2012 Griddie Award Winners Chosen at National Town Meeting on DR and Smart Grid

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Attendees at last week's National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid, put on by the Association for Demand Response & Smart Grid (ADS), voted to select the winners of the 2012 "Griddie" Awards for Excellence in Communications.

"Good communications and education efforts on DR and smart grid are essential to the growth of these new areas," said Dan Delurey, ADS Executive Director. "In creating the 'Griddie' Awards, we want to give visibility to creative professionals who are telling the story of the smart grid, and the reasons why consumers, policymakers, and stakeholders should accept it and participate in it via programs and products. The talents of these professionals are critical if DR and smart grid are to develop at the pace they are capable of and deliver the benefits they can bring to our electricity system and economy."

During the course of the National Town Meeting, attendees were provided with opportunities to see the contestant's submittals and vote on who they thought should win. In one category, attendees were shown videos submitted by the contestants and were then able to select the winner using the electronic voting system that the Town Meeting employs to poll its attendees on issues, positions, priorities, etc.

The winners of the Griddie Awards are:

• In the Inspirational Narrative Category, Reliant Energy Creative Services in collaboration with Schematic, for Digs: Mega Watt, a spoof of a "crib tour" given by an energy conscious hip-hop artist.

• In the Customer Stories Category, Meet Our Neighbors, a video by Arrowhead Films on behalf of Pecan Street Inc. of Texas that introduces people to residents of the Mueller neighborhood who are making the ground-breaking Pecan Street project possible. The winner edged out contestants from Washington, DC, and Oklahoma by a single vote for the victory.

• In the Integrated Campaign Category, the City of Philadelphia, for Emergency Energy Reduction Events, an email, web-page, and print-on-demand poster campaign. Working with a limited budget, creative city employees proved effective in persuading local municipal office workers and museum personnel to curtail their energy use during peak energy demand response events.

• In the Tools and Apps Category, Reliant Energy Creative Services in collaboration with Schematic, a global interactive marketing agency, for Ask Jack, an interactive animated electrical socket that tests viewers' knowledge of smart energy practices and rewards or punishes the respondent with funny video vignettes.

The submittals of the Winners, along with over 50 original entrants, can be viewed on the ADS website, www.demandresponsesmartgrid.org. A jury of industry marketing professionals selected five finalists in each category, which were then voted upon at the Town Meeting. "It is great to see such a wide variety of creative work," says Patti Betz, an independent consumer-marketing consultant from Seattle who was one of the jury members. "The industry is increasingly recognizing that it needs to do a better job of communicating the smart grid and demand response value proposition, and these examples show that progress is being made."

"Our team was honored to collaborate with ADS on the competition. In our research for the National Action Plan Communications Guide Part 1, we saw outstanding efforts across the country," explains program manager Judith Schwartz of To the Point. "We plan to feature these and other examples in Part 2 so the transition to targeted customer-centric communications becomes standard utility practice." 

ADS Executive Director Delurey says, "ADS will continue to highlight and encourage 'best' and 'next' practices by marketing, education, and outreach teams. We look forward to issuing another Call for Creative and to awarding "Griddies" next year at the 2013 National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid (July 11-13, 2013) to be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. Images and presentations from this year's event may be seen at www.demandresponsetownmeeting.com.

About the Association for Demand Response & Smart Grid

The Association for Demand Response & Smart Grid (ADS) is a nonprofit organization, originally formed in 2004 as the Demand Response Coordinating Committee (DRCC). ADS is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization consisting of professionals and organizations involved in demand response and smart grid. It provides services to help its members in the conduct of their work and in the attainment of their personal, corporate and governmental objectives. ADS seeks to establish and grow a demand response "community" of policymakers, utilities, system operators, technology companies, consumers, and other stakeholders.

Group Members of ADS are Ameren, American Public Power Association (APPA), Arizona Public Service (APS), ComEd, Con Edison, Conservation Services Group (CSG), ENBALA, Energate, Exelon, Freeman, Sullivan & Co, ISO New England, Joule Assets, MISO, National Grid, Navigant Energy Practice, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), NYSERDA, Opower, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), PECO, PJM Interconnection, Progress Energy, Reliant, Rodan Energy, Salt River Project (SRP), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), Southern Company, and Tennessee Valley Authority TVA).     

More information on ADS can be found at: www.demandresponsesmartgrid.org.

SOURCE Association for Demand Response & Smart Grid