Electric companies may see the trends and possibilities towards energy self-sufficiency and consumption optimization as a threat to their traditional business model, but there are those who are looking further and are coming to understand energy as a service and not as sale of raw material. As reported by the New York Times, the major Dutch utility Eneco is starting to offer innovative services to help its customers make their consumption more efficient and transition to clean energy, thus providing greater added value and achieving greater loyalty.< /h3>

The company is implementing different services based on trial and error, and the most successful so far has been Toon, a monitor that allows users to control and optimize their natural gas and electricity consumption based on information through a device at home and a smartphone application. The service requires permanence and a monthly rent of €3.50 for the device, but it is offset by savings in consumption of 10% per year and the additional benefit of reducing the carbon footprint.

In the field of clean energy, Eneco has launched services such as Jedlix, which in collaboration with BMW and Tesla, allows electric vehicle drivers to recharge their cars at reduced prices – or even receive money for it – when there are peaks of renewable energy on the grid, or CrowdNett, which intends to sell large storage batteries to homes with solar panels and pay them 450 euros per year to access their surplus energy. Through the Toon device, the company can also monitor solar panels installed in homes and send staff to carry out repairs as soon as necessary.

Thus, the company’s vision of the future is that customers pay for a series of services and for greater flexibility in consumption instead of for a certain capacity of kilowatts of energy.