Utilities aren't selling energy anymore, they’re in customer service': Kraken Global Director

In an Enlit exclusive, Lara Beers, Global Director of Business Development at Kraken Technologies highlights that utilities worldwide have access to the tools to advance the energy transition.

However, it is important to understand that no utility is the same. The customer has become central in utility decision-making, and it is becoming critical to integrate intelligent and flexible technologies to adapt to the constantly changing customer landscape.

What are the top three challenges to delivering the energy transition?

In my view, the first challenge is incumbent thinking. The energy industry has been slow to change, conservative and held back by legacy technology and outdated business models. This thinking serves neither the customer nor climate change goals. It’s time to embrace new technologies and the exciting opportunities it brings.

The second challenge is gaining customer trust. Energy is one of the most distrusted industries globally and for historically good reasons. To help balance a greener grid, customers will have to be persuaded to turn over the management and optimisation of their ‘assets’.

This includes the cars they drive (electric vehicles) and the smart tech in their homes, such as thermostats, heat pumps, home batteries and solar panels.

As an industry, we must encourage this shift by creating seamless digital experiences, develop new products and services, and offer excellent customer service.

Finally, we must work together. Most issues that companies face are shared across the industry. We need to move away from bespoke solutions for each client, market, and country.

Having a single global platform that addresses the common issues companies face means efforts can be shifted to the things that differentiate each business. More focus can be placed on providing value for customers and on initiatives that tackle climate change.

What single action will accelerate the deployment of clean energy?

Consumerism. Just like the telco industry when mobile devices like Blackberries – mainly used for businesses – were upended by the invention of the iPhone, driving massive widespread consumer adoption by using your phone for music, photos, games and more.

This is - and will - happen in energy with consumers and increasingly prosumers engaging like never before as they adopt EVs and electrify their homes... simultaneously decentralising the grid and moving to a demand-led system.

This will be a gamechanger for utilities and companies that can capture and ride that wave with customer experience at the heart. This also presents a huge risk to incumbents if they do not make the most of that current present advantage; invest now to avoid getting disintermediated by new market entrants. Utilities are not selling energy anymore - they are in customer service and that’s a big change.

We’ve seen our partners receive unprecedented results through the adoption of our tech. Take our partnership with Tokyo Gas, for instance. Within six months, they launched a time-of-use tariff for electricity customers.

This expanded nationwide integrating with ten transmission system operators, and completed a merger and acquisition of 20,000 customers including fully migrating them onto Kraken.

That’s the power of transformative tech: moving fast, reacting to industry needs, and having the right tools to innovate to bring the best products to the market. Now we’re migrating over 11 million customers from their legacy systems onto the Kraken platform in the next few years.

What most excites you about the European energy transition?

Europe has long been the leader in both acknowledging the climate crisis and taking action. Government subsidy support for the deployment of renewables has led to the buildout of significant volumes of solar and wind, which has helped decarbonise the generation mix for certain countries by up to 50 per cent. However, rapid growth in the electrification of heat and transport will fundamentally change the way we consume electricity.

The next phase of the energy transition requires the orchestration and optimisation of millions of consumer devices. Fortunately, the technology already exists to achieve this, we just need to start leveraging it.

Through these consumer devices, we’re able to unlock greater renewable potential and ultimately reduce the costs of decarbonisation. We are excited about using technology to benefit customers and accelerate the energy transition at scale.

How are your industry experts going to address these challenges at Enlit Europe in Paris?

We’re eager to showcase that Kraken is the most advanced operating system available to lead the energy transition and demonstrate how Kraken can challenge incumbent thinking to transform energy utilities.

Our team will be hosting keynote panels and sessions sharing case studies from our partners; their experiences after migrating and adopting our platform across the customer or their asset portfolio and how those two are increasingly integrated seamlessly for consumer flexibility at scale.

We have experts from our team who can walk you through our operating system and show you the latest Kraken products and functionalities Kraken has to offer.

As a relatively new player in the energy market, we are proud to be a major sponsor of Enlit Europe, which makes it especially exciting for us!

Our goal is to broaden the awareness of Kraken’s capabilities and what makes us different, how we are solving old problems with new approaches in tech development and methodology, and most importantly enabling the people who use and experience them.

Do you think Europe is at risk of losing its first-mover status in the energy transition?

We’ll see! I speak to utilities from all over the world and each market is on a different phase of their journey to net zero and decarbonisation. At the end of the day, the tools to advance the energy transition are available to everyone.

To date, Europe has been the leader but there are opportunities for every market to lead the race depending on how quickly they can adopt the changes necessary. Other countries and continents are starting to jump in, and if that makes Europe eager to transition that much faster, even better. 

I have been very impressed with what I see in Australia with the massive adoption of solar and other energy initiatives that are just emerging in other places.

Don’t count the US out. They have made major bets with the recent IRA funding and while they are behind on EV adoption and electrification of heat, they have an opportunity to catch up fast. The first-mover status is ripe for the taking, and I hope that the influx of competition ultimately hastens the energy transition overall.

Have you read:
Fossil fuel addiction – the biggest threat to energy transition says Octopus Energy CEO
COP26: Octopus Energy and Elia to partner on consumer flexibility

Kraken will take part in many exciting hub sessions at Enlit Europe in Paris, 28-30 November 2023, covering topics such as:

• Digital Trends and Strategies
• Market Design
• Future-proofing the Grid
• Heating and Cooling

You can join Kraken experts at booth 7.2.F70, where they will walk you through their operating system and the latest product offering that Kraken has to offer.