Approaches Utilities Can Take to Advance Innovation
CORPORATE STRATEGY
ARCHITECTURES
EMBED INNOVATION
INNOVATIVE CULTURE
Making innovation part of corporate strategy recognizes the importance of innovation to a utility's capacity to successfully adapt to the volume and velocity of change in the industry today.
Evolving energy system architectures are inevitable as the prioritization of decarbonization and customer centricity promote the growth of distributed energy resources (DERs) and grid-edge technologies. This necessitates innovative approaches to grid balancing, security, and ancillary services.
Embedding innovation throughout the business can start by standing up teams dedicated to innovation. But it's also important to ensure innovation professionals aren't siloed from the rest of the utility, but instead be strongly connected to the entire business. This helps identify new ideas that can be practically applied to improve utility operations and encourage the consistent sharing of innovation lessons across the organization.
Developing an innovation culture is more likely when innovation is deeply embedded within a utility. It can be supported even more by tying incentives to innovative thinking.