(Washington, DC) While energy companies and tech suppliers concentrate on constructing smart grids, consumers will ultimately determine the success of next-generation utility networks, top government and business leaders agreed here today at "Power in Numbers: Unleashing Innovation in Home Energy Use," a conference hosted by Google in partnership with The Climate Group.

"We're really a consumer services company" Jason Few, President of Houston, TX-based electric utility Reliant Energy said. "Consumers are making power purchase decisions without any information. We don’t believe that is a good experience." To address the problem, Reliant is working with energy management tech provider Tendril Networks to empower consumers, Few said, offering homes that have advanced meters technological tools for managing energy consumption, including an in-home monitor that displays real-time information. Reliant Energy is focused on consumer innovation because it is a competitive energy provider but few utilities are motivated to enhance consumer capabilities because they don't face competition, according to Tendril Networks CEO Adrian Tuck. "If we don't solve that problem, then the [smart grid] technology will flounder," Tuck said.

Intel has extensively researched how to engage consumers with the smart grid, including TV-based interactive platforms, but "we're not ready to place a bet on any one form factor yet," Lorie Wigle, General Manager, Eco-Technology Program Office at Intel said. The tech giant currently has two professional ethnographers working with four utilities in Oregon to study the best methods for changing consumer energy usage behavior.

Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, praised a Google-backed coalition's letter to President Obama (PDF) which urges the White House to jumpstart a series of initiatives that will spur greater consumer access to energy data. "The consumer's right to know is important to the President," she said.

Even if consumers aren't ready to manage energy consumption, smart appliances should be designed to generate energy savings, Whirlpool's Vice President of Government Relations Tom Catania said. "We're going to have to identify products that deliver over time systemic benefits," even where homes are not necessarily connected to the smart grid.

Given the massive amounts of personal data generated by the smart grid, privacy is paramount and safeguards must be built in at the outset, Leslie Harris, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology argued. "The mistake we made with the Internet is that we didn't take privacy into consideration at the beginning. We have the opportunity to do that here."

Although consumer benefits from the smart grid guided the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) as it developed its National Broadband Plan, consumers may not always choose to conserve energy and lower their monthly bills, Nick Sinai, FCC Energy and Environment Director, said. "Consumers don't always make an ROI [return on investment] decision. There's also a convenience factor"