Utilities globally face new challenges far more complex than just traditional operations. Major shifts in consumption, technology, regulation and customer expectations are underway. Today's electricity customers are far more attuned to how energy is generated, distributed and used, and they increasingly demand that utilities address climate and sustainability issues. Utilities must balance these growing stakeholder concerns-and an emerging relationship between customers and distribution-with priorities around investor returns, new business models, increasing regulatory pressure, and the integration of renewables and storage as well as the ongoing need for a reliable and secure power supply.

The New Utility Challenges
Traditionally, utilities have primarily focused on keeping the lights on rather than customer engagement. However, the customer has moved to a role of greater importance across utility operations with the arrival of these new challenges in a rapidly evolving energy marketplace:
- "Awakening" customers and stakeholders: As customers demand better engagement across operations, utilities must adopt a customer-centric model to meet the high standards required of today's consumer-facing businesses.
- Regulatory, sustainability and climate concerns: Regulatory pressure continues to mount around climate issues while customers concerned about the environmental impacts of energy production seek cleaner energy sources.
- New interrelationships across the grid: Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and new grid edge technologies are fundamentally transforming how energy is generated, distributed and used.
- Design and use of enabling technologies: Utilities seek improved software systems to break down internal silos and develop comprehensive insights that boost efficiency, sharpen decision-making and improve engagement with customers and stakeholders.

From Customer to Control Room