Utilities Ignore their Customers at their Own Risk

I just read a blog post by Phil Carson, Editor-in-Chief of Intelligent Utility Daily, in which he says that an associate of his had been told by more than one CEO of a utility company that they are a monopoly and don’t need to listen to their customers or partake in any sort of real customer “engagement.”

That a CEO of a regulated monopoly said something like this shouldn’t come as a real surprise to anyone. As our research has shown, utilities are not thought of as the most progressive or forward-thinking of companies, and are probably not at the top of anyone’s “best customer service” list. And so far, consumers have been seeing that the only “smart” part of the smart grid seems to be utility facing, with few evident customer benefits.

In my conversations with electric utility representatives, they have a hard time explaining how customers would benefit beyond “a reduction in outages.” That’s nothing to sneeze at, but if you live in an area that experiences one or two outages a year, are you really going to see a difference?

The same goes for smart meters. There’s been a lot of pushback from customers and communities on utilities’ plans to install smart meters. We’ve seen that a lot of reticence over these meters comes from utilities not fully explaining the benefits to customers or deploying meters that don’t provide significant perceived value to customers. Again, the “you’re a captive audience, we don’t need to engage with you” mentality is at play here. But again – this should not be a surprise: in the utility-customer relationship, the party that has a vested interest in reducing or being more efficient with energy use: the customer. Continue reading

Tags: cable industry, electric utilities, Intelligent Utility Daily, Phil Carson, smart grids, Solar Energy, solar technology, utility companies, win technology, wind energy

Seeing Green in Germany

As one steps off Lufthansa Airlines in Frankfurt, Germany you instantly get the sense of how green this country is. Things seem more purposeful, straightforward. There is very little extraneous waste. You aren’t visually challenged to identify appropriate signage or messaging. Everything appears pristine; no garbage blowing on the streets. The S-bahn is always on-time, spacious and clean. The terminals are super clean, well lit and inviting. In other words, Germany has done an excellent job minimizing waste and focusing on the essentials. What is most noticeable is their commitment to sustainability and their lack of showboating this publicly.

Every citizen participates in this practice without effort; it’s seemingly ingrained in their behavior. Even tourists quickly grasp their sustainability efforts and participate. For example, on a quick trip through the local grocery store we encountered hefty return deposits on plastic and glass products. Similar to stateside practice, these are expected to be returned to the store with deposits refunded. Judging by the wear marks on the machine, they see a lot of use. Even street vendors selling bottled water will charge you a deposit, already packed into the cost. As visible as this is, there is nothing more visible that encountering a wind turbine while flying down the autobahn at 175 kmph.

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Tags: solar, Solar Energy, Solar Panels, wind, wind energy, wind power

The Superbowl of Wind Farms

In 2000, the wind power generated in the USA was only 2,472.5 Megawatts, and that mostly coming off the wind farms in northern California. Activity then was predominantly in 15 states with California clearly the front runner. Since then, wind generating capacity has increased by 1571%.

Today, the race is on with 38 states accounting for some measurable amount of wind power generation, now topping 42,432 Megawatts. Wind power generation has quadrupled in ten years, an astonishing number considering the federal and local regulatory hurdles proponents face, not to mention community resistance often the result of lack of education and understanding of the issues.

It might be surprising to many that the Midwest collectively provides 34% of the national output of wind generation. Only Texas comes close to challenging that output.

So the race is on…the Superbowl of wind power, if you will. Who are the players?

Note: neither Illinois nor Washington accounted for any wind generation in 2000.

Illinois has been the fastest gainer, with 2173% increase since 2005 and 19% increase over last year. However, reportedly Deepwater Wind is planning a 1GW installation of 200 turbines to be operational off Rhode Island by 2014. And then there’s the 40 turbine project being considered in Lake Michigan off Evanston, Illinois

Yes, the race to the Superbowl of wind farms is on.

Tags: #windpower, wind, wind farms, wind turbines