The transition to a smart grid represents a fundamental change in customer relationship management. Suddenly, utilities’ relationships with their customers will dramatically increase in complexity. Utilities will have access to customer data rivaled in sensitivity only by banks and
hospitals. They will be able to control customers’ appliances from hundreds of miles away, and map customers’ activities, inside customers’ homes, by power use alone: hair dryer on, off; toaster on, off; light, back bedroom: on 4 hours. Their customers may also become business
partners as small, distributed generation grows, and customers sell excess energy back to the grid.
 
For some customers, these shifts represent a terrifying “big brother” scenario. For others, it is a revolutionary new level of transparency that allows them to better control costs. For many, smart grid is an exciting leap forward in mitigating climate change through energy efficiency. Whoever your customers are, they will call your firm with questions. Will you have the answers?
 
Managing communication around Smart Grid is as critical as managing the infrastructure itself. We have seen smart grid marketing go wrong; PG&E is still stinging from repeated customer rebukes to smart meter installations in California. In this exciting webinar, we will think through these issues, and talk about the intricacies of customer relationship management as it relates to smart grid. For many utilities, energy marketing firms, related, and ancillary services, the future of the firm hangs on successful smart grid communication. Join us, Wednesday at 3pm US EDT, 12pm PST. Register here.
 
Our esteemed panelists include:
 
Christine Hertzog - Moderator, Smart Grid Library
Christine is a consultant, author, and a professional explainer focused on Smart Grid technologies and solutions. She has two decades of experience helping companies that range from small start-ups to multi-national corporations deliver competitive and cost-effective solutions and services to customers. She is the author of the Smart Grid Dictionary, the first dictionary that explains the jargon, acronyms, and terminology used by utilities, regulators, standards organizations, and manufacturers; and the author of the Smart Grid Dictionary Plus, which includes the Dictionary and classroom materials. Christine is a frequent presenter on Smart Grid topics and writes a weekly, syndicated blog about the challenges and opportunities that Smart Grid solutions bring to the evolving electricity supply chain, and their impacts to consumers.

Esteban Kolsky - ThinkJar @ekolsky
Esteban is the Principal and Founder of ThinkJar, an advisory and research
think-thank focused on Customer Strategies. He has over 22 years of
experience in customer service and CRM consulting, research, and
advisory services. Most recently he spent eight years at Gartner,
focused on Customer Service and CRM research. While there he coined the
terms for EFM (enterprise feedback management) and CIH (customer interaction hub). In addition, he wrote on the social networking topics that led to today's revolution and assisted Fortune 500 and Global 2,000 organizations in all aspects of their CRM.
Adam Cooper - The Edison Foundation (Institute for Energy Efficiency) @Edison_Electric
Adam manages electric efficiency research projects at the Institute for Electric Efficiency, a Washington DC non-profit organization funded bythe Edison Foundation. His recent work includes developing a compilation of smart meter deployment efforts by investor owned utilities and large public power agencies, tracking electric utility regulatory frameworks on a state-by-state basis, assessing the potential energy savings from well enforced and increasingly aggressive building codes and appliance standards, and identifying the total energy savings from rate-payer funded electric efficiency programs administered by utilities and third-party administrators. Prior to joining IEE, Mr. Cooper was a consultant that developed regional economic analyses in the fields of environmental regulation, tax policy, economic development,
transportation, and the automotive industry for the private sector, local, state, and Federal U.S. governments and the European Commission.

Chris King
Chris King is President, eMeter Strategic Consulting and Chief Regulatory Officer of eMeter, a leading provider of Smart Grid Management Software. He has over 25 years experience with smart meters and Smart Grids, including as director of rate design at Pacific Gas & Electric. An
internationally recognized expert, author of numerous thought-leading publications, and frequent speaker at industry events, Mr. King founded the Demand Response and Smart Grid Alliance and the European Smart Energy Demand Coalition, and is a Board member of the Department of Energy's Demand Response Coordinating Committee. He has testified before the U.S. Congress, several U.S. States, and international regulatory bodies. Mr. King holds advanced degrees in science, business, and law from Stanford and Concord universities.

Robert Frazier - CenterPoint Energy (Houston) @CNPInsight
Currently
the Director of Technology at Houston Electric/CenterPoint Energy, Bob
has 34 years of IT management experience in Operation, PC and LAN
environments, security, application development, audit and executive
consulting. At CenterPoint Energy, his focus is utility customer systems
including CIS, SAP CCS Mobile Data, CTI/VRU, metering, supporting call
centers, field service reps, billing, bill print, receivables and
reporting. In addition to the usual strategic planning and tactical
execution of electric supporting systems, Bob has spent the past three
years supporting Advance Meter Infrastructure (AMI), and Intelligent
Smart Grid pilot projects including regulatory filing and settlement
negotiations. Bob is a member of the Texas statewide advanced meter
portal specification team, a founding member of the Texas Common Portal
management team, the DOE grant drafting team as well as the CNP
Intelligent Grid specification team.