Dive Brief:

• The energy as a service market for commercial and industrial (C&I) customers is expected to reach $221.1 billion by 2026, according to a new report from Navigant Research.

• The report focuses primarily on large Fortune 500 equivalent C&I customers and analyzes market issues, including drivers, barriers, and regional and global trends associated with energy as a service products and deployment models.

• The report defines the energy as a service market as including third-party vendors, utility services companies, and vendors deploying niche technical, financing, or procurement solutions such as solar PV power purchase agreements, energy services performance contracts, and deregulated electricity market retail brokerage services.

Dive Insight:

Several trends are coming together to push the growth of energy as a service. Corporations are increasingly looking for sustainable or green sources of energy. In addition, smaller businesses are looking for ways to cut their electric bills using new technologies that can reduce demand and make their electric usage more interactive and responsive.

The Energy Information Administration expects C&I demand to rise, and that is creating opportunities for companies able to provide solutions for customers facing an increasingly complicated and competitive energy marketplace.

“The rise of distributed energy resources and utility business model disruption is giving utility customers new choices in how they reduce their energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, energy spend, and risk,” William Tokash, senior research analyst with Navigant Research, said in a statement.

In its new report, Navigant looks at the opportunities in the C&I energy as a service market, including energy portfolio advisory services; onsite energy supply solutions such as distributed generation; energy efficiency services such as for large buildings, and load management services that can combine distributed resources and demand response into a single package.