CE, Technology Companies Start Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative

CE and IT companies, retailers, utilities and advocacy groups said they're forming a coalition to drive consumer adoption of smart-grid technologies. Founding members of the coalition, called the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative, include Best Buy, Control4, GE and the Gridwise Alliance. The coalition comes about after research has shown that only 4 percent of consumers have heard of the smart grid or have some understanding of it.

The coalition, launched Tuesday at DistribuTECH, a gathering of utility and technology executives, will “work to understand consumer needs and preferences, reach out to build awareness and educate consumers about the benefits of the smart grid, and share best practices for consumer engagement and empowerment,” it said. It will undertake “in-depth research” on consumer awareness, acceptance and use of the smart grid, with a focus on consumer needs, preferences and priorities, it said.

Federal smart-grid stimulus funding is expected to reach $4 billion, and by 2015 more than half of North American consumers will have next-generation smart meters, the group said. “The SGCC wants to ensure these investments engage consumers and deliver the energy efficiency and the savings promised,” the group said: “Consumer adoption of the new technology and services being deployed is the key to the success of the smart grid."

The initiative started after Control4, a newcomer to the smart-grid space, found that the industry wasn’t equipped to “understand and support consumer reactions to the technology upgrade,” the group said. A smart grid is needed for energy independence, energy efficiency, integrating renewable energy and accommodating electric vehicles, said Jesse Berst, acting executive director of the collaborative. “But we can’t do that without the support and involvement of the ultimate customer.” Smart grid deployments have reached a stage where “consumers are as important an ingredient as the technology that backs the system and the dollars that fund the modernization of this nation’s new energy economy,” said Katharine Hamilton, GridWise Alliance president.