The Smart Grid Customer Education Symposium will take place on May 16, 2012, at the San Diego Gas and Electric Energy Innovation Center. The one-day event attracts utility leaders, regulators, analysts and stakeholders to discuss the importance of customer education around smart grid, and particularly advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) has graciously offered to host the event in its Energy Innovation Center. The SDG&E Energy Innovation Center explores the latest green technologies and offers educational resources about energy efficiency at one of San Diego’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Platinum buildings.

“This is a crucial time in the industry--as more and more utilities announce AMI deployments-- for utilities to work together to develop strategies and programs to educate and engage customers,” said Juliet Shavit, President of SmartEnergy IP. “Utilities must understand that in order to achieve successful AMI deployments and ROI, customers need to accept, engage and support smart grid. We must work together as an industry to elevate the importance of this message, and make sure the customer is at the forefront of our thinking.”

The Spring event will focus on such topics as:

• Designing Smart Meter Education Programs
• Managing the Customer Experience from AMI Pilots to Deployment
• Smart Meter Messaging and Customer Engagement Strategies
• Rolling Out AMI Related Programs including Time of Use (TOU) and Peak Pricing Rewards
• Best Practices from Successfully Deployed Campaigns
• Creating an Integrated Communications Campaign
• Utilizing Market Research
• Social Media and Mobile Technologies
• Regulatory Compliance
• Budgeting for Success
• Measurement and Benchmarking
• Working with the Community and the Stakeholder Perspective