The great importance of digital transformation is clearly on the agenda of energy suppliers – both for the path to climate neutrality and for long-term economic success. This is shown by the study “Digital@EVU 2021”, which BDEW, VSE, Kearney and IMP³ROVE have published for the fifth time this year. More than 100 energy suppliers from all stages of the value chain and of all sizes took part in this year’s digitalisation check, which enables all participating companies to determine their position in detail and make individual suggestions for improvement.
The survey results show that utilities expect strong revenue growth averaging 10 percent per year for digital-based offerings. In particular, digital-based offerings in the area of distributed generation, automated electricity trading, smart city, e-mobility and energy management solutions for municipalities and industrial companies are seen as levers for growth.
The most important digital-based business segment overall is distributed generation, which already generates the highest revenue of all the categories examined. Average sales growth of 10 to 15 percent p.a. is expected in this area. E-mobility is also one of the strongest sales drivers, with the strongest growth of over 15 percent p.a. expected on average.
A high level of activity in the industry is seen in the area of digital customer centricity: 87 percent of companies expect new use cases here. Digital customer centricity encompasses various digital methods and tools that can be used to provide customers with even better service and more individualized offers in the future.
Cloud solutions are an important component. Around three quarters (77 per cent) of businesses said they were already using cloud services, with a further 17 per cent planning to use them in the next three years.
Kerstin Andreae, Chairwoman of the BDEW Executive Board, explains: “The energy industry masters major challenges in the implementation of the energy transition on a daily basis. The study shows that digital applications provide important and customer-oriented solutions here. In order to fully leverage the potential of these digital applications, there is also a need for political action. For example, legislators need to remove existing legal uncertainties when dealing with data and cloud solutions and more clearly delineate liability issues in order to accelerate the availability and use of data for innovative, climate-friendly solutions.”
“It is recognizable that companies, regardless of size or value chain level, have embraced the opportunities and challenges of digital transformation and have set out on the path to a digital future. Our study contains concrete case studies of international energy suppliers,” says Horst Dringenberg (Kearney).
“Digitalization is a key supporting factor for the path to climate neutrality – the digital networking of e-mobility offerings regionally, nationally and internationally is just one example. Partnerships are central to success.” Martin Ruppert (IMP³ROVE) adds.
“The results show that energy suppliers are increasingly using digital technologies in many places in order to offer customers even better service. Increasing decentralisation requires more digitalisation and the Corona pandemic has also led to additional momentum,” says Michael Frank (VSE).
The study Digital@EVU 2021 can be found under the following link:
https://www.bdew.de/service/publikationen/digitalevu-2021-energieversorger-setzen-auf-digitalbasierte-produkte/
