Smart Grid Technology Unlocks Consumer Benefits

Smart grid technology is creating economic and environmental benefits, but must reach all consumers and enable intuitive energy use decisions to truly achieve its potential. This message was the focus of a recent panel discussion on consumer perspectives during a smart grid policy conference at the Brookings Institution.
 
“The smart grid is here, and I’m seeing it each and every day,” said Susan Covino, Senior Consultant for Market Strategy at PJM Interconnection. “Curtailment service providers are putting to work the kinds of innovation to actually help customers manage their bills and provide the grid with valuable resources.”
 
Even though the smart grid is taking form, most consumers are unaware of its benefits. “Right now we have roughly 33 states with smart meters and anticipate by 2019 we’ll have 60 million smart meters installed,” said David Owens, Executive Vice President of Business Opportunities at the Edison Electric Institute. “The average customer doesn’t have the slightest idea what this meter is seeking to do – we’ve got to convince customers the meter will put them in control.”
 
While consumer awareness is low, the potential for education is high. “About 70 percent (of consumers) have never heard of smart grid, but when given a short definition, they like the idea,” said Jamie Wimberly, Chief Executive Officer of EcoAlign.
 
Dynamic pricing will play a large role by proving smart grid benefits to consumers. “I’m a believer in dynamic pricing,” continued Owens. “Consumers will have flexibility in the future through the meter to subscribe to a dynamic price…and decide whether they want to get a rate preference to shift demand and usage to (low demand) periods of time.”
 
Greater price awareness will lead to improved consumer-utility interactions and even greater environmental and economic benefits. “We can service 25 million electric vehicles without building more generation through smart grid by providing price signals to customers to help us fill the valley in the production of electricity over the night and early morning,” continued Covino.
 
“Part of the problem we have had with retail choice at the mass market level is that an individual customer at the mass market level for electricity is not yet an individual customer,” said Calvin Timmerman, Assistant Executive Director for the Maryland Public Service Commission. “This system will make them a specific customer. Their usage characteristics will be something a retail supplier can market to directly. They will be able to create a product directly for that customer.”
 
Once consumers are fully integrated into the grid and communicating with utilities, the innovation upside is nearly unlimited. “These new technologies are going to enable new products, services and markets,” said George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. “I believe if we do our jobs correctly, future generations may refer to the smart grid as the first great engineering achievement of the 21st century.”