
The future of electric utilities – change and disruption ahead
The utilities industry has typically been change averse, and often for good reasons, but with the technological advances of the past few years, the low carbon imperative, and pressure from customers, utilities are going to have to figure out how to disrupt their business, or they will themselves be disrupted. I gave the opening keynote […]

IBM’s InterConnect 2015, the good and the not so good
IBM invited me to attend their Cloud and Mobile Conference InterConnect 2015 last week. Because of what IBM has done globally to help people get access to safe water, to help with solar forecasting, and to help deliver better outcomes in healthcare, for example, I tend to have a very positive attitude towards IBM. So […]

The coming together of the Internet of Things and Smart Grids
I was asked to speak at the recent SAP TechEd && d-code (yes, two ampersands, that’s the branding, not a typo) on the topic of the Internet of Things and Energy. This is a curious space, because, while the Internet of Things is all the rage now in the consumer space, the New Black, as […]

GE publishes Grid Resiliency survey
GE’s Digital Energy business produced this infographic recently, based on the results of its Grid Resiliency Survey measuring the U.S. public’s current perception of the power grid. The survey was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of GE from May 02-06, 2014 among 2,049 adults ages 18 and older and from June 3-5, 2014 among […]

Customer service, in-memory computing, and cloud? The utility industry is changing.
I attended this year’s North American SAP for Utilities event and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the things I found there. The utilities industry (electricity, gas, and water) are regulated industries which can’t go down (or at least, shouldn’t go down). Because of this, the industry is very slow to change (the old […]

Utilities should open up API’s to their smart meter data
The world of utilities is changing with the roll out of smart meters. One of the biggest changes will be the wealth of data that utility companies will suddenly be flooded with. As we noted in a previous post on GreenMonk, Centrica has: 18 million residential accounts and one million business accounts. Right now they […]

Social media and utility companies
I’m moderating a panel discussion on social media and utilities at next week’s SAP for Utilities event in Copenhagen. My fellow panelists will include two representatives from utility companies, and one from SAP. This is not new ground for me, I have given the closing keynotes at the SAP for Utilities in San Antonio in […]

Friday Green Numbers round-up for Feb 4th 2011
And here is a round-up of this week’s Green numbers… Europe’s Energy Member States of the European Union have agreed on targets aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by cutting energy consumption by 20% and increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix to 20% by 2020. The ‘Europe’s Energy’ project gives users a […]

No, energy is not too cheap!
Is energy too cheap to motivate consumers to change their habits and use less?

Utilities developing more of a customer focus
I attended the SAP for Utilities conference earlier this week in Huntington Beach and I have to say I am impressed by the progress American utility companies are making towards being more customer centric! The event was titled Sustainability for the New Energy Era and there was a full track dedicated to Smart Grids (obviously […]