Social media in the evolution of the Smart Grid in the 21st century

Smart Grid (SG) solutions and changes on the energy market are becoming a serious challenge for all stakeholders of energy value chain. In the traditional system of energy distribution, energy distributors did not worry about their customers too much. At the other end, energy customers are not used to choice when buying energy services, most often they are not even familiar with current offers and possibilities. If the purchased product or service is new, complex and difficult to assess, consumers are looking for new sources of reference. New SG technologies and energy markets are innovative and force customers to be more active and to become familiar with energy management systems. Therefore, the access to social media – which have become one of the most important sources of information exchange in the society of the 21st century – is so important. Some sectors like education or communication have noticed it a long time ago and have been using it to good effect for years to establish relations with consumers. According to the research done in 2010 by Harvard Business Review, the energy sector was far behind, holding the last position on the list. Massive growth of Renewable Energy Sources, the new role of energy customer, and Demand Side Management programmes made energy distribution companies change their relations with customers. The paper discusses the impact of the information on decision of customers in terms of new energy services and presents some examples of using social media by energy distributors, different organizations and providers of software used in customer engagement on the energy market and in Demand Side Management programmes; it also deals with raising awareness as to the adoption of Smart Grid technologies.