Consumers don’t know where to start when it comes to saving energy. While the industry has developed and provided significant educational materials over the years, consumers still don’t know the most basic of information: where do their energy dollars go? Specifically, how much do different appliances and end uses cost each month or each year? Even industry experts have trouble; we all know space conditioning uses the most energy, but even we industry veterans can’t say how much of our bill goes to heating and air conditioning. Frankly, I’m embarrassed when my friends ask for help in reducing their energy bills; I simply don’t have the information to advise them effectively. In evaluating an appliance purchase, we are told with an excellent label how much the new appliance might cost some average consumer per year. But we don’t know how much it will cost us personally, given our own habits, nor how it compares with our existing appliance.

And information is very powerful. Oxford University reports that consumers reduce consumption by 5 to 15 percent when armed with better feedback about usage. Scientific American says the savings are likely to be close to 20 percent over time as consumers continue to learn, enhance their responses, and replace energy-guzzling appliances over time.

Smart meters offer the opportunity to obtain this information and make it available to consumers. In Texas, consumers have free access to their detailed usage data via the Internet and are even starting to be able to obtain in-home displays that show usage in real time. Consumers already find the information valuable – over 20 percent of Pacific Gas & Electric’s customers have signed up for website data access to date – even though the data is still limited. As smart meter rollouts are completed and new software applications turn basic interval usage information into the appliance cost estimates that consumers need, the value to consumers is rapidly increasing.

It doesn’t hurt to hear again Lord Kelvin’s famous insight: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Consumers are highly proficient at managing their financial resources, but they need to be empowered with energy information to be able to manage their electricity and natural gas usage effectively.