Selling to Utilities: Business Development Recipes

Much of what utilities say and do is publicly available in commission filings and testimony — so salespeople looking to land utility business really have no excuse for not doing their homework. With Halcyon, you can always show up prepared: quickly identify what a utility has bought previously; what problems it’s trying to solve currently; and what both public stakeholders as well as regulators have said about those plans.

Imagine you’re pitching Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) to DTE Energy in Michigan. Using Halcyon, you can show up fully informed and prepared — knowing where DTE is in the procurement process, what the Michigan Public Service Commission has said, and how similar cases have played out elsewhere.

First, you might check to make sure DTE Energy is (1) interested in DERMS and (2) not already under contract with another vendor. Using Halcyon, you can find documents published by Michigan PSC that contain the phrase “Distributed Energy Resource Management System.” Then, you can ask your question(s) using natural language:

Fantastic! DTE Energy are underway with the procurement process for a DERMS, but have not yet selected a vendor, which makes them a good prospective customers. Now that Halcyon has cited Docket U-21860 as a source for information regarding commission approval details, you can use a docket filter to learn more about how overtly an expense was approved:

Now, you’ve confirmed that DERMS investments are under consideration as a capital expense, even if the exact amount isn’t yet public. At this point, you’re confident that DTE Energy is a qualified prospect.

Clicking Citation 1, U-21860 - V4 - SEPT 26, 2025 - PUBLIC RECORD, you can find the current state of play as of Sep 30, 2025:

You now have details about the goals and priorities of DTE’s procurement, which can inform your sales communications.

Next, you might want to know what Michigan’s other large investor-owned utility, Consumers Energy, is doing with regard to DERMS. This helps you understand Michigan regulators’ posture and how they’ve reacted to similar proposals:

It seems Consumers Energy is in a similar stage in the procurement process as DTE Energy — perhaps a little further along, since it has had a strategy document approved by the Commission. The testimony also surfaces this key PSC quote referencing Consumers Energy’s previous rate case:

So, you know that the Michigan PSC is not yet fully sold on DERMS, but that they have established precedent for implementation requirements. You also know which requirements, specifically: a BCA (Benefit-Cost Analysis) and examples from other utilities’ “best practices for examples of plans that can be readily implemented with regard for valuing the benefits of DERs…”

Helpful! Now, do we have any clue as to which specific DER benefits Michigan PSC has previously found valuable?

Now we’re cooking. These are key points to hit in our BCA!

You can also use Halcyon to find good arguments and precedent in other states, like California, when DERMS have already been approved and are actively being implemented:

The answer is too long to include in full here, but the point is: you can pick and choose the best value props here to include in your pitch.

In just a few minutes with Halcyon, you can walk into your first meeting with DTE Energy, or any other utility, fully prepared. Halcyon turns thousands of pages of commission filings into actionable intelligence — revealing a utility’s goals, regulatory pressures, and investment history in minutes.