Smart Grid Tough Sell

Posted by Energy Wire on March 29, 2010 at 11:17 AM

When it comes to persuading consumers about the benefits of Smart Grid, utility executives are cautious.
According to a survey released last week by Oracle Corp., utilities executives think Smart Grid is going to be a tough sell. Most of the concern stems from potential rate increases consumers are likely to face.

A number of Smart Grid pilots in California, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., already encountered stiff consumer opposition, especially to higher time-of-use rates.

The Oracle survey also found that only one in five utility executives are planning system-wide smart meter deployments.

Martin LaMonica at CNET's Green Tech blog has a helpful summary of the survey (http://bit.ly/cukSB3).