SmartGridNews.com The insider's guide to the modernization and automation of electric power
The Smart Grid Threat You’re Not Worrying About (But Should Be) By Jesse Berst Jun 8, 2010 - 11:28:26 AM
If you make it past this introduction, many of you are going to decide you don't need to read the rest. "Above my pay grade," you will say to yourself. Or "not my job."
Yet if we fail to collectively grapple with this issue, you may not have the job and the salary you deserve. Better-paying jobs will go instead to people outside the utility space, competitors with new and better business models.
The current utility business model is breaking down. Utilities are being asked to make massive investments in the Smart Grid. Yet the things the Smart Grid enables -- conservation, energy efficiency, demand response -- will reduce their sales.
Spend more to make less. Sound like a winner to you?
Others are Finding Formulas for Success
If the utility industry fails to come up with new business models, competitors from adjacent industries will do it for them. They won’t compete head-to-head. Instead, they will bite off the best morsels -- high-margin customers and businesses -- and leave the utilities with the low-margin, high-difficulty scraps. Reliability. Duty to serve. Universal access. Stranded assets.
EnerNOC is gnawing away at one juicy piece. Google is circling the waters… Wal-Mart has plans… Verizon… Solar City… Schneider... Local power parks and microgrids… It’s a long list with new entrants every day.
What to Do About it Mow
Utility professionals must start discussing the new businesses they want to be in, piloting the best ideas, and seeking the regulatory approvals or changes that allow them a reasonable profit.
What new business would you like to be in? Where could your skills be applied to create new revenue streams? What policy changes will be needed to make that possible?
I can’t think of a better jumpstart for your thinking than Peter Fox-Penner’s Smart Grid business models article here at SGN. Read it. Discuss it with your colleagues. And start deciding which business model(s) you want to promote and support. You can’t stop the coming transformation. But you can be informed and intentional about the role you and your company should play.
You might also be interested in …
Smart Power Business Models for a Smarter Grid
Why Today's Utilities May Soon Be Obsolete (and What May Replace Them)
IBM – Switching Perspectives (pdf)
Capitalize on Tomorrow’s Smart Grid Opportunities with a Future-Friendly Data Management Framework
Stay connected with SGN …
Smart Grid Discussions: Get LinkedIn with Jesse
Subscribe to our FREE eMail News Alert!
Smart Grid Newsletter (SGN) is the insider's guide to the Smart Grid revolution. It consists of a FREE bi-monthly email summary, along with a companion Web site that contains the full stories and other helpful materials. Benefits of subscribing: SGN is the only central source for all of the news, trends, research and marketplace information relevant to grid automation. In it, you will read about cutting edge technologies; successful pioneers and how they got ahead; regulatory changes that could unleash new markets; the latest research; and new opportunities for sales of grid-related products and services. © Copyright 2009 SmartGridNews.com |
