Almost half (45%) of utilities industry executives surveyed worldwide and 64% in Europe (including Belgium) consider the traditional electricity distribution model is no longer fit-for-purpose.
According to Accenture’s 3rd Digitally Enabled Grid research, 66% of utilities executives worldwide expect their company’s role to evolve towards one that integrates distributed energy resources (DER) and facilitates the market for DER services—a distribution platform optimizer.
The 2016 edition of this annual Accenture research to evaluate the implications and opportunities of an increasingly digital grid, reveals that European utilities executives see greater challenges with their current distribution model – 64% vs. 32% in North America. However, they also seem to be further ahead in transforming their distribution model – with deployment underway and some capabilities already in place according to 29% of utilities executives surveyed in Europe, vs. 6% in North America.
Many are looking to enhance their capabilities beyond planning, building and operating power networks to manage reliability based on their forecasts of customer demand, and actively engage customers and customer-owned technologies in managing grid reliability. Most utilities are still at an early stage of this journey, with only 15% of utilities executives worldwide, and 29% in Europe, saying this transformation is already underway.
Electricity storage: The new battleground
Complementing the survey, Accenture conducted economic modeling to assess the potential impact of growing electricity storage on the grid network. The uptake of electricity storage is increasing due to lower technology costs and rising consumer interest. As such, it promises to become a new utilities battleground. 66% of utilities executives surveyed expect competition in this area to rise in the next five years (up from 48% in 2013) and in anticipation, as many as 77% are already investing or plan to invest in storage solutions in the next 10 years.
New technologies offer utilities an opportunity to harness storage in a way that can benefit customers and grid operations. For example, if deployed across the network, storage could reduce grid faults caused by renewable electricity exports.
In addition, investing in storage solutions could create new revenue streams for utilities through new products and services, such as installation and maintenance. Consumers also have a clear benefit from residential storage. It can help reduce their bills by maximizing their consumption of free, self-generated, renewable power, especially at times of peak demand when power from the grid is more costly.
Utilities companies need to push the boundaries, collaborate with regulators to innovate, and strategically invest in solutions that will support a more digital and distributed grid, providing new choices and value streams for customers.
Read more on slideshare and on Accenture website
