Its All About Power Sector

Do you agree that a digital photo frame can help in conserving energy as a demand side management program? Yes is what many of them say in the countries where this is the next solution to market energy sale. Countries in the European and American nations have chosen to bring a change in the energy consumption pattern of the residential customers using this technique.
Let’s see how this technique actually works out. With the smart meters already in place and technology blooming for implementation of these meters in distribution sector, a way to keep the attention of the customers on their consumption pattern looks more promising. A smart meter integrated with notifications on a Digital frame placed on wall or table inside the home that is visible frequently will tell you the current usage of electricity for the month. This sounds just like you receive a notification of amount deducted from your balance after you hang up a call from your mobile. Your personal pictures will mix with the notifications from the distribution utility and scroll down in the frame.
That’s not all. Apart from energy consumption it alerts you for energy consumption increase when you turn on your AC or washing machine. It also gives you information on the prevailing tariff for the season and delivers alerts on billing for the current and previous months. It additionally provides energy conservation quotes that most of them are not aware of in regard to usage of electricity in homes. Looks something like the one in the below pictures. By this way the utilities will have a better interaction with their end users which is the actual need of the hour. This will help the utilities to be no way an undermined commodity that lack’s customer service.
Can this really bring a change in the consumption patterns of electricity for residential customers? It was revealed in many research studies of human behavioral patterns that the people subjected to repeated exposure to changes in a message through vision tend to identify the cause for the change. And this will make the customer more aware of how their electricity is being used.
Now for a country like India where the already financially weak utilities exist, will this be a feasible option and are the investments possible? This is a question that is uncertain at this point of time but nevertheless it is not far from making it a reality. All we need is a determined support from the government to help such initiatives happen and put these schemes in place where R-APDRP, BEE and DSM Programs exist.
Your thoughts on the same as of how this can help in conserving energy and promote Demand side management programs are most invited as comments below.