On the same day that the New York Times published an article on how new electricity meters stir fears, the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) held its inaugural symposium in San Diego as a prelude to the utility industry's Distributech conference. While strictly coincidence (unless you're a conspiracy theorist in which case you may want to avoid the Times' follow-up piece), most of the panelists at the Symposium could recite page and paragraph of the news. And rather than voice their frustration with the article, many acknowledged that the utility industry has not done a very good job in terms of communicating with their customers. As Westar Energy's Hal Jensen pointed out, the industry "spent 100 years teaching customers to not think about their utility bill."

The industry's need for greater consumer outreach has led to the formation of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC), a non-profit organization aiming to promote the understanding and benefits of modernized electrical systems among all stakeholders in the United States. With membership open to consumer and environmental advocates as well as technology vendors, research scientists and electric utilities, the SGCC is working to educate consumers on how new energy initiatives can help transform the way we power the next century.

For their inaugural symposium, the SGCC commissioned what research director Judith Schwartz deemed a "meta-analysis" of previous research concerning consumer views of energy and the smart grid. The 2011 State of the Consumer report synthesized data from numerous and diverse sources to paint a picture of the current knowledge gap in regards to energy literacy and some of the strategies for engaging with consumers to help them understand the changes that are to come. As Ms. Schwartz noted, this is especially important for the utility industry as their perspective for years has been to "assume what you think is what others think," which in many ways has created a disconnect with consumer attitudes about energy.

While representatives from the utility industry admitted "we don't get out enough to talk with our consumers," several at the symposium described how they had substantially increased efforts to get more involved at a grass-roots level. Perhaps the most important message in the SGCC consumer report is that the key to successful customer engagement will be to acknowledge the need for customer segmentation whether in terms of how they communicate (via email, the monthly bill, Facebook, or a town hall meeting) as well as the message they send.