Surviving the Energy Transition: Development of a Proposal for Evaluating Sustainable Business Models for Incumbents in Germany’s Electricity Market

Oliver Wagner, Thomas Adisorn, Lena Tholen and Dagmar Kiyar
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Oliver Wagner: Energy, Transport and Climate Policy Division, Wuppertal Institute, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany
Thomas Adisorn: Energy, Transport and Climate Policy Division, Wuppertal Institute, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany
Lena Tholen: Energy, Transport and Climate Policy Division, Wuppertal Institute, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany
Dagmar Kiyar: Energy, Transport and Climate Policy Division, Wuppertal Institute, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: In the light of Germany’s chosen path towards the energy transition, the regulatory framework has changed considerably. New players have succeeded in entering the market, and renewable energies have become increasingly competitive. Greater electrification of the transport and heating sectors will be needed in the future to achieve national climate targets. Against this background, Germany’s big energy companies need to be sure that their sales will increase. However, they were unable to anticipate this development, and made strategic mistakes in the past. The development of sustainable business models in line with the energy transition failed to materialize. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that companies must create new business models to survive in the long term. These business models have to keep with the tradition, whilst meeting the needs of low-carbon power supplies. In this paper, we will examine the past and future challenges of the four energy companies and develop a proposal for evaluating sustainable business models. For this purpose, we use the multi-level perspective to categorize developments in the electricity market over the last 50 years, and then apply a multi-criteria analysis to derive five suitable business models from the results.

Keywords: energy transition; energy market; energy companies; business models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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