Deborah Soule

Policy-adaptation for a smarter and more sustainable EU electricity distribution industry: a foresight analysis

The European Union (EU) transition to a smarter and more sustainable electricity sector is driven by climate change adaptation and technological developments. For the electricity distribution industry, this has contributed to a growing need to understand how these network monopolies should adapt their role, activities, and responsibilities for a redesigned electricity market, given the growth of distributed generation, and the increased control and monitoring capabilities. Considering this, a foresight study on business model innovation, technological adaptation, and market design policy alternatives is presented. A Policy Delphi method was applied, involving two iterative survey rounds and 207 European experts, which assessed 57 policy alternatives. The results highlight adaptation challenges for implementing new technologies and business practices. Experts support innovation and transition to new roles, and innovative services, while warranting that core electricity distribution activities are secured. This shift in roles is expected to be achieved through research and development (R&D) support policies, innovation friendly regulatory frameworks, and concerted actions at the EU and Member States level. The results provide policy-adaptation guidelines for electricity distribution industry stakeholders.

Assessment of electricity distribution business model and market design alternatives: Evidence for policy design:

The transition toward smart electricity distribution grids is transforming the European electricity sector. This has contributed to increased attention by policy makers regarding the future role of electricity distribution system operators in a more flexible, digital, and renewables-based electricity system. A better understanding on how to support the adaptation of the electricity distribution industry can contribute to the introduction of an effective policy framework. Our research provides evidence for policy design by presenting the results of a Policy Delphi study focused on business model and market design adaptation alternatives. We highlight the importance of supporting innovation and a more proactive approach to adaptation from both distribution system operators and regulators. Our findings support the importance of electricity distribution for neutral market facilitation, contributing to market development and enabling new market players. The results obtained support policy makers working on electricity sector adaptation and can contribute to the ongoing market redesign efforts under the Energy Union.

Policies for an EU smarter grid environment: A Delphi study on DSOs

The transition of the European Union (EU) electricity sector toward a smart grid environment has led to uncertainty about the role of distribution system operators (DSOs). This uncertainty is due to the rapid emergence of new service possibilities enabled by new information and communication technologies for electricity management and new distributed energy resources. This research addresses the observed uncertainty through a foresight study in which policy alternatives were evaluated in terms of business model innovation, technological adaptation, and market design issues. For this purpose, 208 experts evaluated 57 policy alternatives, following a Policy Delphi method. The study results indicate the importance of adapting the current business model and the need to simultaneously develop regulatory frameworks that support innovation. The results point to a lack of consensus regarding the degree of technology development and R&D activity considered appropriate for DSOs.

Competitive Advantage in a Digital World: Toward an Information-Based View of the Firm

We develop an information-based perspective on organizational sources of competitive advantage, linking information quality theory to key tenets of strategic management. Competitive advantage resides in the capacity to sense and make sense of information, and to grow this capacity over time. We test the model through a global multi-industry dataset of 7501 respondents. We find that information and management processes can be considered strategic resources and capabilities with direct effects on performance. Furthermore, high-performing firms exhibit complementarities between information resources and capabilities that low performers do not, consistent with the concept of dynamic capabilities. Finally, we exploit a key design feature of the dataset to show that information resources are more important in domains high in explicit information content while capabilities are more important to domains higher in tacit information. This information-based view provides strategic guidance to organizations as they learn to address the ever-changing digital information reality.

Organizing for a Digital Future: Opportunities and Challenges

As the digital age unfolds, possibilities for designing, organizing and managing productive work are expected to look very different from today’s effective practices. More remains to be learned, however, about the digital organization of the future and how firms might, or even should, respond to digital developments. This report explores this issue through three questions: What is fundamentally changing because of digital? How is digital changing the opportunities and constraints of industries? How is digital changing the opportunities and constraints of organizational design? We argue that digital technologies fundamentally change human potential to access and act on a wealth of digital information. Focusing on the impact of digital technologies and digital data – rather than on the specific features of the tools themselves, we identify four interconnected, information-based capabilities underpinned by digital technologies: collection, connection, interpretation, and automation. Since the cost of acquiring or developing these capabilities is also declining, digital technologies are democratizing the potential to access information and act on it in economically and socially significant ways. As a result, competitive dynamics are rapidly changing in all kinds of industries – even those that seem removed from the effects of digital technologies! At the same time, the possibilities and challenges for organizing internally are evolving. These dual effects both enable and impel organizational leaders to rethink fundamental decisions concerning where they choose to operate in the value ecosystem (strategic choices) and how they design their internal organization (organization choices).In a digital future, all firms will confront new challenges to how they generate economic value. Firms that understand and establish strong digital capabilities will gain superior flexibility to choose where and how they play in their value networks.