Energy providers have long focused on residential and large commercial/industrial consumers, but there is another, perhaps even larger, market segment that sometimes does not receive the same attention:  small and medium businesses, or SMBs. Definit...

We talk a lot about innovation and changes in how utilities identify, support and care for consumers’ needs, while promoting higher energy efficiency and better demand-side response. One company closing the gap on the debate as to whether technolo...

Indoor heating, like many other modern home conveniences, came from the Romans. Modern chimneys first became a part of the home in the United Kingdom in the 1600s, when coal became a mainstream fuel. The patent for the first thermostat was filed i...

What strategies can you apply to attract early adopters when your utility comes out with a new product or service?   In some cases, giving things away encourages action: just about this time last year, Reliant gave away 10,000 free home energy ...

Earlier this year J.D. Power and Associates released its 2012 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study, basing ratings on several factors: power quality and reliability, price, billing and payment, corporate citizenship, communicat...

Throughout life there are significant milestones—births, graduations, marriage, our first home, changes in jobs and houses—big life events. And when I think about the recent university/college graduate, I see someone who is probably the most in tu...

The Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) “brings together commercial, utility, and advocacy organizations to work toward a common goal of accelerating the adoption of a smart grid that is consumer-friendly, consumer-safe, and consumer-approved...

Social, Local, Mobile … or SoLoMo … that’s the where the world is headed. Social media sites and applications define how consumers shop and buy.  Content and commerce have moved from the physical world to the virtual world. There are more mobile p...

Recently, Accenture hosted a webinar discussion about doing more with less, which included Steve Anderson, contributing editor to Public Utilities Fortnightly and Joan Shafer, senior vice president for Customer Services at We Energies, which provi...

I was reading about the rise of mobile (see latest U-blog) when I was struck by the photo in the news article – a mother checking online prices with her mobile phone while shopping together with her young daughter. Recently as well, I learned abou...