Innovating Business Models
Oliver Riedel is Managing Director, and Andre Richter is Principal, of innogy Consulting. Both have a long background of consulting industry in the U.S. and Europe. innogy consulting is among the leading global strategic management consultancies in the energy industry backed by forty thousand energy experts of the innogy group.
At the November EEI Financial Conference, PUF joined Oliver Riedel, Managing Director, and Andre Richter, Principal, of innogy Consulting to discuss the evolution of RWE into two distinct companies in Europe. They also discussed innogy Consulting’s work in helping U.S. utilities navigate changes in the American energy market.
We discussed their lessons learned from a long company history and substantial experience in global energy verticals, and how that experience can be applied to U.S. challenges.
PUF’s Steve Mitnick: Oliver and Andre, I know you have a very strong relationship with RWE. And that the company has recently split into two different organizations. Are they still a major German utility?
Oliver Riedel: RWE is still one of Europe’s biggest utilities, but is now more focused on conventional generation and wholesale electricity trading. Over the past several years RWE has changed dramatically. Amidst increased market pressure, changing customer needs and changes in society, RWE decided the old way of operating would no longer do. So, they made the decision to split up the company to make room for a new company — innogy. innogy is focusing on renewable generation, distribution, and retail. And it is the type of organization that is free to investigate and experiment with a lot of the new business models — for example, flat-rate energy alongside renewables.