 

Differentiate your Relationship

Large C&I customers represent a huge opportunity, not only as revenue but as partners in grid management, clean energy deployment, and grid flexibility. Utilities that fail to evolve their key account approach risk damaging their relationships and push customers to third-party advisors who showed up more often, with more value. 

The utilities that win with C&I customers have KAMs show up as genuine, strategic partners. They’re proactive, data-informed, and adaptable in managing their largest customers’ energy challenges. The bar is now much higher than the traditional model, but most utilities haven’t raised it yet. Your opportunity is now. 

Learn more about how you can raise the bar: