4 Trends Impacting the Utility Industry

By CIOReview | Friday, January 22, 2021

Successful utilities will embrace new business models that address their customers, shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders' concerns while working hard to attain sustainability goals.

FREMONT, CA: Two words that come to mind when thinking about the utility industry are disruption and transformation. Essentially, the unprecedented disruption in the market needed significant transformation by utilities to cope with the changing demands and new means of operating. Companies' pursuit of opportunity and demonstration of purpose will reshape in the form of some major trends. Some of these trends are not new, but they will continue to revamp the industry in 2021 and in the rest of the years to come.

Customer Centricity

This customer-centricity will only accelerate as younger generations put pressure on utilities to mitigate emissions. Younger consumers demand more from their utilities regarding greener choices, a broader array of products and services, interoperability with intelligent home tech, assistance for electric vehicles, and other offerings. All of this means that utilities will require demonstrating greater responsiveness to increasingly environmentally conscious consumers.

Shift with Time and Pressure

Utility industry shift with time and pressure. The sector has long had their industry to themselves, with the advantages of monopoly status, high hurdles to entry, and often generous governmental assistance. But a new ecosystem has formed, driven largely by the demand to transition toward cleaner energy. Players from several industries, including automotive, energy management, and oil and gas, are crowding into this sector.

Increasing Flexibility

Flexibility will be vital for efficiently and effectively operating a grid to manage safety and reliability and remain essential with customers. Energy-as-a-service offerings widen as players from outside the conventional utility market push utilities to evolve their conventional approaches to serving commercial, industrial and municipal consumers. These end-users demands, among other things, greener energy supplies, greater reliability, and more give and take on pricing.

Fuelling Storage Capacities

The sudden decline in battery costs makes effective power storage a reality, allowing utilities to limit renewable intermittency, increase reliability during outages, and electric power vehicles more effective. The past year showed that batteries would play a vital role in the industry going forward. Large-scale renewable projects, along with end-user photovoltaic systems, are now being planned with storage capabilities.