Editor's note: Siemens is a primary sponsor of The Energy Collective.

 On Wednesday, I caught up with Craig Cavanaugh, Director of Meter Services for Siemens Energy, at Gridweek 2010 in Washington, D.C. I asked Mr. Cavanaugh for his insights on the some of the challenges of building and managing a smarter electric grid, as well as of course the opportunities such a system could provide. We touch on consumer behavior, data management issues, and the relationship between smart grids and electric vehicles.

One question of particular interest to me had been whether existing incentive structures will be enough to encourage consumers to change behavior in such a way that energy is used more efficiently. As I wrote earlier this week, some early results suggest that the prospect of saving a few cents here and there has sometimes not convinced homeowners to rearrange their routines.

Mr. Cavanaugh acknowledged this challenge and responded with a pragmatic (I thought) assessment. If I'm characterizing his stance correctly, he believes that consumer behavor will not change organically, but will likely require a larger financial incentive in the form of higher energy costs, which could be brought about by a regulatory mandate to include a certain proportion of renewable power generation in our energy mix. Watch the interview for his full answer and the rest of his responses:

Alex Torpey also spoke briefly with Mr. Cavanaugh last month about emergency response data. View that interview here.