How to get consumers to care about smart grid?

From an article by Michael Kanellos on GreenTechGrid.com:

. . . But do consumers care about time-of-use? Has it changed their behavior yet? "No, not really," [said Karen France, Toronto Hydro Electric System LTD].

Alliant Energy Corporation -- which has put 455,000 electric smart meters and 177 gas meters in Wisconsin and 526,000 electric meters and 234,000 gas meters in Minnesota and Iowa -- has taken a different tack. It isn't even describing consumer benefits yet, said senior manager of energy delivery technology Richard Potter. Instead, it has focused its public communications on how smart meters will improve operational efficiency. 98 percent of the Wisconsin meters can already handle automated billing.

Consumer outreach will begin soon -- and it can't hurt. Wisconsin already has a time-of-use program, but only around 1 percent of customers take advantage of it, Potter said. If anything, the smart meters should make it more palatable.

Potter had a few other interesting tidbits to offer, too. The company employs direct RF meters from Sensus because three years ago, it was the only company producing meters that could handle both gas and electric data. Unlike meters based on mesh networking, direct RF meters generally connect directly to a utility-owned base station. At most, the meters will bounce through a single adjacent meters. The company had earlier experimented with mesh networks -- in which data from one meter can hop through several meters before getting to the utility -- and the results weren't perfect.

Alliant has also had a few hitches with its relationship with Google. Google will install PowerMeter into consumers' homes in Wisconsin that will give consumers access to their power consumption data. Google, as a result, will have access to Alliant's data. However, they have yet to agree to reciprocate and give their data about consumer experience back to Alliant. (Ed note: Suggested motto: We're Not Evil. We Can't Vouch for You.)