Quick Take:  Both utilities and the companies that sell to them will be encouraged by the results of the survey described below. Utilities can take comfort that most of their peers are gearing up to grapple with the changes ahead. Vendors can be glad that they say the solutions will come from new technology. – Jesse Berst

A survey of 200 energy leaders just conducted by DNV GL reveals that most utilities understand where the future is headed. They largely believe their biggest challenge will come from distributed energy resources, including distributed generation (DG) and distributed storage.

Here’s the good news: The majority of respondents are preparing to make the necessary changes. In particular, they are investigating new technologies that can mitigate the challenges.

The 2nd biggest challenge

The second biggest challenge? The lack of clarity in national energy and environmental policies. “We’re seeing a significant shift in the power sector today,” explained DNV GL’s Hugo van Nispen, Executive Vice President, Global Energy Advisory.

Those changes are driven in part by changes in policy around clean energy. “This shift will have significant implications for how we produce and deliver power in years to come, and will most likely disrupt existing business models,” said van Nispen.

According to the report, the key policy issues are:

• Net metering and DG interconnection
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) and emissions control
• The evolution of competitive retail markets.

Download the full survey (registration required)

Jesse Berst is the founder and Chief Analyst of SGN and Chairman of the Smart Cities Council, an industry coalition.