For Taxis, It's Uber. For Utilities, Could It Be DERs? [Original Content]

The Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Alternative Energy, Tech News, 958784, Environment, Technology, Renewable Energy, Energy, Business, Sustainability, Wind Energy, Climate Change, Cleantech, News, Solar Energy, Innovation, News Commentary

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2018

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This podcast episode sponsored by West Monroe Partners, and brought to you by creative strategies.

How do we think about change in the electric utility industry caused by distributed resources? Is it like telecom? Internet-based retail?

Sam Uyeno, senior manager in West Monroe Partners’ energy and utilities practice, says that it may be more like ride sharing. As distributed resources flourish, he argues that utilities will have to think about how to leverage new customers within its network — just as Uber came into the taxi market and allowed anyone to become operators.

When you consider distributed resource management software, “maybe that’s the Uber.”

Utilities are making large investments to keep up with the quickening pace of technological innovation. But it may not be enough to keep up with distributed energy resources. Utilities should also be looking for a new regulatory compact all together, argues Tom Hulsebosch, senior managing director for West Monroe Partner’s Energy & Utilities and sustainability practice.

In this podcast, we talk with Hulsebosch and Uyeno about the technology investments and business practices that utilities need to adopt in order to get ahead of the wave of distributed assets connecting to the grid.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This podcast is brought to you by West Monroe Partners, business consultants, and deep technologists.
0:07.0	If you want to learn more about the road utilities are headed down, go to WMP.com.
0:11.0	There you can sign up for their quarterly newsletter, read the US Utility
0:15.0	Outlook for 2018, and connect directly with top experts who will work by your
0:19.2	side in the journey to transform the industry. Again that's West Monroe Partners WMP.com.
0:28.5	Stephen, once last time you took a taxi over an Uber or lift?
0:32.0	It's been a while. I don't even really remember. I was a late
0:35.8	adopter to Uber and Lyft and I remember when I lived in DC many years ago the
0:41.5	taxi cab companies started touting their own booking systems to compete
0:46.6	with the ride sharing companies and I tried to use them and then after a couple of
0:51.0	bookings that didn't materialize I sat on the curb waiting for a taxi cab to come pick me up early in the morning after booking it for the airport.
0:59.0	I just went straight into both Uber and Lyft and I never looked back and I don't really recall the last time I took a taxi cab unless it was an emergency.
1:07.0	Yeah, I had a pretty similar trajectory in moving over to ride sharing and I think that that's been the experience of most people and now we're seeing that pretty much all of these cab companies are sitting around with infrastructure that's just not being put to the best use and you can probably see where I'm going with this.
1:26.0	There's a concern that utilities might end up facing a similar problem.
1:32.0	We see utilities every size, every type, they're grappling with
1:36.7	distributed assets of one form or another and more coming and they're trying to figure
1:42.4	out what it means for supply and demand and
1:45.4	most importantly their business model. So there's there's a real conversation
1:50.7	it's kind of been going on for years but I think that it it starts to
1:54.4	accelerate with DRS about are some of these utilities just going to be left
1:59.2	holding the wires? It is definitely a real and imminent issue now. I can see where you're going with this.
2:06.0	Because of this change, a lot of people are searching for the perfect comparison.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wood Mackenzie, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wood Mackenzie and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.