Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative

“Smart grid consumer collaborative adjusted the membership categories and guidelines. In addition, the organization created and updated their strategic plan from the 3 year plan of 2013-2015 to 2016-2018.”

“Sgcc membership is open to all smart grid stakeholders including consumer and environmental advocacy organizations, technology providers, academic and research labs, and electric utilities for sharing in research, best practices, and the collaborative effort of the group.”

“Prior to the annual meeting of the members, each founding member shall have the right to designate one member of the board of directors, to remove the director designated by that founding member, and in the event such director is removed (by that founding member or by the board), resigns, or otherwise ceases to be a director, to designate a successor director, as set forth in the by-laws.”

“The organization conducts a review session for the form 990 that includes the finance committee, president/ceo, cfo and interested board members.”

“The organization monitors and enforces compliance with the conflict of interest policy through annual board questionnaires and reviews.”

“Independent board members review and approve compensation for the president/ceo and top management to ensure that no more than the fair market value is paid for such services.”

“The irs determination letter, articles of incorporation, bylaws, 990 filing and financial records are available to any member of the public upon request.”

“Smart grid consumer collaborative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to serve as a trusted source of information for industry stakeholders seeking a broad understanding of consumers' views about grid modernization, electricity delivery, and energy usage, and for consumers seeking an understanding of the value and experience of a modern electrical grid.”

“Sgcc's research, the study organized five consumer segments and explored how consumers think about and experience grid modernization. Sgcc released its wave 5 consumer pulse and market segmentation study, a national survey of consumers that was conducted to better understand consumer awareness, favorability, expectations, and preferences as they relate to smart grid and smart grid-enabled programs and technologies. The study renewed and updated its smart grid-focused consumer segmentation framework based on the latest data to reflect today's marketplace for smart energy technology. Sgcc released its second consumer voices research that through on camera interviews provided an in-depth qualitative understanding of the five consumer segments identified in by the wave 5 consumer pulse and market segmentation study, and illustrated their perceptions, emotions, attitudes and values related to smart grid, smart meters, and products, programs and services that leverage smart energy technologies. Sgcc released its seventh smart grid customer engagement success story that focused on how fort collins utilities engaged consumers to enable them to match the energy they use with their needs and lifestyles. It identified that how they were able to kick-start their advanced metering project and lay the groundwork for their peak partners demand response program. Building upon their success, fort collins utilities used the wealth of information collected to help refine the peak partners program and improve customer engagement.”

“Sgcc added a consumer-oriented distributed generation & net metering fact sheet to a consumer information kit for the smart grid comprised of seven educational, consumer-facing fact sheets on topics important to consumers including consumer benefits, data privacy, myths vs. Facts: the truth about smart meters, outage restoration, power quality, pricing and radio frequency. The new fact sheet described to consumers what distributed generation and net metering mean to them and answered their most common questions. Sgcc also hosted a series of six free peer connect webinars concerning topics ranging from energy storage & net metering, the importance of consumer standards, the right to data access, consumer engagement with data presentment, the changing utility business model and sgcc's consumer value proposition for the smart grid. Each webinar provided topic oriented speakers as well as a questions and answers discussion. Sgcc continued an effort to create a consumer value proposition for the smart grid to take the lead on delivering a consistent narrative on the promise of the smart grid by developing a set of consumer value proposition statements and a video supported by success story proof points. The consumer value proposition illustrated to consumers the benefits they will receive with grid modernization. The consumer value proposition answered the questions that consumers should rightfully ask including; "what's in it for me?- and "what's in it for 'us'?" sgcc also continued to produce material for its consumer-facing website, www.whatissmartgrid.org, including an interactive next innovation infographic for the smart grid 101 section positioning grid modernization as the next great innovation and 14 featured articles on timely topics relevant to consumers including "what can the walking dead teach us about energy?- and "4 smart cities with lessons for the u.s."”

“President & ceo patty durand and continued social media presence on twitter, facebook, pinterest, linkedin, google+, slideshare and youtube. In 2015, sgcc also continued the weekly smart grid: above the fold, a newsletter that keeps members and non-members abreast of smart grid and consumer industry news and trends. Sgcc also hosted two in-person events in 2015 including a fifth annual consumer symposium: consumer value in action open to the public and the fourth annual members meeting and interactive workshop where members focused on featured topics ranging from demand response programs, distributed generation and looking deeper at being strategic with consumer engagement. In support of sgcc's research releases, sgcc provided three publically available research brief webinars covering each study including the consumer pulse focus on seniors, from movers and shakers to status quo - what's the deal and bringing the consumer perspective of the smart grid to life. Standards: to help sgcc members further educate consumers about the smart grid, sgcc published an online guidebook covering standards for demand response, solar and other distributed energy resources, electric vehicles and additional useful information. Policy: in 2015, sgcc conducted an organizational effort to engage more with public policy stakeholders. Sgcc formed a policy committee made up of members from across the smart grid industry who are well versed in the regulatory affairs of the energy industry. The policy committee developed a set of guidelines in an effort to meet organizational goals of increased outreach and impact and actively engaged public policy stakeholders by presenting sgcc research to commissioners in six target states including illinois, massachusetts, minnesota, nevada, new york, and south carolina.”