Ernst &Young Global Power & Utilities Center - Ernst & Young - Global

In a smart market, power and utilities companies face new competition, new ways of producing energy and new relationships with customers. Potentially, it’s a totally new business model. Do you have what it takes to win in a smart future? Find out what we learned from transformation in other industries.

The nuclear power industry is experiencing its biggest surge of interest and activity for 25 years. This report provides an overview of investment opportunities for utilities and the associated supply chain (pdf, 677.1kb), and assess the attractiveness of 21 countries that are either pursuing new nuclear development or need to replace their nuclear stations.

Our country attractiveness indices provide scores for national renewable energy markets, renewable energy infrastructures and their suitability for individual technologies. This issue sees the UK climb in the All renewables index to tie with Spain, on the back of marked improvements to the industry for renewable energy development. Find out what else is on the horizon (pdf, 504kb).

How do you manage through the recession and position your company for growth? Our power and utilities professionals and other sector leaders conducted over 1500 client meetings and identified some overarching themes. Proactive capital allocation, steps to accelerate decision-making and an increased focus on risk management could mean the difference between surviving and thriving.

The credit crisis is an unavoidable and underlying theme of Issue 6. The entire biofuels value chain has been hit globally with an alarmingly high number of biofuel producers halting production or, worse still, filing for protection from creditors. Brazil has maintained its position at the top of the index, with the US hanging on to its second place, despite a significant drop in its score. In Europe concerns over the sustainability of biofuels have resulted in some countries reducing mandates and tax incentives.

As part of its plan to produce 20% of overall energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020, the EU Renewables Directive has proposed national renewables targets for each of its Member States. Read in this paper about the renewables targets and the challenges (pdf, 599kb) they present, the impact on utilities’ strategy as well as Ernst & Young’s recommendations for the industry and policy-makers.

With the financial crisis having a worldwide impact, we are now facing a possible scenario of "stagflation" – high commodity costs and inflation, coupled with economic stagnation. Read in this paper (pdf, 285kb) how this will affect utilities, historically considered to be safe havens in times of trouble.

A major European utility’s proposal to sell its transmission grid surprised the industry and politicians alike. Could this development fundamentally change the competitive landscape of Europe’s utilities sector? “Unbundling: moving into the fast lane” (pdf, 1.4mb) discusses the status of the unbundling discussion in Europe, consequences for Europe’s energy policy and utilities markets and outlines the proposal and potential buyers and solutions.

• Discover more in our press release 
• Watch the archived webcast that took place on 3 June