How do I upload household information to the Connector?
For households to be made available on the Energy Connector (Connector), the following are required:
- Household has received community solar education materials during the LIHEAP enrollment process. - Household opts in to be contacted by a community solar subscription manager through the Connector, when subscriptions to a community solar project are available. - Household is income-verified for LIHEAP before information is uploaded to the Connector.
Both State LIHEAP Administrators (State LIHEAP) and Local LIHEAP Agencies (Local LIHEAP) can upload household information to the Connector. The State LIHEAP may decide to consolidate household information and perform the upload on behalf of Local LIHEAP. State LIHEAP, alternatively, may request that the Local LIHEAP directly upload household information to the Connector.
Only households that have consented to having their information uploaded to the Connector can be contacted by a verified Community Solar Subscription Manager, therefore only the information of households that have opted in should be uploaded to the Connector. The upload process is the same for both the state and Local LIHEAP. There are three ways that household information can be uploaded:
1) Manual Entry
Manual entry is a simple way to enter household data to the Connector and is a convenient option if you have a smaller quantity of household information to upload.
Click “Create New Household”
Fill in the household’s information for the required and optional fields provided. Required fields include name, phone number, address, preferred contact method, electric utility service provider, and electric utility service provider account identifier.
Here, you'll also have the option to add household priority factors. Clicking on “Prioritization Factors” will prompt a drop- down menu, where you can check the applicable fields. After clicking save, the household will now appear in your list of households.
2) CSV File Upload
The Connector provides a CSV file template to allow for the bulk upload of household information. This file can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or similar programs. This option allows for multiple interested households to be uploaded to the Connector at one time.
Click on the “Households” tab at the top of the dashboard, then click the “CSV FILE UPLOAD” button. Here, you will find resources to help you format and upload your spreadsheet.
First, download the template. The template contains all required and optional household data fields that can be input for upload in the Connector. Optional fields do not need to be filled in for the file to successfully upload household data.
Depending on the State, the number of columns that appear on the template may look different than this example. Columns M-T are used to indicate the presence of a household prioritization factor. A State may choose not to track one or more of these factors. Prioritization factors that States do not track will not appear on that State’s CSV template.
After entering new household data, save the file, then you can either drag and drop the file into the Connector, or you can click “Process CSV File” and select the spreadsheet containing your household data from your local files.
The Connector will analyze the data and add the households to your list. All the data must match the expected values provided in the template.
3) Application Programming Interface (API)
An API allows two different software platforms to communicate with one another. If you have technical resources on your team (specifically a software developer), and you are already using a system to track households enrolled in LIHEAP, you can use the API to link the two systems and enable automatic household uploads.
If you are unsure about this, ask your IT or technology help team.