Electricity Initiative Ads Aim to Spark Grid Improvement Demands

New Campaign Stresses Upgrading Sad U.S. Electric Power System

CHICAGO, March 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- If your electrical outlet could talk, what would it say? According to "Sad Socket," it would cry "help me."

The Galvin Electricity Initiative today launched the Sad Socket public education campaign to draw attention to the dangers and inefficiencies of the outdated U.S. electric power system and offer cost- and energy-saving solutions. The ads will appear in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post.

An accompanying Web site -- www.galvinpower.org/socket -- provides practical information about the issue, offers policy solutions and suggests what consumers can do to conserve electricity, save money and join the movement to renew our electricity grid.

Highlighting the current electric grid's defects, the campaign contends that U.S. businesses, public institutions and homes rely on electricity generated by a system completed a half-century ago that costs Americans more than $150 billion a year in power outages. Modern technology can enable a Perfect Power System that is safe, efficient, good for the environment and much more reliable. But political will and changes in regulatory policy are necessary to facilitate these advances.

"It is too costly, not to mention unsafe and entirely wasteful, to continue powering our digital economy on antiquated technology," said Robert W. Galvin, founder of the Galvin Electricity Initiative and retired CEO and chairman of Motorola, Inc. "The technology to transform the electric power system exists right now. But until all of us demand state policies that put smart technology, cost structures based on time-of-use, plus true retail service competition into place, we'll be stuck with the costly, inefficient dinosaur of a system we have now."

While federal support for smart grid research and investment, as provided for in The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, is important, the Sad Socket campaign insists that states hold the key to motivating electricity distribution utilities to give consumers the power of choice, and to make changes that urgently modernize the grid.

"'Sad Socket' highlights states that are making progress in grid transformation," said Kurt Yeager, executive director of the Galvin Electricity Initiative. "We are working with change leaders, developers and universities in Massachusetts, Illinois and New Mexico to transform the quality of power delivery while collaborating with policy makers and regulators to remove outmoded policy and regulatory barriers so that everyone benefits from system renewal. Broad public understanding and support is crucial to success."

The Galvin Electricity Initiative was launched by former Motorola chief Robert W. Galvin in response to the Northeast blackout of 2003 that affected 40 million people in eight states. The Initiative is leading a campaign to transform our Nation's obsolete electric power system into one that can truly meet consumers' needs in this new century. Galvin's vision -- a Perfect Power System that cannot fail the end-user -- includes a major technological update as well as the development of smart microgrids that benefit consumers and suppliers alike. Learn more at www.galvinpower.org/socket.