Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative

“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.”

“Was given to consumer interest in time-varying rates due to the heavy industry focus on rate reform. Sgcc released its consumer driven technologies study that surveyed 1,571 respondents from across the nation that addressed four distinct technologies and services: residential solar, community solar, green power plans and electric vehicles, equips interested stakeholders with actionable insight on the consumer producers or "prosumers" to help the transition to the future grid. Sgcc released its customer experience & expectations study that surveyed 2,000 respondents across the u.s online, probed customers on six key touchpoints with their energy provider, like starting a new service or remediating a problem, and uncovered customer preferences and expectations on each of these interactions. Customer perceptions of best-in-class service providers for these interactions were also explored. Sgcc released six new smart grid customer engagement success stories covering baltimore gas & electric company, cps energy, pepco, sacramento municipal utility district, snohomish county pud and weatherbug home & centerpoint energy. Each case study spotlights how smart meters or smart grid deployments by these utilities have engaged consumers to enable them to match the energy they use with their needs and lifestyles.”

“Symposium based on five behaviors and how the organizations made smart grid clear to consumers. The awards demonstrated excellence in customer engagement and outreach in their consumer awareness campaigns. Sgcc added a consumer-oriented, smart cities fact sheet titled smart cities: we're all in this together to an existing consumer information kit for the smart grid comprised of eight educational, consumer-facing fact sheets on topics important to consumers including consumer benefits, data privacy, distributed generation & net metering, myths vs. Facts: the truth about smart meters, outage restoration, power quality, pricing and radio frequency. The new fact sheet explored why consumers should care about smart cities, why grid modernization is a critical component and examples from around the country while ultimately showing that we're all in this together. Sgcc also hosted a series of eight free peer connect webinars concerning topics ranging from energy analytics: keeping up with customer expectations, ami playbook: continuing to deliver customer value with ami, a missing piece: what smart grid means for current environmental discussions, dataguard: energy data privacy and security, connected consumers: bringing the iot to life, after the smart grid: what's next, customer engagement success stories and a look at changing utility pricing structures. 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 conducting an online survey of 502 u.s. Adults who regularly make decisions on household electricity usage and payments. The objectives were to learn more about household electricity decision makers and to understand what statements and language resonate best with them. Sgcc also continued to produce material for its consumer-facing website, www.whatissmartgrid.org, including a next innovation video and rate your home energy knowledge online quiz to educate and excite consumers about the benefits of modern day advancements being made to the electric grid that puts into perspective what a monumental time this is in the history of human innovation. In addition, sgcc added 11 featured articles on timely topics relevant to consumers including "3 easy earth day upgrades", "is your utility the new amazon for energy?- and "top 10 friendliest cities for electric vehicles."”

“Presence on twitter, facebook, linkedin and youtube. In 2016, sgcc also continued the weekly smart grid: above the fold, a newsletter that kept members and non-members abreast of smart grid and consumer industry news and trends. Sgcc also hosted two in-person events in 2016 including a sixth annual consumer symposium: the connected consumer and the future of the grid open to the public and the fifth annual members meeting and interactive workshop where members focused on featured topics ranging from changing utility pricing structures and changing today's grid for the consumer of tomorrow. In support of sgcc's research releases, sgcc provided three publically available research brief webinars covering each study including the consumer driven technologies, engaging today's empowered consumer and 2016 state of the consumer report. Policy: in 2016, sgcc made great strides to engage more with public policy stakeholders. Sgcc shared primary consumer research with commissioners and staff across the country through workshops, webinars and public forums including the illinois commerce commission, national association of regulatory utility commissioners, (naruc) electricity committee, minnesota public utilities commission, national association of state energy officials (naseo), northwest power and conservation council, new england conference of public utility commissioners (necpuc) and georgia public service commission.”