The future of energy efficiency services in a competitive environment
The competitive restructuring of the electric power industry raises fundamental strategic questions about how energy efficiency services can best be delivered. While some utilities believe that the ``commoditization`` of electric power will extinguish their role in providing efficiency services, others are committed to developing new ways of profitably delivering highly integrated service packages in a more competitive environment. In other industries that have undergone similar transitions, leading companies have prospered by developing new ``reintegration`` strategies to provide enhanced customer value. In the electric power sector, these strategies will bring to the fore finance and marketing skills, giving rise to far-reaching changes in the provision of energy services. Using market-based forward prices for electricity, power merchants may soon be able to ``monetize`` electricity savings and arbitrate against kilowatt-hour prices. Providers of efficiency services will be forced to develop new techniques for ``mass customization`` of service packages, incorporating features such as power quality management, innovative pricing, billing, and financial risk management. Technology integration will be a central task for these companies. As the transmission and distribution grid is permeated with real-time price information, the optimal technical solutions for the customer, including distributed generation, storage, and efficiency options, will become increasingly site-specific and time-dependent.
- OSTI ID:
- 55561
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: DN: Strategic issues paper 4; PBD: 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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