Big Corporate can’t innovate. Big Corporate is the Status Quo. Big Corporate covers many industries, like Big Oil, Big Pharma and last I was introduced to Big Energy. But are they really what people say they are? Focussing on Big Energy and for lack of a proper framework, Small Energy. How does Blockchain tie it all together?
Big Energy
Big Energy is the traditional large energy companies. Be it network operators, utilities or power plants. They became big by centralising. Centralising their efforts to scale and improve efficiency over the old model where smaller facilities made up the system of various smaller grids. Big Energy is very reliable, the power is ‘always on’. In The Netherlands, one of the few things more reliable than power is oxygen in our air. Because of their reliability, Big Energy is risk-averse. Anything that can break the system is seen as a threat. It is because of that, that Big Energy is rather slow to change their way of working. How would you implement a disrupting innovation in a system that is so risk-averse?
"one of the few things more reliable than power is oxygen in our air"
Small Energy
On the opposite side, Small Energy. Or New Energy. Or Sustainable Energy. These or the new contenders, keen to disrupt the status quo and teach old dogs a few new tricks. Utilising mostly sustainable power over fossil, they are the opposite spectrum of centralised. The power sources are mostly decentralised while they try to achieve similar reliability. Due to their lack of legacy, they are more prone to adapt to change. The EV market was new territory for energy companies, car manufacturers and tech companies, there were no set ways on how to operate or do business. They only had to tie into the rest of the grid.
The Role of Innovation
Innovation has played a big role over the past few years. Initially, the new sources for generating power came up with solar and wind. Then came EV, which spurred an increase in battery production. Batteries which could later also be used in stationary grid applications. But while all these assets became decentralised, there was still a rather centralised component in the system: The IT Backbone and Administration. And this is where technologies such as Blockchain play a role. It allowed to decentralised the energy company in itself as well.
It would be possible to implement all these decentralised assets under a centralised ‘controller’. But by also decentralising the energy company, these developments take off! Now the system orchestrating the energy flows between all nodes and participants also becomes robust. When a part of that network goes down, it does not result in a complete system blackout.
It is here that I would argue that Blockchain in itself is not a disruptor for the energy industry on its own, but it acts as a catalyst enabling the transition.
Interested to see what is possible for your company and how to make innovaiton happen? Are you reluctant to implement these disruptive forces, in fear of breaking your reliability record? Let's talk.
