On 6 November Capgemini published the twentieth edition of its annual study, the ‘World Energy Markets Observatory’ report, created in partnership with De Pardieu Brocas Maffei and Vaasa ETT. The study underlines China’s role as a leading worldwide player in technology, equipment and utilities ownership, and highlights that global economic growth has increased energy demand. It also leaves long-term climate change targets in question. This is despite a year that saw both fast-rising European carbon prices and falling renewable energy costs. Meanwhile, fossil fuel price increases have led to price rebounds in wholesale electricity and gas markets, notably in Europe.
In turn, utilities are showing improved financial health, and the overall landscape is changing. They are adapting their business models with new technologies such as IoT, AI, chatbots, and blockchain as competition from new players emerges. All segments of the value chain are impacted by digital transformation, from client relationships and operational processes, through to grids and interactive services.
The four main findings of the 2018 edition of the ‘World Energy Markets Observatory’ report are:
• China, the world’s second largest consumer of energy, leading emitter of greenhouse gases, significant energy equipment supplier, and key player in critical resources, has also become a dominant investor in energy companies
• Economic growth puts into question climate change objectives, notably Paris 2015 Climate Accord targets, but has in turn driven electricity and gas wholesale market price rebounds, improving utilities’ financial health
• Renewable energy and storage prices continued to decrease, but technology limitations and the cost of development means full renewable generation is far off for the majority of countries
• The utilities landscape continues to evolve along with the renewed financial health of industry players, while new challenges emerge.
The World Energy Markets Observatory is an annual publication by Capgemini that monitors the main indicators of the electricity and gas markets in Europe, North America, Australia and South-East Asia, and reports on the developments and transformations in these sectors. This 20th edition, which is drafted mainly from public data combined with Capgemini’s experience in the energy sector, refers to data from 2017 and winter 2017/2018.
A full copy of the report can be downloaded from <www.capgemini.com/wemo>
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