When explaining the benefits of the smart grid, consumers relate most to terms such as “budget billing,” “flat billing” and “peak pricing.” They do not relate well to terms like “green pricing” or “fuel supply billing,” according to “Green Gap Redux: Green Words Gone Wrong,” a report from EcoAlign. The report is based on results from the EcoPinion Survey.

The survey looked at consumer perception of terms that might be used to describe billing associated with smart grids, using a scale of 1 to 10, with “1” being “no understanding/don’t know” and “10” being “very good understanding.” In the above chart, green represents a higher level of understanding and red represents a lower level of understanding.

The following chart shows whether consumers have positive, neutral or negative connotations with the same terms.