Utility 2030 Blog
How utilities speak to customers about the impact of renewable energy will determine whether this change is viewed positively or negatively. Going green undoubtedly comes at a cost. Projections for infrastructure updates could add anywhere from $20 to $58 to monthly bills for residential and business customers. Effectively communicating rate increases to customers will be essential to get right.
By definition, ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid (Oxford Languages). Many businesses, including utility companies, have been victimized by ransomware. In fact, 2020 saw the largest increase in global ransomware attacks to date. Specifically, Purplesec.us published the estimated cost of ransomware attacks at:
Blake Morgan, a writer for Forbes, says customer-centricity is one of the biggest, competitive advantages a company can have. “Instead of competing on price, more than two-thirds of companies now compete mostly on the base of customer experience,” she wrote in the article, “The 10 Most Customer-Obsessed Companies Of 2019.”
The past election was a close race between president, Donald Trump and his contender, Joe Biden. Red vs. Blue, Us vs. Them. But in the end, Biden won the election. With the change in president, there is a natural resistance to new thinking. However, that resistance shouldn’t carry over to advancing our clean energy goals at the federal level. Regardless of political party, clean energy is our future.
Until recently, the traditional regulated #utility model for simultaneously collecting #revenue and keeping customers happy had been steady since the birth of the #grid. At the most basic level, a utility customer would use a particular amount of a commodity—#electricity, #gas, #water, and/or #wastewater services, receive a monthly bill based on usage and submit a payment. As long as the bill was correct, call center agents were available when it wasn’t, and service was uninterrupted, utilities didn’t have to fret over revenue or customers.
What would our lives be like without water, gas, and electricity? With an unrelenting focus on safety and reliability, utility companies have made life without these core services almost impossible to imagine.
But what would life be like without the internet? Today, more 4.8 billion people use the internet. Just how pervasive has it become and what would life without it be like? Have we reached the point where the internet has become the fourth utility?