Top-class panel at the "Power Days" in the Zurich Exhibition Centre
Every two years, the "Powertage" takes place at Messe Zürich: the forward-looking platform for the Swiss electricity industry. Numerous representatives from the energy sector came to Avectris to find out more about a topic that currently leaves no one unmoved: digitalization.
An introductory presentation made it vividly clear that this "4th Industrial Revolution" is bringing disruptive changes to the entire sector and moving consumers into the focus of value creation. Entirely new business models are emerging and utilities are increasingly becoming data-driven companies.
"IT from the socket", or cloud computing and the "Internet of Things" are the decisive technologies for this. Avectris already offers a range of ready-made solutions for utilities on this basis. At the following panel discussion, five top managers together with Dr. Thomas Wettstein, CEO Avectris AG, delved into the topic.
Podium for pioneers
Kurt Lüscher, CEO of Energie 360°, emphasized how important it is to rethink business models from the consumer's perspective in the future. The user experience is in the foreground. For example, an electromobility service that simplifies the use of charging stations via a smartphone app. In the future, it will no longer be important to own assets, but to operate them optimally.
Roger Baumer, CEO and co-owner of the Hälg Group, noted that control and optimization of building technology benefit from digitalization and enable significant energy optimization. It is also noteworthy that many residents do not want to control their apartments themselves, but prefer to leave this to a building professional such as Hälg or intelligent systems.
Coexistence
Markus Sägesser, Director of Stadtwerk Winterthur, emphasized that digitalization will by no means make the "material" world obsolete. Rather, it will coexist with the new "digital world". With the accompanying cultural change, change management is required above all. The two worlds are fundamentally different, for example in terms of their speed of change.
Christophe Bossel, member of the Group Executive Board at BKW, explained that integrated and digitised offerings are a great opportunity for utilities. For example, BKW offers photovoltaic systems, batteries and the associated monitoring from a single source: customers can order them online and BKW can process them efficiently using straight-through processing. Luca Bortolani from IKEA described how photovoltaic systems can be democratised for large sections of the population. This impressively demonstrates that new competitors will use their market penetration and customer access for innovative energy products.
Overall, the event provided a fascinating insight into the digital energy world of the future. It also made clear that the race for tomorrow's market position is already in full swing and that established utilities will have to respond with innovations and expand their existing value chain with digital, customer-focused products. Or to put it more casually: If you don't move with the times, you move with the times.
