The Customer Side of the Meter

The energy industry needs to change. Rising oil prices, environmental concerns, and progressive consumer demand is creating new opportunities for innovation in the products we use, the way we buy energy, and the way it’s generated and distributed. But what are the barriers to change and how will we overcome them? Who is driving these changes? As a consumer, what can I expect on my side of the meter?
 

Yesterday I attended a CleanTX Forum panel discussion titled, “Smart Grid: The Customer Side of the Meter.” While the session didn’t deliver crisp answers to these big questions, it did offer a multi-faceted discussion about what’s ahead. The diverse panel, representing utilities, research, networks, and retail, provided different perspectives on each topic. Below are the comments and insights that I found interesting. (Note: Because my iPad typing is a bit slow, I’ve paraphrased their comments.)

Bert Haskell, Technology Director, Pecan Street Project

•  Most energy studies are focused on the utility side of the equation. Pecan Street’s Smart Grid demonstration at Mueller is the first study, and hopefully not the last, focused on the needs and behaviors of the consumer.
•  We need metrics to enable competition. Companies need to know how they’ll be measured so they can invent and innovate. Pecan Street is active in trying to define and document industry standards.
•  As smarter meters are installed, consumers must be able to control the collection and sharing of their private data. Your “power signature” can and will most certainly be shared and analyzed.

Roger Duncan, former General Manager of Austin Energy

•  There are two mega-trends happening in energy today: 1. The move from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and 2. The connection and integration between utilities, buildings, and transportation.
•  Looking ahead, you need to remember:
- Change will be slower than you think. It took a century to convert from biomass (burning wood) to fossil fuels.
- Change won’t be as smooth as we think. The promise and vision gets people excited, but reality will set in.
•  More optimistically, paraphrasing Ray Kurzweil: When we imagine the change technology can bring, it always takes longer than we thought, but has a bigger impact than we ever dreamed.
•  No one, even the experts, knows what the “smart grid” is.
•  There’s no wifi for energy. In a centralized generation system, we’re still limited by the cost of laying power lines.
•  There’s no “Moore’s Law” for energy transmission and infrastructure. Devices can change quickly, but changing the delivery will take longer.

Stephen Morrisseau, Director of Public Relations, NRG Energy

•  If Alexander Graham Bell walked in the room today, he wouldn’t recognize the telephone, the technology, or its business model. But if Thomas Edison walked in, he’d see that nothing has changed with energy.
•  Change scares most people.
•  Most people aren’t that unhappy with their service and view change suspiciously. We need to clearly articulate the value proposition to educate and motivate the end user.
•  We need to empower people to act on their energy consumption, for example, by giving a running estimate of their bill.
•  Electric Vehicles: we need to replace “range anxiety” with “range confidence”
•  Reliant’s eVgo program is lightly used, but is an interesting business model experiment. Reliant offers EV owners a flat monthly rate for at-home electric vehicle charging.

John Schulz, External Affairs and Sustainability, AT&T

•  In the last five years, there’s been an 8,000% increase in the ownership and use of personal smart devices. AT&T moves 19 petabytes of data per day (1 petabyte = 1,000 terabytes). This will continue to challenge the network infrastructure. AT&T is investing $18 billion per year in the network.
•  We don’t need to reinvent or recreate the energy infrastructure. We can use much of the existing communications network.

David Ozment, Senior Director, Energy, Wal-Mart

•  Show me the money. It’s still unclear what will trigger change and adoption at the residential level.  There’s no killer app yet for consumer energy.
•  Traditional utilities don’t have the creative mindset to make the changes needed.
•  Setting seemingly impossible goals is necessary to drive change and combat complacency.

Uncredited comments:

•  There’s no “Bell Labs” research equivalent in today’s utility industry. Utility companies have historically invested very little in true innovation.
•  Who is really benefitting from smart meters? Utility companies or consumers? Until the consumer can see the value, change will be restricted to self-selecting energy enthusiasts and won’t reach mass adoption.
•  The holy grail is distributed generation – moving away from centralized generation and expensive distribution.
 

I’d also like to note that the event was very well moderated by Dr. Michael Webber, Associate Director for the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy and Co-Director of ATI’s Clean Energy Incubator.
 

Energized is an ongoing series following my education about living a more sustainable life.
 

As Vice President of frog’s Design Realization group, Collin works closely with our design and engineering teams to bring innovative ideas to market. With over 20 years of experience in both creative and engineering management, Collin brings focus and multi-disciplinary expertise to this critical phase of the delivery process. In 1996, Collin co-founded frog’s digital media group and has worked extensively with frog clientele in the USA, Europe, and India.