Valuable Hints for U.S. Energy Landscape
Francesco Venturini is the CEO of Enel X. Enel X is part of Enel Group, which is one of the largest energy companies in the world, serving more than seventy-two million customers in more than thirty countries. Named one of Fortune Magazine’s “50 Companies that are Changing the World” again in 2018, Enel is a global leader in sustainability and makes significant investments in researching and developing next-generation energy technology. Enel X has deployed new energy services, having in North America more than thirty-six hundred business customers, spanning more than ten thousand sites, representing more than 3.8 gigawatts of demand response capacity, over twenty behind-the-meter storage projects and more than thirty thousand electric vehicle charging stations across North America.
The new normal in the European energy market is made by persisting economic volatility, excess capacity, falling demand, and pressure on profits. Energy systems are becoming cleaner and increasingly decentralized, with energy generated, stored and distributed closer to the final customers. Consumer expectations are changing too, with decentralization of value, and need for increased distributed energy resource integration. Digitalization allows customers and electricity system operators to control where, when and how electricity is being used, with new business models emerging. Finally, new and more energy uses are going to be electrified with mobility being one of the critical ones.
Utilities are in the midst of this transformation and depending on the level they embrace the pace of this change, the issues the power industry are facing today can become either threats or opportunities.
If we take a closer look to what's happening in Europe, the competitive landscape has already changed, and the market has made first "casualties," while pressure on existing utilities has risen. This brings the first lessons learned from Europe: the power market is no longer the calm, regulated and long-term investment business which we were used to just a decade ago or less.