CUSTOMER EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY AND SHAPING MARKETS IN THE PRODUCTION OF ELECTRICITY

Abstract

A large number of energy companies in the world today a faced with global transformative trends which devastatingly affect their business results. Therefore, energy companies in the world were very slow in investing and adopting renewable energy sources and become significantly overcapacitated by coal and gas fired power plants which are now unprofitabile due to low marginal costs of renewables and their priority dispatching into a power system. Also increasing the share of renewable energy sources in the structure of electricity generation, the decline in primary energy prices (fossil fuels) the stagnation of consuption and the surplus of supply in relation to electricity demand caused a drop in wholesale electricity prices by half compared to 2008. Furthemore, the operation of coal fired power plants is burdened with carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, there has been a significant reduction in revenues, falling stock values andthe collapse of credit rating of many energy companies in the world. This article analyzes the implementation of the strategy of empowering customers and shaping markets that the E.ON Group has carried out as a „response“ to global transformative trends in the energy market environment by which the former company was divided into two less dynamic and more focused companies into a new or conventional energy world. This strengthens the competitiveness of all previous business activities due to stronger focus on the development of necessary skills and process. Furthemore, from on investor perspective it has been shown that the risk profiles associated with conventional energy production differ from those related to the „new“ energy world, ie the activities covered by the business portfolio of the E.ON Group, and the activities covered by the business portfolio of the Uniper Group attract different types of investors.