The Rise of Home Energy Management and Flexibility
The Key Topics in the New Energy World
As we navigate through 2023, Home Energy Management and Flexibility stand out as key topics. These innovative solutions not only facilitate the efficient integration of Renewables into the energy ecosystem, but they also provide immense value to various stakeholders, especially consumers. They represent the latest growth areas and a significant shift from one-time to recurring revenue business models. LCP Delta for example forecasts up to 25 Mio. HEM and optimization installations until 2030.
The Current State of the Industry
Looking at the general status of the New Energy World, it is overall in full growth stage. You might have realized this at the last Smarter E/ Intersolar in Munich. Looking at the three big trends in the energy ecosystem of “Decarbonization, Decentralization and Digitalization,” the one which is leading at the moment on consumer level and driving the energy transition is Decentralization.
Recurring Revenue and Its Challenges
Mainly driven by the build of hardware, led by solar, storage, charge points, heat pumps etc. It is an important step to build the infrastructure layer for later software and services offerings. Unfortunately selling hardware is mainly a one-time margin business.
The Need for Differentiation and Sustainable Business Models
Additionally the New Energy Industry is also reaching some saturation level with an increase in competition. The need for differentiation on solution level and the development for long-term sustainable business models increases.
The Right Market Set-up and Customer Benefits
On consumer side energy prices are higher than ever, leading consumers to search for ways on how to lower energy bills. Improving energy efficiency, leveraging solar for self-consumption, utilizing dynamic tariffs or implicitly participating in flexibility solutions can help to reduce or cover additional costs.
The Role of Home Energy Management and Flexibility Solutions
This is where Home Energy Management comes into the game. It allows to position hardware not only in the customers home but also to integrate and orchestrate the functioning of the integrated hardware to maximize efficiency and value.
The real new business models and growth can be seen then by adding aggregation and flexibility services. Provision of exciting offerings to customers as e.g. by Jedlix, Octopus, tiko Energy Solutions, Tibber etc. shows the possibility to drive sustainable revenue.
Stay Tuned for Insights
Having worked in this area for over 10 years, I have encountered numerous questions and topics that I will explore in-depth within my blog series.
Stay tuned to gain insights into Home Energy Management, Aggregation and Flexibility, and Consumer Engagement. Additionally, I will cover entrepreneurship and investment in Cleantech, along with providing exciting updates from around the globe.
