POWER May 2016 - 6

SPEAKING OF POWER
Doublespeak Is No Cure for
Utility Ills
A
fter a very busy March, I just wanted
to run a collage of puppy photos
in this editorial. After all, baby animals
are proven to generate engagement
on social media, so why not in print? Then
I saw a Twitter post about a new communications
plan for the Edison Electric
Institute (EEI), which represents investorowned
utilities (IOUs).
What Is the Deinition of
" Community " ?
First, I need to clarify that I didn't go
looking for a reason to criticize the EEI.
In fact, I had already favorably mentioned
efforts by multiple EEI utilities in the first
of our cover stories. And the problems with
the EEI communications plan are ones
that you can see across the power sector,
so consider this free communications consulting
for the industry as a whole.
This was the tweet, posted by Miles
Keogh (@kidcongo) on March 29: " So if
utilities are calling utility solar 'community
solar' what do I call community solar?
Asking for a friend. "
Having heard about community solar's
origins in 2003, in an actual community-Ellensburg,
Washington-and having
assigned an article on the trend to Kennedy
Maize last year (see " Solar Gardens:
A Fast-Growing Approach to Photovoltaic
Power " in our May 2015 issue), I was interested
in reading the story linked in this
tweet. In " This Messaging Guru Is Helping
Utilities Clean Up Their Appearance, "
Kate Sheppard, senior reporter/environment
and energy editor for The Huffington
Post (HuffPo), writes about how the EEI
has hired " New York crisis communications
expert Michael Maslansky to help develop
a new communication plan that would
be presented to members this month
[March]. "
The HuffPo article focused on a comment
made at a January EEI board meeting
(a recording of the meeting was provided
to HuffPo by an attendee) regarding the
rebranding of utility-owned solar installations
as " community solar " because
focus groups found the latter term more
appealing. " We should proceed with the
terminology that is more favorable to us, "
6
HuffPo quoted Brian Wolff, EEI's executive
vice president for public policy and external
affairs, as saying. " And 'community' is
clearly more favorable to us. "
The aspect that most irked me (and
others) is that the EEI is trying to coopt
a term that is already in common
use. As widely understood, " community
solar " is a photovoltaic (PV) project that
is typically developed by a third party
(or, when developed by a utility, more
often by munis or co-ops than IOUs)
that enables individual customers to buy
shares in it. The installation is developed
on a suitable site and lets those
who would not otherwise be able to own
PV (because they are renters or do not
have an appropriate roof) to participate
in supporting renewable generation and,
where available, net metering programs.
In short, it's not the same thing as an
IOU-owned solar plant.
Nobody Appreciates Me
It may seem unfair to single out this one
example from a larger communications
plan, but I'll explain at the end why it's
not. Note, too, that the " EEI 2016 Outlook, "
linked to in the HuffPo article, presents
this initiative second in a list of 53
items. It reads: " Launch of a national educational
and advocacy strategic initiative
to highlight the industry's transformative
leadership and to create a heightened
awareness of and appreciation for member
company initiatives. "
Though Maslansky told HuffPo that
the communications plan is " an effort to
help power companies better relate to
their customers, " the focus on creating a
" heightened awareness " and " appreciation
for " utility efforts seems like a one-sided
relationship to me.
I frequently hear folks in the power industry
complain that the public doesn't
understand their industry. Electricity customers
don't understand the intricacies of
operating a thermal power plant, or how
grid balancing works, or the challenges of
meeting environmental regulations. Usually,
I just let such folks vent, but sometimes
I point out that the public (and
the utility folks I'm talking to) also don't
www.powermag.com
understand the intricacies of medical diagnoses
and surgery, nor all the steps it
takes to produce this magazine. You want
appreciation? Get in line with every other
industry and profession, or get a dog.
A Missed Opportunity
Sarcasm aside, I suspect many customers
would welcome more open communications
with (not just from) utilities. But
these days it seems many companies are
more interested in protecting revenue
than in devising win-win business models
that meet customer desires as well as
shareholder expectations. There are no
linguistic shortcuts to that sort of relationship.
To rebrand utility-owned solar as
" community solar " is disingenuous at best
and manipulative at worst.
In contrast, there are countless ways
the EEI and other associations could design
initiatives to help educate the public
about the actual, but evolving, facts of
electricity production and consumption.
Many could even be relationship builders.
Imagine how much better informed the
public would be. (Some will counter that
a well-informed citizenry is exactly what
both distributed renewables advocates
and traditional utilities do not want, but
as a former educator, I'm on the side of
education.)
By engaging in the sort of doublespeak
that substitutes " community " for
" utility " -especially when it's coming from
shareholder-owned rather than municipally
or cooperatively owned utilities-contributes
to the very problem utility people
like to complain about: misunderstanding
of the electricity system.
The power industry relies on precision
engineering, and its participants care
about precise language when it comes to
the difference between a megawatt and a
megawatt-hour (especially where energy
storage is concerned) and the distinction
between capacity and generation (especially
where variable renewables are concerned).
The public has a right to expect
the same precision when the industry talks
about itself and its actions. ■
-Gail Reitenbach, PhD is POWER's
editor.
POWER | May 2016
http://www.powermag.com
POWER May 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER May 2016
