Podcast Spotlights How Utilities Can Improve Their Game Plan as the Playing Field Changes

For the sixth year in a row, Guidehouse and Public Utilities Fortnightly have collaborated on a special report to identify key changes in the electric utility industry and to provide the guidance organizations need to navigate a successful path forward. The 2021 State & Future of the Power Industry report examines what’s next for energy companies as they respond to the effects of the pandemic and climate change on utility business models and the global energy transformation.

In an interview for the Flux Capacitator podcast series, Guidehouse’s Environment, Sustainability, and Infrastructure experts Dan Hahn, partner, and Craig Sabine, director, talk to host Francis Bradley about the report and its key take-aways for the utilities industry.

“Typically, utilities are focused on playing really good defense,” Hahn said. “We’ve got to think longer-term and evaluate how to plan for multiple scenarios, whether it's a pandemic, a resiliency issue, or other disruptions in the energy sector.”

In the interview, Hahn and Sabine discuss climate change as the number one challenge facing the energy industry today, the shifting of load from industrial-commercial to residential, the disruption that renewable energy and DER are having on our current utility business models, remote work and the resulting suburban load increase, and demands around ESG social governance issues.

“Electricity really touches everything in economic life. And without it, we don't have the openness to grow, innovate, and change,” Sabine said. “It's a fundamental element from an economic point of view and an underpinning of a strong, growing, robust, and resilient economy.”