Edited on Jun 27, 2026. By EPR Editorial Team.
In 2017, Philadelphia Gas Works issued a social media agency RFP that captured the standard utility communications brief of the era. Four campaigns. Grow @myPGW and @myPGWcommunity. Build awareness of infrastructure improvement. Improve outreach to stakeholders. Develop measurable channel growth.
The brief was clean. It was also a snapshot of how utilities thought about communications work before the channel architecture restructured around them.
What the 2017 PGW Brief Got Right
The PGW RFP captured three durable principles that still apply.
One — utility communications is stakeholder communications, not consumer marketing. Utilities serve customers, but they also answer to regulators, elected officials, bond markets, employees, and community groups. The 2017 brief explicitly identified stakeholder outreach as a primary goal, not an afterthought. Most utility communications work that fails fails because it treats the operation like consumer marketing — high reach, low specificity — when the regulatory and community-trust audiences are where the long-term value sits.
Two — infrastructure narrative compounds. Utilities that consistently document the operational work — pipeline replacement, grid modernization, leak response, restoration timelines — build a record that supports rate cases, bond issuance, and community trust over time. The PGW RFP's awareness-of-infrastructure-improvement objective was the right instinct. The operators who execute it consistently have the easiest time when the inevitable crisis arrives.
Three — measurable channel growth is real work. The 2017 framing of measurable growth — followers, engagement, reach — was correct for the era. The metric set has since broadened, but the discipline of measurement remained the right one.
What's Changed in the Utility Communications Architecture
The 2017 brief understated three structural shifts that have since reshaped the work.
One — local journalism contraction has shifted weight onto owned channels. Most U.S. utility service territories have seen substantial reduction in local-newsroom capacity since 2017. The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the broader Pennsylvania regional press have all reduced coverage capacity. Utility communications that depended on local press for routine operational coverage have had to absorb more of that function in-house — through community newsletters, neighborhood meetings, and direct stakeholder outreach. Social channels are part of that absorption, but the structural shift is bigger than social.
Two — regulatory expectations on stakeholder engagement have hardened. State public utility commissions have raised the bar on documented community engagement during rate cases. The PGW brief named stakeholder outreach as one objective among several; today it would be the spine of the entire communications operation.
Three — crisis-response expectations are higher and faster. Utility incidents — outages, gas leaks, water main breaks, wildfire risk events — now produce expectations of near-immediate customer notification through multiple channels simultaneously. The 2017 social posture treated crisis communications as a contingency. The 2026 posture treats it as a primary function the communications operation has to be built around.
What the 2026 Utility RFP Should Ask For
A modern RFP from a utility or municipal authority should add five elements that the 2017 PGW template did not require.
1. Stakeholder mapping and engagement plan. A defined catalog of regulatory, elected-official, community-group, and bond-market audiences with a documented engagement cadence for each. This sits underneath the social channel work.
2. Crisis-mode protocol with timing commitments. A defined incident-response framework with named timing thresholds — customer notification within X minutes, regulator briefing within Y minutes, press statement within Z minutes — that the agency owns operationally.
3. Local-press capacity audit. An honest assessment of what local press capacity still exists in the service territory and what the utility has to absorb directly because the press cannot cover it.
4. Executive and board communications. Bond analysts, rating agencies, and institutional investors all read the utility's public footprint. The communications operation should include executive-level work, not just channel management.
5. Rate-case communications support. Documented community engagement during the rate-case cycle is now a baseline expectation. The communications agency should be built to support rate-case filings, not just steady-state social.
What This Means for Stakeholders
The shift maps onto every audience PGW's 2017 brief named.
Residents still want reliable service and clear communication during incidents. The expectation around speed has tightened.
Regulators and elected officials now expect documented stakeholder engagement during rate cycles. The casual outreach model no longer suffices.
Industry peers benchmarking infrastructure investment, safety record, and ESG posture do it through trade press, regulatory filings, and direct relationships — not through general social channels.
Bond analysts and rating agencies read the utility's documented operational record. Communications work that supports that record compounds into lower borrowing costs over time.
The New Brief
Utilities, municipal authorities, public-benefit corporations, and infrastructure operators writing communications RFPs in 2026 should retire the pure-social template that defined 2017 procurement. The brief is no longer four social campaigns. It is an operating system: stakeholder engagement, crisis-mode protocols, regulatory-facing communications, rate-case support, and executive-level work — with social channel management as one component among several.
What did the 2017 PGW social media RFP cover?
Philadelphia Gas Works issued an RFP for a social media agency covering four campaigns: growing the @myPGW and @myPGWcommunity accounts, building awareness of infrastructure improvement work, improving outreach to stakeholders, and developing measurable channel growth.
Why has utility communications work expanded since 2017?
Three structural shifts: local-press contraction has moved more communications work into utility owned channels; state regulators have raised expectations for documented stakeholder engagement during rate cases; and crisis-response expectations have tightened on both speed and channel coverage.
What should a 2026 utility communications RFP include?
Stakeholder mapping and engagement plan, crisis-mode protocol with timing commitments, local-press capacity audit, executive and board communications support, and rate-case communications support — with social channel management as one component among several.
Does this apply to municipal authorities and public-benefit corporations as well?
Yes. Any entity whose reputation is read by residents, regulators, journalists, and bond markets — including water authorities, transit agencies, port authorities, and public power — operates under the same expanded communications expectations.
