Energy for Society Chair
The objective of the Energy for Society chair is to study the impact of new energy services reconciling business attractiveness and acceptability of new energy services by citizens
As the energy sector experiences an unprecedented period of change, any decision or orientation in relation with energy policies and choices is subject to a large number of uncertainties. But the energy transition offers a unique opportunity to act differently.
How will companies elaborate new strategies in relation to these evolutions? How will they convince consumers to adopt virtuous behaviors? How will companies attract support to the energy transition?
The Energy for Society Chair proposes analyses and solutions based on research in these fields and articulates three complementary working areas.
Working areas
- Understanding how companies cooperate to create innovative energy services
Companies rely heavily on innovation to stay alive in the long run. This innovation requires more and more technological complexity and complementary assets and must cope with new customer expectations. Execution speed is essential as well. Digitization, flexibility, the development of new energy sources, etc. allow companies to invent innovative services. But these services may require new knowledge and expertise. Partnerships may be an answer for both the need for speed and the change of internal paradigms. Our mission here is to understand how a group of companies can successfully co-create new energy services.
- Understanding corporate strategies in relation to sustainable innovation
Companies combine more and more economical targets with environmental and societal targets. This results in the launch of sustainable products or value chains that should not only generate economical advantages but also societal and environmental ones. Companies opting for this kind of strategy should pull out more benefits than those who don’t care, especially because of the support from consumers for these new promises.
- Understanding the implication of the “as a service” trend on future business models in the energy sector
More and more citizens – in particular younger ones – show some preference for the “pay-per-use” model. Transferring this trend to energy equipment or to smart energy management systems, some households could prefer to rent rather than to own their devices or heating systems. Among other things, they would benefit from some flexibility and from technical improvements. Energy providers, as well as energy equipment manufacturers or financial entities, who are essential to the implementation of such business models, could be particularly interested. A growing part of future electricity generation technologies should offer (almost) zero marginal costs, which raises a challenge for traditional pricing systems in a liberalized market. Potentially collaborating with technology providers, energy suppliers could offer a new set of energy services, including renting (or leasing) energy equipment.
Partners
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Coordinator
Prof. Carine Sebi
Team
Prof. Joachim Schleich
Prof. Jojo Jacob
Prof. Anne-Lorène Vernay
Prof. Marie-Charlotte Guetlein
Prof. Jamil Jaballah
With the Energy Management research team
Publications
News
Energy communities: a real or imagined revolution?
24 May 2019
Energy cooperatives are making headway as new business models for the energy transition. Despite the promise of these citizen initiatives, their future growth and success is still up for grabs.
How can we explain the increase in coal consumption in this context of climate change?
14 May 2019
Published in December 2018, the recent report of the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that global coal consumption is on the rise again (+1% compared to 2017).
This is an alarming trend, because despite increasing international awareness of the risks of global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions, some major economies are unable to substitute their coal-based electricity with less carbon-intensive energies. Indeed, coal is mainly used for electricity production, with two-thirds of world consumption going to electricity production; this proportion rises to three-quarters if China and India, which traditionally have more widespread uses, are excluded; the rest of consumption goes to industry (mainly steel).
Coal remains the most polluting source of energy: it generally emits twice as much CO₂ as natural gas, its main competitor.
How can we explain the increase in coal consumption in this context of climate change? We will rely on the various databases issued by energy consulting company Enerdata to decipher the major global trends.
Which future of blockchain ? What experts explain to us in the energy sector today
07 May 2019
Blockchain technology is a decentralised digital ledger that keeps public but encrypted records of peer-to-peer transactions. All members of a blockchain network can verify whether a transaction occurred or not, rendering clearinghouses or other intermediaries obsolete. The technology originally served as the backbone of bitcoin, the well-known crypto-currency, and later made its way to other industries. In France, blockchain represents a vibrant industry as the nation trailblazes the way for the technology in the hope of becoming a blockchain hub in the European Union. The French minister of finance, Bruno Le Maire, believes that:
“The blockchain will offer new opportunities to our startups, for example, with initial coin offerings that will allow them to raise funds through tokens.”
Energy market barometer report - Winter 2018
31 January 2019
The Winter 2018 edition of the Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) Energy Market Barometer explores the opinion of the French energy experts on the role of blockchain technology for the French energy sector. The experts were also asked about their perception of the investment climate in key energy technologies.