Home management has proved a vexing problem for vendors. Utilities, vendors and appliance makers all want to lower household energy consumption. But it has been a struggle to keep consumers engaged or to get them to spend the time and money to integrate an automation system. We have long argued that transactive capabilities will make […]
Read more »Via the Smart Grid Library, another article on the potential impact that gamification may play in educating, enlightening, and engaging consumers. As mentioned previously, we find this to be an interesting trend but believe that smart markets – especially the opportunity for consumers to own and trade their power and water resources for cash – […]
Read more »Via GreenMonk, a very interesting article and presentation on how utility companies will need to use gamification and competitions to pique customers’ interest in energy savings and to keep their engagement levels high. We support this view and further believe that smart (i.e. transactive) markets will be needed as well to further support FourSquare-like principles […]
Read more »We’ve often discussed aspects of the future of utilities, and the need to remake the relationship between utilities and the customers they serve. We are firm believers in giving people more than information, but also inspiration to utilize smart meter infrastructure and act upon the information it can generate (aka smart markets). Here are two […]
Read more »We’ve talked many times about giving the smart grid and smart meters a consumer focused raison d’etre – namely, smart markets – but here are two interesting articles about the limitations of pure social networking / peer pressure to motivate changing behaviors. As one article adroitly notes: “…we haven’t found the sweet spot for creating […]
Read more »Courtesy of Water Efficiency, an interesting article on the power, potential, and challenges of the data inherent in a smart grid for water: “…Dr. Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute recently wrote that due to limitations on water supply and the high costs of developing alternative supplies, maximizing the efficiency of water use is paramount […]
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