A new national survey found that consumers view the non-financial benefits of smart grid upgrades as important as the money they save with the devices. The SGCC Consumer Pulse Study of United States energy consumers was conducted for the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) by Market Strategies International.

Participants of the survey were asked to rate the importance of seven potential benefits of smart grid and smart meters: ease of connecting renewable energy sources to the electric grid; reduced outages; new cost-saving rate plans; fewer new power plant investments; increased quality of power delivery; availability of near real-time energy use information; and more accurate billing.

Each benefit was found to be important to 80 percent or more of respondents.

SGCC Executive Director Patty Durand reports, “We found that the most commonly-discussed benefits like cost saving and greater power reliability, while important, represent only a part of a broader spectrum of smart grid and smart meter benefits that are appealing to the average consumer. To achieve greater impact upon a diverse customer base, utilities should take care to bring these other benefits into their marketing messages.”

The study also underscored the need for consumer education, with 51 percent of consumers saying they have never heard the term smart grid, and another 21 percent responded that they have heard the term but don’t know much about what it means.

The good news for utilities is that the majority of consumers who are familiar with smart grid concepts have positive attitudes about it. Consumers become increasingly favorable toward the technology after receiving more information about it.

The public may access top-line findings of the study at www.smartgridcc.org.

The nonprofit Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative brings together consumer and environmental advocates, technology vendors, research laboratories and electric utilities to accelerate the adoption of the smart grid.

The survey was conducted by telephone from November 12 to December 6, 2011. A national RDD (random digit dialed) landline and cell phone sample was used. Respondents had to be over the age of 18 and a head of household.

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