The Transformation And Digital Marketing Of Energy Companies

For energy companies, traditional marketing methods are pretty much dead. The rise of digital marketing has now taken a strong grip and has had a profound impact on all industries, including telephony and energy. In fact, nearly all of the recent electricity and gas marketers, as well as telephony companies like Gana Energia and Suop – just to name a few – are 100% digital. This is a field where traditional marketers are not willing to lose ground.

Compete and generate new business models in a digital environment

These market conditions encourage the more traditional energy companies to assume the need for a change process, question the way in which they are providing services to their customers and see in the transformation a great opportunity to deploy technology projects that attack the core of your business. Additionally, technological advances can provide a great opportunity to diversify the business model, such as the electric vehicle, where, in general, possibilities are being explored to exploit the use of this type of vehicle. They also have the opportunity to identify good service provision practices that are being deployed in other sectors such as banking, such as identification byselfie, advanced digital on boarding, etc. Therefore, on the table of all these companies is the following question: What digital initiatives and how should I deploy to achieve digital transformation?

Digital initiatives to launch digital transformation

To respond, it is essential to know what the different enabling technologies can contribute to the energy business.

• Advanced analytics: It is possible to improve the user experience thanks to the provision of digital platforms for an easy and understandable display of aggregated energy consumption data (monthly or bi-monthly), costs, data comparison (historical and peer-to-peer), which provides consumers useful benchmarks to adapt their behavior and additionally provision of efficient tailored advice to reduce energy use and cost.
• Artificial intelligence: Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms allow the efficient management of electrical grids designed for the provision of load services. Thus, for example, behavior patterns can be predicted on, for example, a Monday through Friday night in 2025, when millions of electric vehicle drivers come home and put their vehicles in charge. Smart algorithms can also be used to compress, analyze and monetize the huge swaths of data moving through the energy ecosystem.
• Blockchain: This technology that facilitates disintermediation can be applied to processes such as the collection of the energy bill, the purchase and sale of energy certificates or the way in which prosumers interact with the electricity grid. Thanks to its implementation, it is possible to know the detail of the energy data and its origin in a reliable way, to exchange energy in an optimal way or to promote measures to encourage the consumption and generation of renewable energies. Thus, blockchain will play a key role in energy certification and traceability processes, wholesale trading, information on events in distribution networks, management of consumption peaks and self-consumption management.
• 5G: This communications network 10 times more powerful than the 4G network allows better management of services / connections in real time, which for example makes it easier for energy companies to carry out predictive maintenance in real time of remote devices (wind generators, solar panels , thermal power plants, environmental probes, industrial machines, etc.).

These technologies play a key role in a world in which companies constantly seek technological solutions that help increase efficiency and reduce costs; while, on the other hand, consumers are more informed about where the energy comes from. Therefore, energy companies must maximize the value of their digital ecosystem by more involving their customers through mobile applications and social media platforms, as well as self-service portals and chatbots .

The evolution of mobility and transport systems will also force a change in the business model , since it is currently not possible to identify all the electrical consumption that a person has regardless of where they connect to the electricity grid and centralize them in a single meter or bill However, given the exposure of electric vehicles, it will be of great interest to the consumer to have a centralized bill regardless of the location of the charging points to which they have connected their vehicle.

Conclusion

Faced with this environment full of challenges and opportunities, energy companies need a dual strategy that focuses on the daily needs of today’s business, while innovating for the future by making the most of the opportunities that enabling technologies provide for their business.