Customers Still in the Dark on Smart Grid, DSM, TOU, etc

One repeatedly hears that utilities are spending a lot of time and money on educating the customer on what they are doing. This is especially true as for as initiatives like Smart Grid, DSM, time-of-use or real-time pricing, etc are concerned. IBM recently released the results of a global survey of 10,000 consumers in 17 countries in which they asked them about their knowledge of these utility programs. Nearly 50% had no idea what these meant - that is not good news for utilities. It also shows that utilities are not effectively targeting their messaging and communications to their customers. In particular, the survey shows that

1. Utilities have lost control of the messaging influence: customers now depend on non-utility sources to make their energy-related choices, such as TV, newspapers, friends and family;

2. Utilities continue to talk to customers using industry jargon - DR, TOU, CPP, Smart Grid, etc - and the customers have no clue what any of them mean.

The good news is that customers are open to saving energy and working with their utility companies to achieve their saving goals. What the utilities now need to do is to learn to talk to their customers in a way they can understand these programs, provide them with clear options they can easily understand and use and show them how much they can save with any of these programs.

Further reading: fact sheet of results from the IBM study:

IBM_2011_Global_Utility_Survey_Fact_Sheet.pdf (141.42 kb)