Guidehouse
Derek Jones is a director in Guidehouse’s global Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure segment with more than 15 years of experience in the transportation and energy sectors. His multi-disciplinary experience includes a deep knowledge of transportation and distributed energy resource market ecosystems, US regulatory and policy environments, and program design and implementation. Derek manages market assessment, adoption forecasting, load research, business case, regulatory strategy, and process evaluation analysis.
Approximately one-third of energy use in the U.S. is for transportation. How can utilities tap into this market in a significant way?
The emerging Transportation-to-Grid (T2G) platform describes the opportunities created by the intersection of an expanding e-mobility infrastructure (which includes electrification of transportation from passenger vehicles to transit systems to port operations) and the electricity grid.
Take the example of power flows to plug-in EVs (PEVs). Guidehouse Insights expects 127 million PEVs in use globally by 2030. Power flows to these PEVs represent more than 422 TWh of load annually. This energy content equates to roughly 248 million barrels of oil or enough energy to power more than thirty-eight million homes for one year.
The shift to fueling vehicle powertrains with electricity offers utilities, and other market players opportunities for value stacking. Utilities as platform orchestrators can stack value by delivering electricity to PEVs and by also building out their networks to optimize PEV charging capabilities.
Maximizing the value of unidirectional charging (V1G) and bidirectional charging (V2G) through load orchestration provides still more value stacking opportunities.
Successful stacking strategies will rely on the utility's honest assessment of its internal capabilities and a willingness to partner in areas of weakness, forging compelling market offerings within the T2G platform.
PUF posed a baker's dozen questions about power's future to a similar number of the thought leaders at Guidehouse:
- Dan Hahn — You have a short elevator ride alone with the CEO of a major utility. What would you want to tell him or her?
- Karin Corfee — What major changes have we seen over the last year to the key opportunities and threats utilities are facing? What can utilities do to be better prepared for these changes?
- Erik Larson — Are utilities well-equipped for next generation Energy Cloud business models? What is your view on the industry's readiness? What can utilities do now to be ready?
- Dan Bradley — How will utilities' relationships with their customers change over the next decade? How can utilities get ahead of this?
- Ted Walker — We all hear of "as a service" offerings across many other industries. What does this mean for utilities? What does energy as a service look like?
- Shannon Graham — How are European energy companies positioning themselves in a quickly decarbonizing market? What lessons can be learned from them for U.S. utilities?
- Derek Jones — Approximately one-third of energy use in the U.S. is for transportation. How can utilities tap into this market in a significant way?
- David O'Brien — What are the major regulatory changes you see in the next decade? What is needed from regulators to optimize outcomes for all stakeholders?
- Margot Everett — What are the major changes to how utilities should approach rate design over the next decade to deal with challenging industry dynamics?
- Michelle Fay — What will the utility of the future look like in 2030? How will it be different from today's utility?
- Rick Rodman — How has risk management changed for utilities? What can utilities learn from other industries?
- Jenny Hampton — How can utilities use design thinking to develop game-changing innovations? What lessons can be learned from other industries?
- Danielle Vitoff — What role can utilities take in their customers' quest to decarbonize? How have we seen utilities shifting more decarbonization choices to their clients?
