Hugely Successful Panel on Role of Consumers in Shaping the Future of Energy Use

Our panel last Friday, "The Critical Role of Consumers in Shaping The Future of Energy Use" was hugely successful.   This event, which we co-hosted with Opower, spotlighted the relationship of consumer's energy use to new technologies available to manage energy efficiency. 

Many energy advocates have focused on pushing new technologies to modernize the electricity grid and increase renewable energy production.  Although these policies are essential to forward looking energy policy, none of them can happen without customers paying for them.  This panel examined the role that customers can and should play in driving energy policy and proactively using home energy.

The panelists were well known leaders and innovators in this area.  John Ashford, CEO and President of The Hawthorn Group did a great job presenting the challenges that utilities, state and federal regulators, and policy makers face integrating new technologies into customer use.  Cliff Majersik, Executive Director of the Institute for Market Transformation, was equally brilliant in detailing the number of technological advances and opportunities which are currently available to the consumer to be proactive with their energy.  Michael Sachse, Vice President for Regulatory Affairs and General Counsel to Opower outlined new mechanisms by which the customer and utility can effectively communicate with each other to use energy more efficiently while saving money.  Opower is well known for the way they have reinvented the way utilities interact with customers from the quality of the information provided, to the way it is presented and delivered. 

A great group of folks showed up for this event in spite of the fact that Friday was not only Passover but Good Friday as well.  This is an important issue to our Clean Energy Initiative and we will continue to pay close attention to the relationship of the consumer to their energy use.