As part of Rocky Mountain Institute’s Electricity Innovation Lab, RMI partnered with three leading utilities—Arizona Public Service (APS), Avista Utilities, and Con Edison—to explore best practices for utility innovation and the design, execution, and evaluation of utility pilot and demonstration projects.  RMI’s new report, Pathways for Innovation: The Role of Pilots and Demonstrations in Reinventing the Utility Business Model, provides recommendations for utilities, regulators, and DER providers, centered around five primary themes that emerged while investigating the state of utility demonstration programs in the U.S.:

1. Strategic planning: embrace a strategy for energy system transformation and craft a complementary roadmap for innovation.
2. Designing to scale: design pilots and demonstrations to maximize learning and prepare for full-scale deployment.
3. Organization: create leadership support and accountability, dedicated resources, and cross-functional collaboration within the utility for effective innovation.
4. Stakeholder engagement: collaborate effectively across industry stakeholder groups to design and execute meaningful projects.
5. Cross-utility collaboration: share best practices and lessons learned among utilities to accelerate effective innovation.

Creating a clean, flexible, resilient, and affordable energy system will require transformative change and innovation in the utility industry and evolution of the utility business model. Meaningful pilots and demonstration projects can be a critical part of this transformative path.

Source : https://www.rmi.org/insights/reports/pathwaysforinnovation/