According to a new report by Energy Business Reports, getting consumers to use smart grid technology will prove challenging. The Smart Grid: Achieving Customer Buy-in report, which surveyed 240 industry professionals including utility executives, professors, commercial users, and energy policy makers, investigates how the industry can encourage the public’s adoption of smart grid technologies.

Also essential is educating consumers about what the smart grid is – a recent study showed that 68 percent of Americans have never heard of the smart grid.

EnergyBusinessReports.com publisher, Barbara Drazga, says, “It’s clear that the customers who DO understand what the smart grid is, still aren’t convinced that it will save them money, or benefit them in any other way. The industry must be able to demonstrate real savings through (successful) smart grid demonstration programs, and offer incentives for initial adoption.”

The study concludes that in addition to being unaware of what the smart grid and related technologies are, consumers are also confused about how smart grid technologies will directly benefit them.

Alan Destribats, Vice President of Utility Practice for JD Power and Associates observes that, “The rational for the smart grid has to be in the benefits to the consumer, how it will help the consumer save money and be more energy efficient. The consumer will only respond to positive benefits, not threats of higher on-peak rates or a utility controlling its appliances.”

The Smart Grid: Achieving Customer Buy-in report details what utilities are doing to convert customers, make smart technologies more user-friendly, and increase consumer knowledge and acceptance of smart grid technologies. For more information visit http://energybusinessreports.com

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