Yann Kulp, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, EcoBusiness North America at Schneider Energy, responds to this industry question: "What do you think is the most challenging issue for your company as it relates to the residential energy management market?"
The biggest issue for Schneider Electric and our utility customers is not technology. The real nut to crack remains making people CARE about the programs that utilities are deploying. If they don't care, they will not participate. Frankly, we think changing minds & hearts is a long, up-hill battle; unless you throw money at the problem (free installations, really big incentives) to get homeowners to participate. But that is a poor use of public funds or a utility's' hard-earned cash. A better way is to deliver technologies & programs that are just plain easy, cool & useful on a daily basis. That's the Trojan horse for EE & DR programs. And an added bonus is to get consumers to see their utilities in a whole new light.
Yann Kulp will be speaking at the 2014 Smart Energy Summit on Wednesday, February 19. He is part of the session, "Expanding the Energy Markets Through Connected Devices." Other companies represented in this session include CleanTX/Alliander NV, EnergyHub, Linnear LLC, and Percepscion.
