Antinuclear

Volker Beckers, the former head of British energy supply giant Npower who now chairs London-based Albion Community Power, said traditional large energy suppliers risk losing customers to the smaller, local outfits.

Community ventures typically take advantage of community support to push renewable energy projects through planning processes, while building a customer base that in some cases in Britain have reached into the hundreds of thousands, eroding the market share of larger utilities. A surge in community energy projects in Britain, where they now number as many as 5000, was creating “healthy competition” for the big six utilities, which were having to quickly respond with increased customer focus, he said.

“Community energy means business models have to become more customer centric,” Mr Beckers told Fairfax Media while in Melbourne to attend a conference. “In my view the big utilities which can respond and adapt as quickly as the small-scale renewable-energy companies can do will survive. Others will have to completely redefine their business model.”

Mr Beckers pointed to research carried out in Europe that found the “net promoter score”, a recognised method of gauging the loyalty and support of a firm’s customers, was typically 20-35 per cent higher for community energy companies than traditional utilities. Support from a local community can be 20-30 per cent higher for a wind farm that is being built by a local company, for example, rather than a more anonymous mainstream utility, because people believe that the benefit of having local generation will flow back to that community.

Mr Beckers said the ventures were “an example of the shared economy in the energy area”, where people were more supportive of a product where it gets generated. That leads to lower administration and operating costs, with savings flowing back to customers in the community.

“It’s a win-win for both sides, customers and companies alike,” he said.

Australia has an increasing number of community energy projects, put at 70 by non-profit organisation Embark Australia, which works to accelerate the uptake of community renewable energy. About 16 are already generating power……….. http://www.theage.com.au/business/energy/community-energy-projects-pose-challenge-for-mainstream-suppliers-20151007-gk3vq3.html#ixzz3oUuoUgeT