Jason Deign, Greentech Media
Summary
To adapt to new energy models, utilities should be encouraged to experiment and allowed to fail half the time, according to Dr. Franz Strempfl, managing director of the Austrian power company Energienetze Steiermark. Strempfl made the remark during a panel discussion at Electrify Europe, an industry event held this month in Vienna.
“You want me to ensure security of supply, have a huge amount of availability, invest a lot in the grid and make it cheaper as well?” he asked, summarizing the challenges faced by utilities as lawmakers push for decarbonization of the electricity system.
Energienetze Steiermark is having discussions around these topics with the Austrian regulator, which is pushing to make the system more efficient, he said.
But these efficiency gains demand investments in infrastructure, which conflict with the utility’s need to spend on innovation and take into account the needs of consumers who are increasingly becoming energy producers in their own right.
“We need incentives to invest, but we also need incentives to make innovation,” Strempfl said.
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