Hundreds of utilities across the U.S. have big plans to roll out millions of smart meters to their coverage areas to keep tabs on how much energy their customers are using and how healthy the electrical grid is in real time.
Smart meters may be the first step toward a cleaner, more efficient energy system, but they have set off a media and customer relations firestorm that threatens to stall the so-called Smart Grid movement. The most prominent example: residents in Bakersfield, Calif. banding together following smart meter installation in their homes, to file a class-action lawsuit against their utility, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company. They allege that the smart meters have hiked their monthly bills.
After months of hee-hawing and meter accuracy testing on PG&E's part, the utility -- one of the most influential companies in the industry -- actually apologized earlier this month for not being as transparent and communicative with its rate payers as it should have been. In light of data showing that 3 percent of its meters may be inaccurate, it also pledged to restructure its smart meter deployment program to better address their concerns.
Now, a new study suggests that customer relations need to be stepped up in a big way to make smart meters more consumer friendly and easier to use. On top of that, many homeowners would be interested in services geared at making the data collected by smart meters accessible to them.
A recent online survey of 1,700 American utility customers, conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, indicates that a majority of people would be interested in engaging with their smart meters and the energy consumption data they collect. About 75 percent of respondents said they would want to use the information to learn how to better conserve energy, and about two-thirds said they believed that viewing this data would help them shave money off their monthly energy bills.
These figures are far from shocking. In fact, this consumer interest in energy data is the foundation of the burgeoning home energy management market. So many companies, ranging from big players like Google (PowerMeter) and Microsoft (Hohm), to startups like Tendril, Gridpoint and EnergyHub, are devising ways to break down the data collected from smart meters and similar devices, and deliver it in actionable formats for regular people.
But the fate of all of these services and companies depends on the answer to one question: Are these people interested in going out of their way to check in with their energy use -- and beyond that -- change their behavior as a result? According to the recent survey, 62 percent of people said they would go as far as logging into a web site at least once a week to keep tabs on how much energy they are using and how much money they are spending on it. This bodes well, as market education is only just now ramping up in this area.
But web and device-based solutions for dumbing down smart meter data probably won't be enough. Utilities are going to need to revamp and launch new initiatives aimed at telling their rate payers exactly what is going on with their meters, why, and how Smart Grid programs can benefit them. More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they would want their utilities to be more communicative on the issue, and less than a third said they had ever received any educational literature from their utilities.