Jan 13 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Julie Wernau Chicago Tribune


Utility companies experimenting with everything from iPhone-like apps to neighborly competitions to inform consumers about their electricity consumption, say their biggest challenge is getting consumers to pay attention to the information.

The so-called "smart grid" approach has been lauded as a way to give consumers more freedom and control over their energy use, but in Ohio, where the devices are being tested incrementally, consumers "don't want another thing to worry about," said Ted Schultz, vice president of marketing and energy efficiency for Duke Energy.

"Rather than bring it to front of mind, what we need to do ideally is bring it to back of mind," he said. "People want to be able to set their preferences and then not think about it again ? set and forget."

Consumers are interested in knowing what their bill will look like, Schultz said, but other information is meaningless. Monica Martinez, commissioner of the Michigan Public Service Commission, said, "When I ask the question, 'Do you know how many kilowatt hours you use per month?' Nobody knows."

 In Illinois, electric utility Commonwealth Edison is encouraged by the results of a pilot program that gave 50,000 customers the ability to compare their energy efficiency with that of their neighbors using an online report sent monthly. The report graphed consumers against their neighbors and told them how much their inefficiency would cost them the course of a year while providing tips to improve.

Anne Pramaggiore, president and COO of Commonwealth Edison, said the program has spurred a 2 percent reduction in energy usage and the utility is expecting to expand the pilot to everyone.

"In a sense, this program is a kind of keeping up with the Joneses strategy for energy efficiency, and it works," she said. As part of another pilot program, automated meters that tell customers about usage and costs in real time are being installed at the homes of 131,000 customers. The company expects to report back on the results by 2011.

Each of the basic meters costs about $100 each but are being offered free of charge to those in the pilot program, said James C. Eber, product portfolio manager. A subset of about 8,000 of those customers will receive a $200 souped up version of the meter that includes a screen and usability similar to that of an iPhone with an "energy" application as well as applications for YouTube, weather, a calendar and more.

"This really is the place where the rubber meets the road in terms of the intersection of information and automation. We really want to understand what the value proposition is for consumers," said Pramaggiore.

jwernau@tribune.com

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