How utilities are finding new revenue streams to combat stagnant load growth
In the restaurant industry, bread pudding is money. Cooks take yesterday’s bread, stale and headed for the trash, add sugar and cream and eggs, and turn it into profit. Electric utilities facing declining load and revenues could learn a thing or two – they have powerful infrastructure and knowledge bases which often go underutilized and could be monetized.
As long as utilities were making money, a little wasted bread wasn’t such a bad thing. But with load growth stagnant and more customers generating some or all of their own power, that luxury may be gone. New research from Greentech Media finds utilities could not only reverse declines but also create significant new revenue streams by using what resources they already possess to make money in new ways.
“Utilities are going about thinking more creatively in terms of how to shore up a world of stagnating and potentially declining revenues,” said Steve Propper, grid edge director at GTM.
