Transforming Public Trust Into An Operating Asset For Uti…

While utilities of all types and sizes have recognized that affordability is a top-of-mind issue and are doing what they can to ease customer bill pressure, few fully grasp how ratepayers interpret these rising costs. When monthly bills increase, most customers focus on the name on the envelope rather than the complex mix of market forces, policy mandates, and grid modernization efforts that are ultimately driving those increases. Closing this gap requires energy providers to rethink traditional corporate messaging and actively show how system investments deliver value to people in the present while also enabling long-term resilience.

It’s something that Greg Cornett, President of Rhode Island Energy, has positioned as a cornerstone of his leadership strategy. It’s also something he’s written about and talked about at events DTECH Northeast, underscoring the importance of the topic across the sector.

Once again, Cornett is going to be taking the stage at DTECH Northeast as part of a keynote panel with executive leaders from Eversource and the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. Before doing so, we connected with Cornett to capture some of his insights about this strategy, why it’s important to treat public trust as a vital operational asset, and more.

Listen to the audio version of the interview here:

Bridging Perspectives Across the Energy Ecosystem

Having served in private practice, multi-jurisdictional legal counsel, and executive operations, Cornett sees the breaking down of silos that can naturally form across these sectors as an essential element of larger grid modernization efforts. Doing so has to come from a place of understanding in terms of the perspective that each brings to the larger conversation, helping to lay the groundwork of trust needed to move forward.

Proactive communication can be foundational to this sense of trust, reshaping how regulators view utility priorities and how customers interpret rising costs. Without context, many ratepayers assume their higher bills are about profit expansion rather than reliability investments. Proactively framing those costs can completely change the conversation, which is something Rhode Island Energy saw firsthand by introducing biannual bill breakdowns that explicitly separate the regulated rate of return from supply costs and grid infrastructure investments.

“We decided to break this down in very simple terms for our customers,” Cornett said. “We start including a document that outlines all components of a bill, including this is what a typical profit is on your piece of the bill. In our case for a typical residential customer, it’s only about $2.50 a billing period. That helps them understand that yes, we’re a business that has to make money, but that $2.50 is helping ensure a system that’s safe, reliable, and modern.”

Navigating these dynamics around cost and affordability means proactively addressing the realities and misperceptions of each, but doing so with the right voices makes all the difference.

Cultivating Utility Authenticity

While utility communications have traditionally relied on corporate spokespeople and polished marketing campaigns, pushback around data centers as well as a general unease with content that’s being created by AI has made people less receptive than ever to such messaging. It’s why hearing from the technical experts and field personnel is something that Cornett has made a priority at Rhode Island Energy. Showcasing front-line crews and internal experts makes all the difference when telling the real story of what it takes to keep the lights on.

“Every single day we’re using real employees, rather than stock images in our messaging,” Cornett told Factor This. “Wherever possible, we use the people who are doing the actual work to talk about those investments. These are folks that live and work and play in the communities we serve, and it comes across a lot more sincere and believable when customers hear it from the men and women in the trenches.”

Truly modernizing the grid means balancing the reliability needs of today with efforts to meet the energy demand of tomorrow, and the importance of communicating the investment required to do so has never been higher. Utilities need to approach and prioritize this type of communication in a way that is both transparent and clear, as those efforts will help shape and define the future of the entire sector.

Public Trust as a Core Operating Asset

Looking across the next three to five years, it’s clear that everything from flexible interconnections to AI-powered robots will make an impact, helping utilities to streamline operations and strengthen their bottom lines. But with affordability pressures not ly to subside, utilities can’t assume their efforts to maintain reliability and quietly create these efficiencies will be enough. It’s why Cornett believes utilities need to consider a fundamental shift in how they convey value to the communities they serve that can also define a new operational metric.  

“As an industry, I think we have to embrace the reality that public trust is an operating asset, and we have to treat it as such,” Cornett said. “We’re not going to be successful in making the investments that we need to make if we don’t have some level of public trust. That’s something that can be lost very, very quickly and takes a really long time to earn back.”

How proactively utilities work to cultivate this kind of trust value will vary by region, market structure, and customer base, but the larger goal is the same. Securing regulatory approval and attracting the capital needed for true grid modernization depends on active public buy-in. Driving that kind of support means moving people past the number they see in a given month to a larger understanding of how grid investments can both protect local communities and strengthen the energy ecosystem in the present for the future.

Learn more about theCultivating Public Trust as an Essential Affordability Strategy keynote panelor register forDTECH Northeast.