SGCC Research Brief
Consumer Value Proposition for the Smart Grid
April, 22 2015
SGCC Research Brief
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Questions & Audio
Patty Durand, Executive Director of the
Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative
Bernard Lecours, Strategic Marketing
Director at GE Energy
David Roznowski, Senior Vice
President & Energy Sector Lead at
Edelman
Speakers
SGCC Research Brief
Agenda
1. Why a Consumer Value Proposition?
• What is a Consumer Value Proposition?
• Creating the Consumer Value Proposition
2. Creating a Narrative
• Elevator Pitch
• Stump Speech
3. Smart Grid Consumer Value Proposition in Action
• Connecting with Consumers
• Utilizing the Messaging
4. Q&A
• We want your feedback
Environmental Economic Reliability
SGCC is taking the lead on delivering a consistent narrative
on the promise of the Smart Grid to consumers
Work with industry stakeholders on a
national media awareness campaign plan
Smart Grid enables scale up of renewables &
customers can access distributed generation
Customer savings from peak time rebate and other dynamic/time
variant prices
Outage avoidanceAbility for consumers to
access to distributed generation
Enabling choice/empowerment/personal management with
prices
Improvement in line loss reductions enabled by smart grid technology
Quick recovery restoration or self-healing
benefits
Customer service improvements to
customer during outage or unusual circumstances
Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions enabled
by smart grid
Peak load reductions enabled by demand response programs
Consumer Value Proposition
Explaining the Consumer Value Proposition of the smart grid means engaging in a
compelling dialogue with key stakeholders. This conversation should be guided by a
narrative based on the art of storytelling that enables the organization and its
spokespeople to communicate with one voice the story of why this is important to
consumers.
Why A Narrative?
Elevator Pitch – A positioning pitch that captures and articulates a single powerful idea. It sums up the unique aspects and strengths, and quickly outlines why the CVP is important.
Stump Speech – A deeper, more dimensionalized view of your story. Longer than an elevator pitch, it humanizes the complications, stakes, promise and payoff of your narrative. A well-rounded positioning story, the stump speech blends emotions with data, so there are reasons to connect and reasons to believe. This is not a history lesson, but it is a snapshot that provides context about where you’ve been, what you’re doing, why you’re different and why that’s important.
Together, these pieces have the power to steer all forms of communication and content in multiple channels.
FOUNDATIONAL COMPONENTS
ELEVATOR PITCH
A smart grid is your utility’s investment in technology that makes you better informed. This enables the electric grid to be more flexible, reliable and environmentally friendly.
It also offers information that translates to potential cost savings through increased control. A smarter grid gives you the freedom to make energy choices important to you.
A Story That Establishes Consumer Acceptance
• Historically consumers have passively paid monthly
electric bills
• Now utilities are evolving, combining power sources
with new digital technology to enable the smart grid
• Smarter grids decrease CO2 emissions and the use of
inefficient back-up power sources
• A smart grid decreases the frequency, duration and
breadth of electricity outages
• Your utility can provide cleaner, smarter, more efficient electricity
• You can have more control of your energy usage and expenditures
Stump Speech
Examples
• ATMs, the Internet, mobile phones and Wi-Fi lacked understanding and broad
use when they emerged. Now we can’t imagine a world without them.
• Electricity can create the same kind of customer experience. The smart grid
makes interactivity with energy possible, easy and fun.
SCENARIO #1: Rebecca Smith, energy reporter at The Wall Street Journal,
wants to speak in mid-Summer when the strain on the power grid is at its peak.
She wants to understand how a decrease in the frequency and duration of
electricity outages financially benefits the consumer.
MESSAGE: The smart grid decreases the frequency, duration and breadth of
electricity outages.
PROOF POINTS:
• Power outages cost the U.S. economy $80B. On any day, the equivalent of 500,000
people in the U.S. are without power for two hours or more.
• During Hurricane Sandy, 130,000 homes regained power after two days. On July 5,
2012, EPB during a severe summer storm experienced a 55 percent reduction in
duration of outages from prior events and most customers were restored about 1.5
days earlier than would have been possible.
• Southern Company over three years prevented 115 outage minutes per customer
and avoided 71 outage minutes per customer.
• Burbank Water and Power identified potential weak spots in its power grid and fixed
them bringing an averaged 16 minutes of down time for its customers in 2013,
compared to a national average of 130 minutes.
SCENARIO #2: Wendy Koch, senior editor at The Great Energy Challenge
(National Geographic), wants to speak about how specifically increased control
by consumers has helped to impact climate disruption.
MESSAGE: The smart grid reduces climate event disruption.
PROOF POINTS:
• The smart grid takes more trucks off the road, reducing emissions. An utility like
DTE Energy has removed 274,956 truck rolls avoiding nearly 2,474,604 miles of
unnecessary emissions.
• PG&E’s outage detection program has helped avoid more than 6,500 truck rolls and
reduced emissions by more than 61,000 pounds of CO2.
SCENARIO #3: Kate Galbraith, energy reporter at The New York Times, is taking
an in-depth look at the progress the U.S. is making integrating renewable
energy into the macro portfolio.
MESSAGE: The smart grid helps power companies reduce wasted energy and
take advantage of renewable energy sources but regulators need to keep pace.
PROOF POINTS:
• Dominion Resources over the course of 3 years of line loss reduction saved energy
for 6,697 customers of 5,144 MWh.
• By enabling better access to renewables, mainly diesel and wind generation, Texas
reported a net total of 962,379 kilowatts of distributed generation in 2013.
SCENARIO #4: Elisabeth Leamy, consumer correspondent at ABC News, is
taping a segment that identifies how American households are incurring
substantial cost savings on their electricity bills by taking advantage of smart
grid technology.
MESSAGE: The smart grid gives consumers the information that enables more
control over their electricity bills.
PROOF POINTS:
• SDG&E’s “Reduce Your Use” Days has customers sign up to receive text and email
alerts. In 2014, 71,949 customers participated and received credits amounting to
$569,836. Over three years, SDG&E customers who participated saved a total of
$1,019,836.
• Real-time pricing information helped consumers reduce their electricity costs by 10
percent on average and reduce the use of electricity when it is most expensive to
use by 15 percent.
• In the Pepco Maryland territory, more than 50 percent of eligible customers –
totaling 360,000 customers – participate in the Energy Wise Rewards pricing
program to save energy and reduce costs.
Integrated Marketing Communications Plan
EXAMPLE: SMART GRID AWARENESS DAY
Host a Smart Grid Awareness Day during the summer, when electricity use is at the top of
U.S. consumers’ minds, and leverage the day to share CVP-related content.
Goal:
To increase awareness and overall favorability among adults 21-65 who are the
household electricity utility decision makers, and educate them about the smart
grid through the CVP, as well as inform and engage U.S. communities about the
consumer benefits a modernized grid yields.
Objective:
To champion the CVP message to power consuming consumers nationwide
through a 12-18 month campaign that leverages SGCC members and a multi-
media approach to increase awareness by 4 percent.
Strategy #1
Raise awareness of the CVP message nationwide through diverse and interactive
channels that reach consumers.
Strategy #2
Amplify the CVP message and activities to enable consumers to participate in
discussions, while cultivating additional support and buy-in from industry
stakeholders.
Commission the sixth edition of SGCC’s flagship research study, Consumer Pulse Wave, and
track and measure the national awareness, attitudinal and behavioral shifts among U.S.
consumers toward the smart grid.
Measure owned social and digital media analytics for growth, engagement and impressions on all channels.
Determine the total number of consumers reached from community outreach programs and partnerships.
Increased occurrence of member companies utilizing CVP materials in communications and participation in SGCC led activities.
Measure the CVP media coverage and calculate the consumer reach of publications.
Measure the tonality of article placements to achieve a percentage growth from negative -neutral to more of a neutral – positive.
How Do We Measure Success?
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Questions & Answers