Walk this way

Jason Few tells Power & Energy how Reliant’s wireless technologies are developing as it sets out upon the path of smart grid implementation.

“If we can help lower the overall footprint of emissions, then our relationships with our consumers will improve as a result of this reduction in cost”
-Jason Few, Reliant Energy, Inc.

As Senior Vice President of Mass Markets and Operations at Reliant Energy, Jason Few is developing a series of solutions to update the functions of a traditional electricity company and provide consumers with the increasingly popular real-time smart grid technology options.

“We are evolving as a company to enable our customers to use less energy, to spend less and emit less. We’re going to do this by leveraging the smart grid and smart meters, and developing technology for in-home use, giving consumers the ability to have far more insight into their energy consumption. For a long-established company like Reliant, developing premise-based or in-home consumer electronic equipment has not been something that has been focused on in the past,” explains Few.

Few’s appointment to the role was prompted by Reliant’s recent adoption of wireless technologies for smart grid usage. Formerly a product developer for Motorola, Few brings to Reliant his vast knowledge of wireless technology, and provides a forward-thinking approach in adapting such technologies for the utilities industry.

People focus
The consumer is at the heart of Reliant’s interpretation of the ever-evolving definition of smart grid. “I don’t know that I have a formalized a specific definition of smart grid, and from a residential and small business perspective we are far more focused on the capability that we’re going to be able to leverage from the smart meter.

“Such technology is going to allow us to make that information available to consumers on a real-time basis, providing them with the ability to make informed decisions about their energy consumption. For example, every time a consumer, whether they are a residential consumer or a small business consumer, turns on a light, runs a dishwasher or runs their plant, they are making an energy purchase decision.

“Today, the challenge for residential customers, and for the majority of small businesses that have not invested in some type of demand capabilities from an energy standpoint, is having no idea of the energy purchase decisions they’re making. Smart meters give us the ability to add additional technologies to that, creating solutions which give consumers the ability to have that insight,” he adds.

Reliant’s technological development for the incorporation of smart grid is supported through its partnership with ZigBee Alliance, a solution provider of wireless technologies. “We are leveraging the ZigBee wireless technology from a standards viewpoint, as a way to deliver a consistent set of solutions for consumers off the smart meters. If you look at the smart meters, certainly those within our territories, ZigBee is a preferred technology that’s being leveraged within the smart meters themselves, so that wireless protocol gives us the ability to bring that information from the meter and into the customer’s home or business.

“We are leveraging that as the standard communications between our in-home solutions and communications with the meter; and within the home, we are leveraging that same wireless standard, providing the ability to have multiple devices communicate with each other.”

2009 is starting out to be an exciting year for Reliant, with its smart grid technology still only at its trial stage. “One of the things that are may be a little bit different or unique about our market dynamics versus some other markets is the current competitiveness of the utilities market. A beneficial effect of this is having strong incentives to develop compelling solutions for our customers as a competitive differentiator. However, one of the things that we cannot control is the speed at which smart meters are deployed, so right now we are in a trial state within our territory with our in-home solutions.

“The majority of this year will continue to be focused on trials and working through technology implementation issues, improving the products and really understanding how consumers actually use the technologies. Using ethnographic studies, we’ll be understanding how to make the solutions most useful, and impacting what we will be dealing with which will be one of the real challenges in this industry itself.

“Most people talk about building more generation, whether it be renewable energy or not, but we believe one of the things that doesn’t get as much attention as it should is the demand side. If you work on demand, this will actually increase the overall reliability of the system and reduce the cost for consumers when new generation is built. Our solutions are focused on helping consumers have enough information to deal with the demand side of the equation,” says Few.

Good choices
With smart grid implementation at such an early stage, Reliant has faced challenges not in the operation of the system itself, but in ensuring the right choices have been made regarding the system. “If I had to characterize challenges, it’s been getting through agreements in terms of how technology is to be used and deployed. We’ve not seen any major challenges in leveraging the technology from a development standpoint; our development process has been fairly normal. My experience in other developments has been to go through multiple development cycles to get the solution you want, especially when you’re developing brand new technology that hasn’t been in the marketplace before.”

Few believes that for each utility company, the challenges of implementing a smart grid system are fairly minor, as the industry as a whole is preparing for change. Any developments within the industry often happen at a slow pace, allowing for a smooth transition from the old to the new. With many people critiquing the idea of repalcing the current grid system, arguing it causes major disruption when attempting to amalgamate the old with the new, Few proposes the practises of renovation to be well understood and unlikely to affect the flow of power delivery.

“There’s a lot of focus on building new generation, and that’s certainly something we ought to be thinking about and working on from a renewable energy perspective, but that’s only part of where the focus ought to be. A big part of the focus should be on demand and dealing with demand.

“Our view is focused on how we help consumers, whether they be residential or business, understand how they can use less, spend less and emit less. We want to conduct this to the degree that we can leverage the smart grid and smart meters, and provide consumers with a set of solutions that give them the ability to actually do that. This reduces the need to continue to build new generation, whether it be renewable or not, and ultimately helps with reliability in the system; it reduces the cost that it would take to build new generation and allows for renewable energy to take a bigger percentage of the role of energy generation,” says Few. President Obama’s proposals to replace the US infrastructure are met with optimism: “As he has a bit more time to look at the issues and can take a look at the demand side of it, I think there’s an opportunity to take a different approach to the overall challenges that we have from a consumption standpoint.

“I look at the ability to use wireless technologies as a way to inform people about their energy consumption and the choices they’re making, to deliver that information to them through multiple media, whether it be the internet, standalone displays in the home or the ability to add automation type capabilities from a wireless standpoint so that people can do things either remotely or sensor-based. Wireless already plays a big part today inside of generation facilities, and so will be a big part of that solution, and a big part of how consumers have an opportunity to make a different set of choices regarding energy consumption.”

Crucial progress
Reliant have begun the development of the way in which they present energy consumption to their customers, and the next two to three years are crucial for the linking in of their progress with that of the smart grid as a whole. “There are a few things we want to accomplish at the trial phase. Firstly, we want to prove our solution set. Our aims are to make sure we understand how it gets used by the consumer, because it’s important to ensure it’s not an initial novelty; the last thing we want is for people to be interested in it initially and then be unable to incorporate it into their daily lives. We’re going to be spending a lot of time making sure we understand that so we can be certain that this technology, and the solution set that we deliver, has the impact we desire, which is to reduce demand.

“As an electricity provider, that may sound counter to our business goals, but we believe that if we can help improve reliability in the system, we can bring the overall cost down; if we can help lower the overall footprint of emissions, then our relationships with our consumers will improve as a result of this reduction in cost. Consequently, we will be able to not only acquire more customers, but also be able to extend the length of our relationships that we have with our existing customers.

“If you then fast-forward the next couple of years, our hope is that smart energy and what we do with smart energy will be just a core part of our overall offering in the marketplace and something that helps differentiate us from competition,” concludes Few.

Reliant energy is still in the infancy of its smart grid implementation, and choosing the right technology products to begin the development of the system is crucial to the company’s strategy. Few has a strong background in wireless technology, and with his influence and the right product choices, 2009 promises to be an interesting year for Reliant as their strategy unfolds.

Jason Few is Senior Vice President of Smart Energy for Reliant Energy, Inc, having joined the company in July 2008. He is responsible for leading the company’s initiative to produce and deliver new innovative energy solutions to give customers more control and better insight into how they use energy. Few previously oversaw Motorola’s global retail and distribution, global quality and customer advocacy, as well as marketing of the North American mobile devices business.