Patty Durand, Executive Director, Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative

Patty Durand

What makes her powerful: Durand is the first permanent executive director of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative and brings with her a passion for reliable, affordable electricity as the foundation for a healthy, robust economy and society.

Durand believes that, if current trends go unchecked, electricity will become increasingly expensive and less reliable, making conservation of energy and fossil fuels critical.

Durand is a driving force behind educational initiatives directed to the consumer public about this looming crisis and ways to conserve fossil fuels. As executive director, she is working to ensure that SGCC's role of educating the public happens in ways that listen to consumers and provide comprehensive information according to their wants and needs. Durand is also driving initiatives to help utilities understand how to engage consumers in a newly-connected energy world.

When Durand took over as the permanent SGCC Executive Director, Co-founder and former Acting Executive Director Jesse Berst said, "The opportunity I've had to help the SGCC get started has been fascinating, inspiring, and incredibly rewarding. Perhaps the most satisfying part has been seeing the organization grow to the point that it requires a fully dedicated executive director -- a sign that it has reached a new level of maturity. We couldn't have chosen a better-qualified permanent executive director than Patty Durand, and I'll be following the group's progress under her leadership as we continue to reach our goals for a new energy future."

In the last six months since she took over the reins, Durand has seen a 50 percent increase in new membership growth and delivered two comprehensive research papers on electricity consumers.

Durand is not new to energy and smart grid. She brought with her experience from the Georgia Institute of Technology where she served as a smart grid and energy research leader, submitting nearly $10 million in grants to ARPA-E and the Department of Energy. Prior to Georgia Tech, she served as State Director of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club where she focused on energy policy and programs.