Planet Tech- What can start ups bring to the monolithic world of utilities | Elena Bou on Net Zero - a podcast by Florence School of Regulation

In this episode, Elena Bou, Board Member and Innovation Director at Innoenergy, joins host Joana Freitas to discuss how startups are challenging the traditional world of utilities. The energy sector is going through a period of unprecedented opportunities for innovation and growth in lots of different areas, opening doors for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Elena Bou points out that, over the last years, batteries have become one of the most intense areas of activity for these newcomers. At the same time, start-ups have also been working on a wide range of topics, such as alternative ways of mobility and control of heat and cold using low-carbon solutions, which will directly impact citizens. However, as it was noted by Professor Henry Chesbrough, the father of the open innovation concept, “the future of the energy will require ecosystems of collaboration between start-ups and big energy corporates”. While in some cases, start-ups are helping utilities and energy companies to accelerate innovation and to solve specific problems, Elena Bou also notes that “many start-ups are working with utilities to explore new business models”. Utilities seem to be more open to innovation than in the past, but there are still some barriers to overcome. In Elena Bou’s perspective, the lack of new skills is one of those barriers as “these profiles, they don't want to go to work to these type of companies because they prefer to work with the start-ups”. So far, we have not seen attackers from the tech world posing a real challenge to the energy incumbents (perhaps with the exception of electricity retail), but Elena Bou already sees companies like Google and Cisco as potential competitors and feels “a huge pressure on incumbents, particularly in Europe”.

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