How Electronomics Will Make Utility Pros Rich
By Jesse Berst
Sep 11, 2008 - 2:20:54 PM

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I’m writing to alert you to a massive trend that is likely make some of you wealthy. Read on for a quick summary, and a link to a new white paper that spells things out in more detail.

 

About 14 months ago, I explained how the Smart Grid would soon lead to some Smart Millionaires. (See link below). My article predicted new forms of generation, new business models for utilities, and new choices for consumers. It also prophesied new fortunes for the companies serving those new markets.

 

Fast forward and we are indeed in the midst of a startup frenzy that is nearly to Internet proportions. Every week, I get calls from venture capitalists and investment firms looking for the right places to put their money. And every week I hear from another utility professional who has left to join a Smart Grid startup.

 

And here’s what many people don’t realize yet – this sector is going to get even hotter because it is part of a larger, planet-wide change that I call “Electronomics.” If economics is the study of goods and services, then Electronomics concerns itself with the good and services arising from the global shift to an electricity economy.

 

Global Smart Energy has documented all this in a new white paper called “The Electricity Economy: New Opportunities from the Transformation of the Electric Power Sector.” (See download link below).

 

The white paper was sponsored by Global Environment Fund, one of America’s first and most successful cleantech investment firms. I urge you to read the foreword by GEF’s CEO, Jeffrey Leonard, who has long been one of the sector’s most thoughtful observers. As he puts it: “A national energy strategy to promote greater electrification of the economy is the most practical, expedient and efficient path to achieving energy security for America, and ultimately of addressing global climate change challenges.”

 

It’s also one of the most efficient paths to opportunity and wealth, as the white paper points out. It explains our “accidental addiction” to electricity, recaps some of the trends in the Smart Grid sector, and lays out 15 investment themes for those who want to cash in on the changes.

 

Underneath each of those general investment themes are some very specific, very real opportunities. In most cases, young companies already are already forming to answer the needs. But there is still plenty of room for companies large and small to stake a claim. This trend will be even bigger, more dramatic and more long-lived than even the optimists realized a few years ago.

 

I hope the white paper can serve as a map of this new territory. And I hope you will use it to chart a profitable path forward for your company and yourself.

 

   Email Jesse Berst

   The Electricity Economy (PDF)

   Xconomy article discussing the trend

   Canadian Business article discussing the trend

   Smart Grid Millionaires article (May 2007)

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