Business Model Mashup
Three ‘power plays’ for utilities seeking growth.
Threats to the utility business model mean that it’s time to make choices about future growth to protect cash flows while investing in new ventures.
Accenture
Southern Sees the Light
More than 95 percent of consumers will still be connected to the centralized network for the foreseeable future. But it won’t diminish the trend toward distributed generation – and the attempts by both unconventional parties and power companies from getting into related businesses.
When most people think of Georgia and energy, they think of Southern Company and coal. Well, all that’s changing now that the state is about to embrace a new law on July 1 to allow utilities to sell rooftop solar energy.
The Driving Ambition of Elon Musk
An electric car in every driveway, a battery in every garage.
Tesla’s Elon Musk is driving the electric car off the lot and onto the premises of America’s electric utilities, proposing to build and sell energy storage batteries on both a residential and grid-wide scale – ideas that the chief executive will fully flesh out at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual meeting in New Orleans this June.
Statnett Selects Accenture to Centralise Norway’s Electricity Market Data
Submitted by aburr on Sun, 2015-05-03 20:28Accenture was selected by Statnett, Norway's transmission system operator, to develop, maintain and operate a central data hub designed to simplify the country's electricity market. Accenture will implement Siemens EnergyIP grid application platform to enable seamless meter data management and market transaction management, Oracle Service Oriented Architecture Suite to manage the orchestration of business and market processes, Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite (BIFS) to enable mor
Electrifying Your Customer
Customer Connection: Five steps to better relations with your most important client.
Utility customers are hungry for more information and to interact with their providers. But, first, utilities need to know what problems their customers want to solve.
Digest (March 2015)
Pacific Gas and Electric and automaker BMW are teaming up to test the ability of EV batteries to provide services to the electric grid; MidAmerican Energy completed work on four of five wind farms across Iowa that make up its Wind VIII project; GE received an order from the Tennessee Valley Authority to supply two high-efficiency 7HA.02 gas turbine generators for the new combined-cycle Allen plant; Appalachian Power plans to rebuild the existing South Bluefield-Wythe 69-kV transmission line; Bechtel partnered with Westinghouse Electric to provide decontamination and decommissioning services for nuclear power plants throughout the U.S.; SunEdison and Omnigrid Micropower signed a framework agreement to develop 5,000 rural projects, representing 250 MW of electricity, throughout India; The Tennessee Valley Authority and DuPont partnered to generate power and steam at TVA's Johnsonville site in Tennessee; and others.
Transactions (March 2015)
TerraForm acquired 21 U.S. distributed generation solar power plants from SunEdison; Emera closed the sale of its 49 percent interest in Northeast Wind Partners II to First Wind Holdings; Alterra Power completed its sale of its Fallon, Nevada geothermal facility to an affiliate of Cyrq Energy; Accenture agreed to acquire Structure, a provider of consulting, system integration and customized solutions and services to energy and utility clients; and others.
Consumers Energy Selects Accenture to Deploy New Ventyx Digital Platform
Submitted by aburr on Wed, 2015-01-21 21:06Consumers Energy selected Accenture to deploy new mobile workforce management (MWFM) software from Ventyx, an ABB company, to help field workers improve safety, productivity and customer experience. Accenture will implement the latest release of Service Suite with optimized, automated dispatching, for schedulers, dispatchers, field crews and supervisors. This will replace Consumers Energy's legacy mobile workforce management system.
Accenture Expands Smart Grid Operations Risk Management Services with Acquisition of Structure
Submitted by aburr on Fri, 2015-01-09 13:43Accenture entered into an agreement to acquire Structure, a provider of consulting, system integration and customized solutions and services to energy and utilities clients. The transaction will expand and enhance Accenture's deep experience and capabilities in smart grid solutions, especially grid operations, as well as energy commodity trading and risk management (CTRM). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the acquisition is subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.
Demand Disruption Ahead
Utilities should think hard about business models.
Death spiral? Maybe not. But retail load – as served by utilities – will surely fall.