SmartEnergy IP president and founder Juliet Shavit has been selected to deliver a keynote address at a major upcoming energy conference hosted by The Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin, Ireland.
The conference, titled “Creating a Brighter Future: The Pivot Towards the Consumer,” will be hosted in collaboration with ESB, Ireland’s largest utility.
Shavit’s Nov. 23, 2017 speech will center on what today’s consumers – especially millennials – want from their energy provider and how utilities can harness this knowledge to develop competitive and sustainable business models.
“An understanding of what today’s consumers need and expect is of central strategic significance for utilities, which need to adapt to technology and policy strategies that make the consumer a vital participant in moving towards a sustainable and secure energy future,” Jill Donoghue, IIEA’s Director of Research, said in a letter to Shavit in April inviting her to attend and speak at the event.
Donoghue said IIEA invited Shavit to speak after learning about SmartEnergy IP’s world-renowned expertise in advising utilities on how to best communicate with customers the benefits of smart grid solutions via customer education and consumer engagement.
“The utilities industry has come a long way in evolving the customer relationship, and the evolution of smart grid is a significant reason,” Shavit said. “As we see increased adoption of new technologies and applications, the traditional role of the utility will certainly be challenged in the coming years – and it’ll be the customer demand that’ll drive this reform. It’s an exciting and somewhat daunting time for utilities, but I could not be more pleased to see how innovation shapes our energy future in the years ahead.”
IIEA is Ireland’s leading think tank on international affairs. An independent, non-profit with charitable status, it provides its members with a unique forum for lively discussion with national and international politicians and policymakers, global thought leaders in law and international relations, EU commissioners and international business leaders.
IIEA’s members include representatives from the public and private sector, legal professionals, diplomatic corps, parliamentarians, industry leaders, and members of the media and academia.
Past keynote speakers are who’s who among the world’s better known energy leaders, including Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA); Ban Ki-moon, the former Secretary-General of the U.N.; Marie Donnelly, the director of new and Renewables Sources of Energy; and Michael Liebreich, the founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.