Yesterday Commonwealth Edison issued a news release concerning a recent SmartGridExchange forum held by the utility.

The forum was to discuss how to, "leverage the smart grid to deliver increased value to consumers," by bringing together, "technology and innovation companies," and "customer and stakeholder organizations."

The release said that forum presenters "included":

Ed Abbo, president and chief technical officer, C3

Andrew Baynes, director of business development and energy efficiency, NestLabs

Ty Benefiel, CEO, Meter Genius

Erik Birkerts, executive vice president and COO, Clean Energy Trust

Jason Blumberg, CEO and managing director, Energy Foundry

Emile Cambry, CEO, Blue 1647

Patty Durand, executive director, Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative

Rodger E. Smith, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities

Sonny Garg, senior vice president, chief innovation and information officer, Exelon Corporation

Abhay Gupta, founder and CEO, Bidgely

Archie Gupta, CEO, Root3

Robert Kelter, senior attorney, ELPC

David Kolata, executive director, Citizens Utility Board

Eric Krauss, director of IT product management, Accenture

Scott Lang, chairman, president and CEO, Silver Spring Networks

Randy Light, senior merchant, Home Depot

Yoav Lurie, CEO, Simple Energy

Naomi Manley-Casimir, director, Accenture Innovation Centre for Utilities

John McDonald, director of Technical Strategy and Policy Development, GE Energy

Timothy Porter, senior managing director, Accenture Strategy

Timothy Porter, senior managing director, Accenture Strategy

Bill Richardson, vice president of Marketing, Rainforest

Joe Svachula, vice president of smart grid, ComEd

Karen Weigert, chief sustainability officer, City of Chicago

Notice anything about that list? We don't see a single retail energy provider on it. (We aren't including Sonny Garg since he has responsibilities across all of Exelon's businesses).

Now, we wish to stress that ComEd's release did not state that this list of presenters was exhaustive, and did not state that the list included every presenter at the forum. However, even if the list was just a snippet of a larger whole, and even if there were, in fact, some retail provider presenters, the fact ComEd chose not to list such presenters in publicizing the forum would be noteworthy as well.

If the forum was specifically dedicated to nuts and bolts, say, IT issues surrounding interaction between ComEd's system and technology providers, we would understand the exclusion of retail suppliers.

However, based on the forum's description and list of participants, the forum clearly focused on customer behavior and penetration, and therefore, it would seem companies with a relationship with the customer, and who act as a channel to the customer for products and services (e.g. retail suppliers), would be a key stakeholder group whose perspective would be beneficial. Non-infrastructure topics included "Driving Customer Value through Smart Meter Data", "The Connected Home: Where the Smart Meter Meets Customer-Side Innovation", and "Customer and Stakeholder Perspectives." Indeed, other sales channels (e.g. Home Depot) were present.

We are left to wonder how ComEd views retail suppliers, and if ComEd sees them as integral in providing customers with smart energy services.

Tags:
ComEd   Smart Meters   Smart Grid   Smart Energy   Innovation   Illinois  

Comment on this story


ADVERTISEMENT
NEW Jobs on RetailEnergyJobs.com
TPV-SALES-EXECUTIVE -- Back Office Provider -- Other
Sr-Market-Risk-Analyst -- Wholesale Supplier/Trader -- New York - New York City Metro
Energy-Regulatory-Specialist -- Other -- Other
More Stories on RetailEnergyX.com:
Shell, Microsoft, Others Launch the Open AI Energy Initiative, Ecosystem of AI Solutions '
Schneider Electric Collaborates With Station A For AI-Based Distributed Energy Solutions
Illinois PIRG Recommends Forcing Exelon To Divest From ComEd, Requiring ComEd TOU Supply Rates
Chicago Municipalization Of ComEd Would Cost Nearly $9 Billion, Study Says
Exelon Generation Announces Intent To Retire Two Illinois Nuclear Plants In 2021