By Jesse Berst

 

I consider Schneider Electric one of the smart grid's Big Five industrials along with ABB, Alstom Grid, General Electric and Siemens. But Schneider has a different mindset. The others originally approached the market from the utility side. Only recently have they begun to expand their customer-facing activities (end user-facing).

Schneider, by contrast, tends to think more from the end-user side given its "medium-voltage" emphasis and its constituent brands such as Square D. Only recently has Schneider begun to expand its utility-facing activities, most notably with the June 2011 acquisition of Telvent.

I thought you might like to hear how Schneider views the market and what it sees coming next. Here's a Q&A with Don Rickey, the man who runs Schneider's infrastructure business in the U.S.

Q: As utilities face more pressure to implement energy management programs, integrate renewables and supply enough power to meet growing demand, what will be the number one factor in speeding deployment time of smart grid technology?

Regulatory relief. There are a number of strategies under study; but in the end, utilities can’t act without regulatory approval.  Utilities know what to do, but commissions are at a disadvantage.  Commissioners in most jurisdictions are elected, so turnover is significant.  That makes it imperative to develop programs to educate commission staffers and the public.

Q: Is the smart grid about cost savings or is it a reliability resource?

Q: Does it matter how utilities communicate the benefits of the smart grid to their customers?

Yes, for the most part, “smart grid” is a term of little meaning to customers. Practitioners in the art of marketing will tell you that consistent messages delivered over a frequent schedule via a variety of channels are the most effective.  So far, this hasn’t happened in the smart grid area.  Until it does, customers will not develop a sense of urgency until energy bills are undeniably high and rising. We see this phenomenon now in auto sales. With public belief that $4 gas now is a fact of life, small cars and more economical large ones flew off dealer lots during the first quarter of this year.  If utilities don’t get in front of this, they will appear to be the villains. This also applies to public service commissions in that they have a public duty to inform.

Q: What should utilities do to improve their customer outreach? What should suppliers be doing to help?  

This is not a utility-specific problem. They are in a partnership with regulators, but at the same time they have an array of communications they have to do by law. Utilities are not marketing firms, nor do they specialize in communications. They provide safe, reliable and inexpensive electricity.

Utilities touch literally all of us, ratepayers and non-ratepayers alike.  For this reason, they are subject to conflicting pressures far beyond those experienced by most commercial enterprises. They need help. This must come from enlightened politicians, far-thinking vendors and their customers.  Energy issues are a universal problem. Utilities are a delivery mechanism, but they are not the entire value chain. Outreach will be effective only when opinion leaders from a variety of stakeholder organizations put their best efforts and budgets into the task.