| | JULY 20188Keys to building a successful innovation program within the Utility Industry"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas A. EdisonI find it fascinating that the industry created by Edison, one of the most prolific and successful inventors, finds itself vulnerable to disruption. Utilities now find themselves competing with very significant, savvy, and aggressive challengers who are willing to experiment --wildly. The century-old first mover advantage is now being eroded by direct free market competition. Currently, these competitors are entering the energy markets using point solution technologies, such as solar generation and energy storage. The utility business model focus on regulatory compliance is enabling a competitive advantage to these emerging technologies, which can quickly evolve into integrated microgrid and grid-edge integration offerings. "Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless." - Thomas A. EdisonFor example, when I lead a team tasked to develop an energy monitoring solution, the goal was to leverage the smart meter technology being deployed with mobile devices to understand behavioral energy savings. Our interest peaked when reviewing several reputable projects and studies, that indicated customers had materially saved energy by monitoring their usage. This single sided business model was very promising, however, what customers wanted was much more than energy monitoring. What they wanted was a trusted advisor, the utility, to provide a solution that enabled safety, security, comfort and convenience which rationalized the technology investment with energy savings. The breakthrough was not energy savings or monitored security, but the ability to reduce the chaos of operating a home through optimized systems connected to the smart grid. The living example of this is the connected thermostat. Customers are adopting this technology with the promise to live By Joel Miller, Principal Supervisor, Energy Management Tools - DTE Insight, DTE EnergyIN MY OPINION
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