Scott Burns, Senior Director of Innovation at Reliant, an NRG Company, answers several questions about the challenges and opportunities of increasing consumer adoption of energy management practices:

What do you think is the most challenging issue for your company as it relates to the residential energy management market? 

Gaining mindshare with consumers who are already saturated with information.

What are the major challenges that your business must address in 2015? in 2020?

We are already in a highly competitive energy market and face increasing competition from non-traditional energy companies as well as the traditional competitors.  As we look to the future, we’re well-positioned to meet customers’ needs as they make the transition from a centralized power system to one that is more distributed and sustainable.

What are the major barriers impacting consumer adoption of energy related products and services?

It’s primarily mindshare – customers have numerous choices about where they spend their time.  Some are very energy-conscious, but the majority will still choose the path of least resistance.

What are the biggest opportunities for the smart home industry to work with the electricity industry?

We want to create long-term relationships with our customers, and we work with partners that enable us to do that.  Our strategy is to make it easy for customers to make the transition from the analog to the digital world.

What impact will smart products and smart home services have on consumer adoption of energy solutions? 

We are seeing increased adoption of products that make our customers’ lives easier.  If the products have the additional benefit of helping customers save energy and money, it makes the value proposition even stronger.

Scott Burns will be speaking on the panel “Value-added Services for Retail Energy Providers” at 8:45 AM during Smart Energy Summit in Austin, TX, February 18, 2015. He will be joined by other company representatives from Direct Energy and WattzOn.

For more information on Smart Energy Summit speakers, sessions, or topics, visit www.ses2015.com. Registration is still open!

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