Are builders in the home construction industry or in the American Dream business? Successful builders construct homes to last, but how valuable is the house that does not possess the ability to warm its owners in the winter, cool them in the summer or provide electricity throughout the day and night? The impending energy crisis demands change and experts continue to call on industry leaders to take charge. The latest is Kurt Yeager, executive director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative. In his keynote address at ConnectivityWeek in Santa Clara, Yeager said utilities must transition to a more consumer-focused, energy-efficient system to remain profitable in the future.

"The industry is now on the cusp of a 'perfect storm,'" said Yeager. "Between increasing electricity costs, and climate and security concerns, it is clear that now is the time for change."

Yeager also addressed the need for utility companies and regulators to engage the consumer in system transformation.

"It is time we bring down the 'iron curtain' of electricity, the meter and focus on technologies that can aid the consumer in reducing their energy consumption, and in the process alleviate stress on the aging infrastructure," said Yeager. "This type of adjustment is good not only for the consumer, who can claim control over their own energy destiny, but also for the utilities who are being stretched beyond capacity with increasing demand for electricity."

During the ConnectivityWeek address and following panel discussions, Yeager shared some of the Initiative's key proposals that will pave the way for a more intelligent electricity grid; initiatives that perhaps should find there way into the 'talking points' and 'action items' of builders nationwide.

They are: -- Voters need to "recall" the grid. Our power system needs a recount: it's costly, antiquated and dirty. When candidates talk about energy, they limit the discussion to oil and renewable resources. If they really want to fight climate change and make the United States energy-independent, they have to modernize the grid and provide Americans with electricity choices that are smarter, better and cleaner. If not, we will remain enslaved to the whims and weaknesses of an obsolete, inefficient, unreliable power system.

State regulators must allow free, competitive retail markets for electricity service. Unlike successes experienced by the telecommunications industry, state-level efforts to deregulate electricity service have been ineffective. Rather than spurring a free market where consumers have choices and utility companies strive toward greater efficiency, reliability and customer service, deregulation has simply led to a new regulatory structure in which utilities still view regulators as their real customers. The key is an open market that enables and incents innovative entrepreneurs to provide the highest value electricity service to everyone -- serving the interests of consumers and suppliers alike.

Utilities need incentives to drive grid modernization efforts. The absence of performance-based utility compensation is preventing smart, micro-grid development, the best technology available to modernize the unreliable, inefficient and insecure U.S. electric grid. State regulators and policymakers must remove the antiquated regulations to allow entrepreneurs, commercial electricity consumers, builders and residential communities to create smart micro-grids by eliminating out-of-date restrictions, such as running wires across a public street or putting a pipeline underneath it.

Compensate utilities for efficiency programs and customer service. Today, utilities are compensated for selling more electricity, not for providing quality service or efficiency programs, while consumers receive imperfect power for their homes and businesses and the infrastructure is deteriorating. Instead of rewarding utilities for selling as much power as they can through a broken machine, we should establish performance-based state utility regulation where it is the quality of the service, not just the quantity of the good, which determines the utility's financial strength.

Builders do more than construct homes. They provide the American Dream of Homeownership. In order to continue providing their services, builders must take charge and be leaders in the impending energy crisis and demand change. These valid ideas are a step in the right direction.

[Note: ConnectivityWeek brings together executives and entrepreneurs from some of the leading companies on the cutting edge of new products and technologies that change how energy is created, distributed and used ranging from smart devices for home appliances to environmental controls. For more information about the work of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, visit www.galvinpower.org.]

Published: June 9, 2008

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Peter L. Mosca is president and founder of BAK Communications, Inc. He has over 22 years of communications and media consulting experience, serving a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the CCIM Institute and the REALTOR Association on all three levels – national, state and local. He is the Spokesperson Trainer for the CCIM's Jay Levine Academy and trains hundreds of residential REALTORS nationwide to be effective industry spokespeople. He is consistently ranked as "excellent" by about 90% of those who attend his presentations. While his principal consulting focuses are public speaking and media relations development and content delivery and management, Peter is also the host of the Voice America Network's weekly radio program, "Income Property Investment Talk," a one-hour program that brings the powerhouses of commercial and residential real estate to property investors every Wednesday at 11 a.m. EST. Peter is married 17 years to his wife Barbara. They have two children: Ashley, 15 and Kelli, 12. Hence, the name BAK Communications, Inc.