White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, asked the American Energy Industry to innovate in the spirit of economic growth and to create a consumer-empowering "Green Button!" He spoke at Gridweek in Washington last week.

Green Button for Consumer Empowerment

Energy data and technology could be housed on a "Green Button" for consumers. Chopra posed this question to the Smart Grid audience: "How can we safely and securely provide customers electronic access to their energy information, thereby supporting the continuing development of innovative new products and services in the energy sector?"

According to Chopra, "Open collaboration principles can empower consumers, quickly." Using principles of standards, open collaboration, multi-stakeholder cooperation, ease-of-use, and a "lean start-up" model, Chopra sees huge opportunities for consumer-serving innovations related to energy data and Smart Grid.

What we got at Gridweek in Washington last week is a progress report on the exigencies between government stimulus grants, tax credits, and regulatory intervention and private industry, capital markets, and consumer demand. It seems to me the baton has not been fully passed from one to the next.

The smart grid has not yet detoxed from its addiction to government DOE grant underwriting.

"A Green Button (can be created) so you can see what you are getting from your service provider." Nick Sinai said on Tues., Sept. 14 at Gridweek, discussing his vision for smart homes and businesses.  Sinai, is a Harvard Graduate, former VC, Energy and Environment Director at the FCC with a focus on smart grid technology. He is now senior advisor to Chopra, the CTO at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Sinai joined a panel of industry leaders speaking as a White House official at Gridweek to talk about the <em>Enlightened Buildings of the future</em>. He said: "Consumers deserve information about their usage and price (of energy) in a machine-readable format. Thousands of utilities also need to be sharing their best practices."

Just on the heels of a Smart Grid conference, this week we have RETECH here on renewables and GridWise in Nov. seeking to continue a policy debate with the Hill. The DOE itself recently sponsored a summit on cyber security that included how to protect the grid.  Former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge will speak at a Natural Gas Demand Summit Oct. 26 in Houston to further discuss national security, domestic production and protecting electricity grid distribution. www.paceglobal.com

At Gridweek, Rick Feddrizi of the U.S. Green Building Council said what we should be talking about is "how to hit your margins" on smart grid profitability. "While others are asking for rebates to kick start their programs with incentives."

Sinai said on the same panel, "What ultimately got the Grid out of the lab was retail competition. It's very powerful. You have a publicly regulated utility, yes, but it also is a private enterprise. Competition is what forces innovation."

The White House Official Sinai predicted within the next 10-15 years, <em>higher end homes </em>will be smart grid-enabled and digitally connected. "But you have to be able to deploy the smart grid universally."

"The consumer has to be front and center," he said. So do capital markets, right?

Mike Smith writes frequently about U.S. Energy Policy. He lives in Washington, DC