ScottMadden recently sponsored and presented at Edison Electric Institute’s (EEI) Strategic Issues Roundtable in Charleston, South Carolina. At this event, Stuart Pearman, partner and energy practice leader at ScottMadden, led a discussion on “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Distributed Resources,” examining the drivers and implications of business model changes due to distributed generation.

At the Roundtable, 40 leading energy utility strategists participated in a survey about changes to the energy utility business model due to distributed generation. As shown in the chart below, 95% believed that change would be either a major evolution or transformative and disruptive, with more than half opting for transformative and disruptive; however, more than two thirds do not believe the changes will take place until the next decade, 2020–2030.