Utility 4.0 E-Book

Oliver D. Doleski

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 85

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Against the background that traditional business models of the energy industry are becoming obsolete in the face of digitization and decentralization, Oliver D. Doleski describes the epoch-making process of change from a monopoly supply company to a digital energy service company. The compact book not limited to the pure description of the transformation process. Rather, it also offers the reader a concise overview of profitable fields of activity of digital energy service companies (Utility 4.0) as well as an application-oriented method for realizing new business ideas in the digital energy world of tomorrow. The book closes with an intuitively understandable guide to the practical implementation of digital transformation in the energy industry.

Leseprobe

Oliver D. Doleski

Utility 4.0

Oliver D. Doleski

Utility 4.0

Transformation from

Being a Utility to Being a

Digital Energy Services Company

Imprint | Impressum

© 2024 Copyright by Oliver D. Doleski

Label: Fiduiter Media

Cover: Oliver D. Doleski

Übersetzung: Dr.-Ing. Monika Freunek

Druck und Distribution im Auftrag von Oliver D. Doleski: tredition Heinz-Beusen-Stieg 5, 22926 Ahrensburg, Germany

ISBN

Paperback

978-3-384-20691-6

e-Book

978-3-384-20692-3

Das Werk, einschließlich seiner Teile, ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Für die Inhalte ist der Autor verantwortlich. Jede Verwertung ist ohne seine Zustimmung unzulässig. Die Publikation und Verbreitung erfolgen im Auftrag des Autors, zu erreichen unter: Oliver D. Doleski, Finkenstraße 12b, 85521 Ottobrunn, Germany.

What this Book Provides You With

✓ Establishment of a basic understanding of Utility 4.0

✓ Specification of essential requirements of the digital transformation in the energy sector

✓ Overview of profitable fields of activity of digital energy service companies of tomorrow

✓ Proposal of an application-oriented method for the realization of business ideas

✓ Description of an intuitively understandable guide for the practical implementation of the transformation from being a utility to being a digital energy service company

Preface

The following text is explicitly based on the situation of energy supply companies in Germany. In practice, this approach also has significance and value for other countries and regions. Therefore, this book aims to contribute to a successful transformation of utilities into ‘Digital Energy Services Companies’ – referred to in this book as Utility 4.0.

This volume based on the German book “Utility 4.0 – Transformation vom Versorgungszum digitalen Energiedienstleistungsunternehmen” written by Oliver D. Doleski, published by Springer Vieweg in 2016. The following pages are a translation into English of the complete revised, fully updated and supplemented version of the German text. The original text had a particular focus on the German energy industry, but this has been replaced with a broader, international perspective for this publication. The other main change to the German text, has been the addition of new content covering relevant questions and factors in relation to business model development, using the Integrated Business Model iOcTen.

Contents

Cover

Halftitle

Title Page

Copyright

What This Book Provides You with

Preface

About the Author

1. The Year 2030: a Future without Energy Utilities

2. Sense of Urgency – Framework Conditions Accelerate Changes in the Energy Industry

3. Transformation – the Energy Industry is Changing Its Face

3.1 Suppliers Become Utility 4.0: Transformation from Being a Utility to a Digital Energy Service Provider

3.2 Objectives of the Transformation

3.3 Requirements for Utilities in the Energy System of the Future

3.4 New Self-Image as a Digital Energy Service Provider

4. Fields of Activity – Options for Profitable Growth

5. Business Model – Method for the Realization of Business Ideas for Utility 4.0

5.1 Business Model Concepts for the Realization of Digital Business Ideas

5.2 Practical Tool for Business Model Development – the Integrated Business Model iOcTen

6. Guide – the Path from Energy Supply Company to Digital Energy Service Company

7. Conclusion

References

Utility 4.0

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

1 The Year 2030: a Future without Energy Utilities

7 Conclusion

Utility 4.0

Cover

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About the Author

Oliver D. Doleski is a well-known editor throughout the energy industry. After studying economics at the University of Munich and various management positions in the public sector as well as in consulting and service companies, he worked successfully for many years as an independent management consultant active across different industries. Today, he is intensively involved in the topics of digital transformation, Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities, especially in the energy sector and the process industry.

His research focuses on business model development (Integrated Business Model iOcTen) and Digital Decarbonization of energy systems. With the neologism “Utility 4.0”, Oliver D. Doleski established already in 2016 a concise term for the transition from the analog to the digital energy industry. As a member of energy industry initiatives, he is actively shaping the transformation of the energy industry. As an editor and author, he contributes the expertise he has gained in corporate practice and research to numerous industrywide recognized publications and textbooks.

Abbreviations

AAL

ambient assisted living

AI

artificial intelligence

B2B

business-to-business

BM

business model

BNetzA

Bundesnetzagentur (German Federal Network Agency)

CFCs

chlorofluorocarbons

CH4

methane

CO

carbon monoxide

CO2

carbon dioxide

DNA

deoxyribonucleic acid

DR

demand response

DSM

demand side management

EEG

Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (German Renewable Energy Sources Act)

ESC

(digital) energy service company

ESU

energy service utility

EU

energy utility

GHG

greenhouse gas

GPS

Global Positioning System

ICT

information and communication technology

iOcTen

Integrated Business Model

IoE

Internet of Energy

IoT

Internet of Things

NOx

nitrogen oxide

VPP

virtual power plant

1 The Year 2030: A Future without Energy Utilities

May you live in interesting times! This well-known expression – also referred to as the Chinese curse – has also applied to the German energy industry in particular for some years now. After all, utilities are living through truly "interesting" times these days. The increasing decentralization of energy supply and the socially desired priority of renewable energies in Germany are increasingly jeopardizing the economic operation of conventional power plants. Thanks to liberalization, new companies from sectors that were originally distant from energy are entering the supply market. End-consumers become self-confident customers who are taking their electricity supply into their own hands and whose loyalty to "their supplier" is visibly waning. Initiatives to increase energy efficiency on the one hand and a shrinking population in the long term on the other, lead to a noticeable decrease in absolute demand for electricity and gas. While sales margins are eroding, the investments in infrastructure required in the course of the energy transition have to be financed at the same time. And last but not least, new technologies, the megatrend of digitalization, progressing interconnectedness and increased sales requirements are immensely increasing the complexity of the operating processes and systems of today's power supply companies.

The business model of reliably plannable, centralized power generation with subsequent distribution, which has been tried and tested for decades and is extremely stable, is coming under increasing pressure. In energy industry publications and discussion forums, the specter of a widespread die-off of utilities by the year 2030 is sometimes raised. For example, in his 2014 book "The Zero Marginal Cost Society", the US sociologist and futurologist Jeremy Rifkin, referring to developments in information and communication technology (ICT), even puts forward the provocative thesis that, in view of the enormous advances in productivity in all fields of technology, energy will even be available at cost price in the future.1 From the point of view of today's energy companies, regional suppliers and municipal utilities, this is a threatening vision of the future, since in an energy market structured in this way, any economic commitment would be obsolete according to today's understanding.

The good news for utilities is that the energy supply at zero marginal cost assumed by Rifkin is unlikely to become reality in its pure form. It is true that the cost price of renewable energies and decentralized energy generation will continue to fall compared to today. Nevertheless, a comprehensive, stable energy supply exclusively at fixed costs cannot be assumed in the foreseeable future. Of course, the sun does not write a bill and is available free of charge. A circumstance that could point to a trend towards zero marginal cost economics in the energy sector. However, a comprehensive infrastructure for the economic use of regenerative energy sources on a large scale will still be needed in the future. After all, sun and wind must be "captured", converted into the usable energy form of electricity, temporarily stored and transported via electricity grids. This incurs both fixed and variable costs as a result of the system. Also, not every commercial or household customer is in a position to produce energy decentrally themselves due to various restrictions such as shortage of space, protection of historical monuments or regulatory requirements. Accordingly, these consumers are dependent on the supply of electricity from more or less central supply facilities, the maintenance of which is regularly associated with expense. Furthermore, as long as renewable energies do not deliver their output steadily at all times, the energy sector must maintain and, not least, finance additional storage and parallel back-up systems based on conventional electricity generation. The maintenance of these backup systems gives rise not only to the costs of plant operation but also to variable costs for the procurement of fossil fuels, among other things. Against the backdrop of this exemplary list of energy generation costs, the conclusion from today's perspective is that a zero marginal cost energy economy is likely to remain a utopia beyond 2030.