You hear it from nearly all utility executives today: The energy industry is pivoting away from the outdated transactional model toward a more customer-centric future. This transformational shift has manifested itself in many ways across the country. Utilities are restructuring their organizations, implementing new consumer-facing software and improving methods of engaging with their local communities – all with the end goal of better meeting consumers’ evolving needs and wants.

An Xcel Energy resource solicitation received more than 400 individual proposals, the utility reported last month, including what may be record-low prices for renewable energy paired with energy storage. The median price bid for wind-plus-storage projects in Xcel's all-source solicitation was $21/MWh, GTM Research's Shayle Kann noted on Twitter.

PG&E has unveiled a new electric TOU rate that it says will make energy use more efficient, minimize peak demand challenges and give customers more rate options. Starting in April, about 150,000 residential PG&E electric customers will move into the new rate, although they have the option to choose another plan. The peak pricing will be from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day with the off-peak or lowest price in place during the other 19 hours.

Nest Labs have announced a new initiative with the goal of helping to tackle the issue of energy poverty. The company aims to install one million Nest Thermostats through income-qualified programs in low- and moderate-income households in North America. ACEEE reports that low-income families living in major metropolitan areas experience a median energy burden of 7.2 percent, compared to 2.3 percent of higher-income households in those areas.

The U.S. has more than 700 MW of installed utility-scale battery capacity, accounting for roughly 0.06% of U.S. utility-scale generating capacity, according to new estimates from the U.S. EIA. But the bulk of that capacity has been installed within the last three years; and as costs decline, more utilities are turning to storage as a viable option.

For a start, smart energy and smart cities are having a more significant profile than previously with presentations, discussions and demonstrations led by the likes of Deloitte and Itron. According to the CTA, which runs the CES events, smart cities are “one of the most important topics at the intersection of technology and society”. In a recent study, the CTA found that smart cities could be “safer and more accessible” and have “immense benefits on the city’s economy”.