Avista Corp., dealing with widespread change that's affecting the utility industry but isn't always unique to it, will hold an interactive summit, titled Powering Our Future, with hundreds of community leaders and customers here Oct. 28.

Major issues, such as climate change, pricing and availability of energy, the advent of the smart grid, and the rapid pace of technology, all are affecting how utilities do business, says Roger Woodworth, Avista's vice president for sustainable energy solutions.

Yet, when those issues are discussed, he says, "The practicalities of operating a utility are not in the conversation," Because of that, Woodworth says, "We need to engage customers and community leaders in a conversation."

For the summit, an estimated 250 participants will join Avista staff members at CenterPlace at Mirabeau Point, in Spokane Valley, for speeches and interactive workshops, during which guests will be polled for their opinions before and after discussions.

Facilitator Daniel Iacofano, a principal in MIG Inc., of Berkeley, Calif., will guide the discussions, and muralist Lou Hexter, a senior project manager with MIG, will capture what's said in a continuous piece of art that will reflect the topics in the discussion.

"It's a pretty powerful tool," Woodworth says of the mural.

Avista Chairman, President, and CEO Scott Morris and Avista Utilities President Dennis Vermillion will open the session. Luncheon speakers will include David K. Owens, executive vice president of the Edison Electric Institute, an electric utility industry lobbying group, and Michael Shepard, president and co-founder of E Source, which provides information to utilities and energy users to support the environmentally sound use of energy.

The afternoon will feature three workshops. Woodworth and Bruce Folsom, Avista's director of energy efficiency, will present one of the workshops, titled Using Energy: Choices, Costs & Energy Efficiency. Heather Cummins, Avista's director of business process improvement, will present another, Delivering Energy: Reliability & Technology. Dick Storro, Avista's vice president of energy resources, will present the third, Securing Energy: Planning Ahead.

Avista will videotape the summit and use parts of the footage later on its Web site. During the workshops, audience members will be asked to provide feedback to questions with electronic devices.

Woodworth says that when customers talk about utilities, they often talk about energy rates, but not about how they use energy, which is increasingly important information for utility management.

For example, some utilities now are studying circuits that serve certain areas in cities—and are projecting the purchases of hybrid vehicles by people who live in those areas, Woodworth says. He says the charging of cars that run partly or solely on electricity is a new and significant source of demand on utilities' systems.

Other issues that are global in scope, such as climate change, also are affecting utilities, and energy conservation is playing a bigger role in utility management, Woodworth says. Avista's now year-old electric integrated resource plan, which is updated every other year to project future energy supply and demand, estimates that 26 percent of Avista's new demand for electricity over the next two decades, or roughly 260 megawatts of demand, would be met through energy conservation. That percentage is up significantly from the level projected in the company's plan two years ago. (One megawatt of power is enough to serve 750 homes.)

"We're trying to build shared understanding" in the summit, Woodworth says. Over the last few years, the company has worked to engage customers in new ways, including through such social media channels as two Twitter accounts, a company blog, and a Facebook page. Also, Avista uses direct e-mail to communicate with customers who have provided their e-mail addresses.

Through its Energy on the Street program, the company sends employees decked out in Avista garb to public events to talk with customers on camera. It records customers' questions, gets answers to them from experts back at the company's offices, and puts those questions and answers on its Web site. Through the company's Listening Post campaign, company employees sit outside grocery stores at tables with Avista banners to have conversations with customers who want to talk with them. In such conversations, "it becomes about real people trying to serve real people," rather than a company trying to serve people, Woodworth says.

The company used collaborative approaches to talk with large numbers of stakeholders at numerous meetings when it worked its way through the relicensing of its Clark Fork River dams and its Spokane River hydropower projects, Woodworth says. He says that approach enabled it to hear what large numbers of people had to say, which helped crystallize issues.

Avista is rated as the 11th cleanest utility in the U.S. by the Natural Resources Defense Council, but some proposals to curb greenhouse gases have disregarded how clean a utility is in comparison with its peers while urging sizable—and uniform—rate increases for all utilities, Woodworth says. Because of that, he asks, "How should we engage to protect this investment" in Avista's relatively clean generating assets. Further, he says, when environmental goals are set, the utility needs to know what its customers are willing to spend in case rate increases are needed to raise money to achieve those goals.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, other incumbent officeholders, and customers from all over Avista's service territory have been invited to the summit, Avista says. While Gregoire hasn't said yet whether she'll be able to come, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter is sending a representative.

Later, Avista personnel in outlying offices likely will hold sessions with community leaders and customers in those areas. Paul Kimmell, Avista's Palouse area regional business manager and a member of the team that's working on the summit, notes that geography creates variables in customers' views.

The summit will begin with a luncheon at 11:30 and continue until 5 p.m., with a social hour to follow. Lunch is $15.

"We're certain we'll be better for having listened," Woodworth says. "Our customers will know more from having been there."