Britain’s largest energy companies could face an existential threat in the wake of a technology boom which threatens to upend the traditional utility business model, according to former energy chiefs. An influential six-strong group of former FTSE chief executives and policymakers has warned that traditional energy companies have already “chronically underestimated” the market’s pace of change and could lose out to a rising breed of tech-based rivals. In recent years the energy industry has seen a surge in the number of consumers harnessing renewable energy technology to generate their own energy. This trend is expected to accelerate in line with the emergence of internet-connected metering and appliances, as well as the Government’s backing for home batteries and electric vehicles. Ian Marchant, the former boss of SSE, together with ex-National Grid boss Steve Holliday and Volker Beckers, who led RWE npower, have called for bold action from energy companies to adapt to the changing market place. Ed Davey, a former Energy Secretary, as well as long-time energy minister Charles Hendry and Joan MacNaughton, the head of energy at the former Department of Trade and Industry, also contributed to the report.
Telegraph 3rd Aug 2017 read more »
This past week has seen the welcome release of the BEIS / Ofgem Upgrading Our Energy System – Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan. Moving to a vibrant, flexible, efficient energy system will require a far deeper, more granular knowledge about GB energy flows. Conventional energy companies – some of which currently have access to data, for example, network companies and suppliers – are trying to work out how they can use ‘their’ data to enable themselves to transform their business models from the ‘old’ to ‘new’ energy system. Various non-conventional energy companies of various sizes are trying to work out how they can access a viable ‘route to market’ so that they can be part of the smart, flexible energy system – and to do that they need to both: access ‘data’ to work out what potential there is for a service, and what its value might be to a customer (system, individual business, local authority, etc) and have the ability to capture the ‘value’ of the service they are trying to provide.
IGov 2nd Aug 2017 read more »