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Ode to Power Plants


What it must be like to be a utility in 2017.  Please do not let your angst toward utilities prevent you from reading this narrative, the business conditions which utilities are facing creates an opportunity for all service organizations. Amidst the significant change we are seeing in alternative energy, distributed energy resources (DER), and virtual power plants, a fundamental action remains on base load management and optimization.  While the utilities are trying to determine how to best pivot after years of monopolies and significant asset investments, service companies should be doubling down on ECM efforts.  Those of us already familiar with performing service in commercial and industrial markets will be in a good position when the time is right for us to enter into the emerging DER service vertical.  Storage technologies, and as important the inter-connecting control systems, are changing rapidly, providing fantastic innovation and ultimately reducing costs.  When you think about alternative energy and storage solutions as solar only, you may be looking at it through the wrong set of lenses.



The market exists today for new opportunities, the clients and the conditions have to be just perfect in order for it to make financial sense. However, I don't believe that is our only play as service organizations. Deferring or avoiding transmission and distribution costs for the utility can be very attractive when partnering with utility grade solution providers. While many energy storage solutions are prepackaged, finding and executing installation, startup and service across multiple regions by an engineering firm or manufacturer will be a tall order. Instead we have the chance to leverage our service capabilities to influence the "shifting", "shaping", and "shimmying" of the workload to be executed by becoming trusted service providers to DER solution partners.



The new frontier of distributed energy will not be dominated by one organization, instead it will be made up of a fabric of technologies, products and resources. Traditional mechanical and electrical service companies are perfectly poised and have decades of experience with energy related devices. Putting these talents to work now will initiate and fortify relationships which will be leveraged as the market approaches its tipping point.



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Next post:  in the "people" business can you really measure performance?

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