Dive Summary:
- Greentech Media examines the Edison Electric Institute's report identifying the top disrupters that may cause utilities “irreparable damages to revenues and growth prospects.”
- Slipping costs of distributed generation, increased use of demand-side management technologies, spending to upgrade the grid, and slow economics make up the list culprits most constraining private-owned utilities.
- A cycle of decreased customer demand and growing capital deployment will ultimately lead to a “wholesale reevaluation” of the entire sector.
From the article:
"While all of these challenges to the traditional private-sector utility model are indeed disruptive, it's instructive that they're also for the good of the environment, and for our communities. Nobody ever said that energy transition was going to be easy, or that there wouldn't be losers as well as winners. Some utilities will navigate the transformation successfully, while others will fight it tooth and nail until they die. It may make sense for some of them to convert to public entities..."