There’s really very little question that consumer engagement will be critical for Smart Grid to succeed. No longer can we look at consumers as “ratepayers.” They are customers. And to deliver products and services of interest, we must first understand consumers, and then we must engage them in the discussions that will shape the future of Smart Grid.

For that reason, we spent Tuesday at GridWeek focused entirely on consumer engagement, dialogue and understanding. We kicked off the day with a roundtable of industry leaders discussing key challenges – from fostering consumer buy-in, to understanding the consumer side of the meter, to exploring the challenges of securely managing significant amounts of new consumer data.

Many interesting insights came out of yesterday’s roundtable, which was moderated by Mark Gabriel, senior vice president of Halcrow, Inc.

Kurt Yeager, executive director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, referred to the famous Henry Ford sentiment that if people had been asked what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. Yeager said, “This is not about incremental change, it’s about a transformation. We have to ‘pave the dirt roads’ of our grid to enable the future of Smart Grid, just as Henry Ford did for the automobile.”

While education is certainly the mission of many in the space, Yeager made a point that it’s “about amazing the consumers, not educating them.”

Regardless of how we amaze and engage, we need collaboration to be successful. According to Thomas Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, “The engagement of consumers is everyone’s responsibility, not just one group. However, we must provide the correct information.”

In addition to the correct information, we need to provide the most relevant information. There is a big element of “What is in this for me?”

Gabriel, our moderator, pointed out that maybe we’re trying to communicate too much when it comes to customer education – that perhaps we should just stay focused on the value proposition of Smart Grid, not the process required to deliver that value.

“Are we making a mistake here?” Gabriel asked.  “Are we expecting too much from consumers?  Perhaps yes.  Does AT&T educate consumers on the antennas and technology that allows them to move from 3G to 4G or do they just have a value discussion with the consumer.  Are we too far down in the weeds?”

According to Mary Healey, from the Consumer Counsel, State of Connecticut, the key is to make communications simple. “Don’t make it more complicated,” she said. “Make it easier and cheaper.”

One of the biggest messages I took away was that there has to be perceived value for consumers in order for them to engage in Smart Grid, and to successfully engage, we truly need to understand our audience.

Our lunch speaker, Bill Novelli, professor at Georgetown University, and former CEO of AARP, has spent his career using social marketing to influence societal change – which all starts with understanding and engagement.  He suggested that for successful social change to occur, we must start by listening to consumers and understanding what they need. To educate, the industry will have to answer customer questions around “what’s in it for me?”, “what do I have to gain, versus lose?”, and “how will this fit into my daily life?” he said.

While there’s no true formula, he mentioned a few elements of social change that really stuck with me, and I see these as being key for Smart Grid:

  • Big broad environmental change, such that consumers feel the impact where they “live, work and play.” This type of broad-sweeping change will often require policy as a key driver, and integration at the federal, state and advocacy level, he said.
  • Ask, “What do women want?” He suggested that women are advancing far faster than men in many respects (education, leadership roles, etc.) and that they’re assuming a bigger and bigger role over critical household financial decisions.  In other words, women are the household influencers.
  • Partnerships and collaboration. He stated that some of the most effective collaborations are often between corporations and non-profits, and he specifically suggested the Smart Grid industry get engaged with AARP and the Consumers Union.
  • Solid leadership. Put simply, “leadership really counts.” He suggested that the industry forge ahead, make partnerships and find its mavens.

I am encouraged by the discussions taking place at GridWeek that we are moving forward in all of these areas. Organizations like the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative really exemplify how Smart Grid stakeholders from inside and outside of the energy industry – including consumer advocacy and non-profits – are coming together to better understand, engage and educate consumers.

The decades of one-dimensional, single-directional communication and electricity flow from utilities to consumers is over. But it will take vendors, utilities, regulators, policymakers, media and the whole gamut of Smart Grid stakeholders to achieve successful consumer engagement.

We couldn’t have better minds here at GridWeek helping to tackle this key challenge. I look forward to continuing the consumer discussion today and tomorrow as we address the topics of Smart Grid deployments and Smart Grid acceleration – and of course electric vehicles.

All of the presentations from GridWeek 2010 will be available for download online at www.GridWeek.com starting this Thursday. Videos from each plenary roundtable will also be available within the next two weeks.