Live from Autovation: It's all about communication

It seems the buzz words at Utilimetrics' Autovation conference in Austin this week center around communication: communication in its techy automation form, communication with customers, and communication between vendors.

The communication fest began during the opening keynote this morning. Austin Energy's Cheryl Mele, the COO, talked about the utility's extensive program to exchange those regular old, outdated meters for smarter, sharper ones. And, even with that program, it was all about information distribution.

"One of the most important things we did during this exchange process was communicate."

And communicate they certainly did: flyers, press releases, post cards, door hangers, even a dedicated customer call center to answer all the questions about the meter exchange process.

Communication with customers was also on the minds of David Elve and Matt Zafuto with Sensus when I stopped by their booth on the Autovation exhibit floor today. Elve was discussing the importance of managing customer expectations and Zafuto agreed that being in the customer business is part of being in the automation business these days.

"Utilities don't react with customers very well, and traditionally they haven't had to," Zafuto pointed out. Comparing the current state of smart grid development as the "awkward toddler phase," Elve and Zafuto noted that utilities have the tech available to them, but now they need the technique, the flexibility to change plans as feedback from customers and other partners changes the needs of the smart grid---two-way communication both technologically and socially.

Itron and Cisco discussed the need for partnership communication as they expanded on their original announcement on the partnership subject during a press conference at Autovation.

Philip Mezey, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Itron North America, noted that a lack of trust and problematic scalability has created a push back against current smart grid advances but that he hopes this collaboration between his company and Cisco will announce a new state of affairs in the industry, one of communication and collaboration between vendors.

Paul De Martini, chief technology officer and vice president of strategy for the smart grid business unit at Cisco, added that it is "time for the industry to move out of the embryonic stage and start real deployment," which would include a standards-based approach with better communication and more vendor partnerships. This would allow for "creativity and innovation" in the smart grid marketplace, according to De Martini.