News facts:
* Oracle announced the results of its “Smart Grid Challenges & Choices, Part 2: North American Utility Executives' Vision and Priorities” research report, which surveyed 152 North American C-level utility executives to understand utilities' visions for the upcoming decade, how smart grid plans and expectations are evolving and how utilities are communicating these changes to their customers.
* This report is the second in a series. In March 2010, Oracle Utilities released its first survey of C-level utility executives - "Smart Grid Challenges & Choices: Utility Executives' Vision for the New Decade."
Key findings:
* While 71% of utilities say securing customer buy-in is a key step needed to drive the success of smart grid, just 43% say they are educating their customers on smart grid's value proposition.
* Additionally, three-quarters of utilities rely on one-way customer communication via mail and/or Web sites. Few use social media or other means to engage customers in a two-way discussion.
* Further, utilities that have implemented pilot programmes or system-wide smart grid deployments anticipate that just 38% of customers will take advantage of energy conservation programmes - like smart metering pilot programmes, in-home energy management programmes, programmable thermostats and incentives for reducing energy loads, etc - once available.
* Utility executives agree, however, that their top priorities for the next 10 years will be improving service reliability (40%) and controlling customer costs (40%).
Supporting quotes:
* “Smart grid is moving from vision to reality. Oracle's 'Smart Grid Challenges & Choices' report indicates that while the majority of utility executives believe that customer buy-in is critical to driving smart grid success and energy conservation practices, less than half are preparing their customers and providing actionable information they can use to change usage patterns. Leveraging integrated technology, applications and analytics will help utilities extract and derive value from data to enable them to exchange relevant, consistent and regular communication with customers and enact real change,” said Linda Jackman, group vice-president of industry strategy, Oracle Utilities.
Supporting resources:
“Smart Grid Challenges & Choices, Part 2: North American Utility Executives' Vision and Priorities” Full Report
Oracle Utilities on Facebook
Oracle Utilities on LinkedIn
Oracle Utilities on Twitter
Oracle Utilities YouTube Channel
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