BURLINGTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 31, 2011) - Today, KEMA released its new guidebook with focused insight for electric utilities to leverage the evolving utility-customer relationship for successful integration of the utility of the future. Engaging the Customer: The Power Behind the Meter, volume 3 of KEMA's Utility of the Future Leadership Guidebook series, provides knowledge to help build more engaging customer relationships and make informed choices for technology and business models.

The global industry's transition to a smart grid infrastructure and intelligent network is challenging the existing models of utility-customer relationships, creating the opportunity to reevaluate how value is created and preserved.

"To fully achieve utilities' visions, now, more than ever, we must engage residential, commercial and industrial customers to understand this transition and become active participants," said Hugo van Nispen, managing director, KEMA Americas. "Only then, will we maximize the potential power of the smart grid to create a more sustainable future for all."

In this guidebook, KEMA combines analyses and lessons learned from utilities' past demand-side management programs and emerging trends to better anticipate how customers will respond to emerging energy management and new customer-side technologies. Leveraging this insight will allow for a more robust implementation of key initiatives, including demand-side management and other strategic and operational programs.

The Utility of the Future Leadership Guidebook volume 3 features:

• The changing customer profile
• Policy and technologies changing the utility landscape
• Customer-sited technologies
• Business strategies to support customer-grid integration
• The Virtual Power Plant -- a vision for customer-utility interaction

Introduced in 2008, the KEMA Utility of the Future Leadership Guidebook series provides independent insight and assessment of the pressing questions, emerging technologies, and strategic decisions that surround electric grid modernization to help utilities build for the future. Find additional information and order Engaging the Customer: The Power Behind the Meter.

About KEMA
Founded in 1927, KEMA is a global provider of business and technical consulting, operational support, measurement and inspection, testing and certification for the energy and utility industry. With world headquarters in Arnhem, the Netherlands, KEMA employs more than 1,700 professionals globally with offices and representatives in more than 20 countries. KEMA's U.S. subsidiary, KEMA Inc. is headquartered in Burlington, Mass., and serves energy clients throughout the Americas and Caribbean.

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