Readers Speak on Intelligent Utility

As you may know, we've conducted an in-depth readership survey of Energy Central readers to find out who you are, what topics you'd like us to focus on and how you prefer to get your industry insights.

The survey of 1,200 readers contains insights for me, as editor of Intelligent Utility Daily. Although the survey treated all three of our practices—including Intelligent Utility, EnergyBiz and RenewablesBiz—I'll focus on the findings as they relate to Intelligent Utility Daily.

My colleague, Christopher Perdue, wrote on Monday about one aspect of the readership survey: how IT projects have been impacted by the struggling economy. He teased out upsides from a not-so-rosy picture.

Today I'll focus on editorial matters. Although the survey provided us with quantifiable insights, please feel free to weigh in on the conclusions I'm drawing. We listen.

Fully 35 percent of you are engineers, with nearly as many (34 percent) in business management positions. Twenty-eight percent are in consulting/contracting and 21 percent work in business development roles. Fourteen percent are in finance/legal/insurance/regulatory roles.

As for "job level," 28 percent characterize themselves as serving in middle management, 22 percent are in senior management, 21 percent consider themselves technical staff and 18 percent say they're senior staff.

Twenty-two percent of our respondents work for investor-owned utilities, 9 percent for municipal utilities and 6 percent toil at a cooperative utility. Five percent are state or federal regulators. A big chunk—16 percent—are "service providers," which I take to mean vendors of energy services (ESCOs) or energy-related equipment. Ten percent work for regional transmission organizations (RTOs).

Which aspect of the value chain do you work on? Eighteen percent are in fossil-fuel power generation, 17 percent work in renewable energy generation, with 9 percent each in nuclear and hydropower. About 14 percent to 15 percent are in either transmission or distribution. Eleven percent of you are involved as commercial/industrial end-users; 8 percent count themselves as residential end-users.

Interestingly, when asked for areas of coverage you're looking for, 67 percent said "power storage equipment," which I take to mean large-scale energy storage—just as my colleague, Kate Rowland, predicted in her column yesterday. Another 62 percent said that compliance, regulatory, legal and financial services angles would be helpful. The same percentage said mobile workforce management issues would be of interest. Fully 60 percent would like to hear more about systems integration and nearly as many (59 percent) are looking for insights into business process management.

Because we in the media work in an area that is rapidly evolving, I was particularly interested in your preferences among media and means of learning—and your dislikes.

Fully 42 percent prefer online websites. (My sense is that most of you like to control where and when you get information.) E-newsletters are favored by 35 percent, perhaps reflecting a preference for well-focused sources, delivered regularly. Thirty-five percent also prefer search engine results, which echoes my impression about control over specificity and timeliness (exactly what you need, when you need it).

Thirty percent said that they regularly learn through professional groups, so peer-to-peer relationships and a means of maintaining them is important. Only 28 percent want print publications. What's the primary draw there? (Perhaps paper allows more relaxed reading than a lighted screen, in the off-hours, on the plane? Or is that an insight into our readership's demographics, a generational preference?) Another 28 percent of respondents credit conferences for their opportunities for in-person exchanges. And 26 percent look for market research/analyst reports.

Vendors, buckle up! Fully 51 percent our respondents expressed dislike for vendor emails, 46 percent dislike hearing from vendor salespeople and 38 percent have had enough of trade shows. I've been hearing for years that trade shows are losing luster—just too much noise and commotion for cogent exchanges, at least on the floor. But if that's where the people you need to speak with are gathering, you go, right?

On the peer-to-peer front, 75 percent of you stay in touch via LinkedIn, presumably through profile-to-profile messaging and, more likely, the discussion forums. Fully 88 percent said LinkedIn is your favored social network for business use. That's followed by Plaxo (71 percent), Ning (53 percent) and Twitter (47 percent).

On the whole, a fascinating snapshot. I'm personally interested to hear from you on topics you'd like more focus on, so let me know in this public forum or via my email address.

Phil Carson
Editor-in-chief
Intelligent Utility Daily
pcarson@energycentral.com
303-228-4757