Smart grid services A comparison between business models for smart grid pilots and suggestions made by the literature

Abstract

The large-scale deployment of distributed renewable energy and electronic vehicles will change the structure of the energy industry. Utilities need to reshape their present business model to successfully create and capture customer value. New business models are developed in pilot studies and the literature on smart grids has made suggestions regarding this topic. This thesis reports the findings of the characteristics of business models for smart grid pilot studies and compares these characteristics with suggestions made by the literature on business models and smart grids. An adapted version of the Business Model Canvas is applied to structure the analytical process. A multiple casestudy is performed to analyze the characteristics of business models for smart grid pilots. Subsequently, a cross-case analysis is performed to examine similarities and differences between cases. Data is then compared with suggestions made by the literature on smart grids and business models. Contradictory to the existing literature, most utilities do not differentiate value propositions in pilot studies. Instead they offer undifferentiated value propositions which may result in suboptimal value creation as customers have a heterogeneous value perception. In addition utilities segment their customers based on demographic and geographic characteristics instead of applying a segmentation based on their different value perceptions. Moreover, the strategic fit within the pilot consortia is suboptimal which may lead to less efficient business processes. Insights from this comparison can help utilities to develop more viable business models.