Innovation platform for EVU launched

Innovating together: 8 Swiss municipal utilities and 5 industry partners come together under the umbrella of "Swisspower Innovation" to further develop their business models and products in a cross-company and cross-industry innovation platform. The open and collaborative innovation management combines internal and external resources and connects the municipal utilities with industry and research partners.

Energy utilities are confronted with a rapid change in the industry: Digitalization, falling electricity prices, changing customer needs, liberalization steps of the energy market, transformation of the entire energy system. In order to remain competitive in the future, municipal utilities must adapt their business field activities. An important key to successful corporate development lies in innovation - in business models, products and services. Swisspower Stadtwerke has therefore decided to establish a cross-company and cross-sector innovation platform and to jointly develop future-proof services and products until they are ready for the market.

Eight municipal utilities are launching under the umbrella of "Swisspower Innovation": SH POWER (Schaffhausen), IBAarau AG, WWZ AG (Zug), StWZ Energie AG (Zofingen), Technische Betriebe Kreuzlingen, Energie Thun AG, Stadtwerke Wetzikon and SWL Energie AG (Lenzburg).

Together, the municipal utilities pursue the goal of increasing their innovation capability and speed through mutual exchange. To this end, they also obtain impetus and know-how from the market, from industrial partners and research centers. ABB, Siemens, IBM and Migros have agreed to be partners in Swisspower Innovation. A research collaboration with the Energy Center of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has also already been agreed. Other municipal utilities and research partners such as Empa are also interested.

Ronny Kaufmann, CEO of Swisspower AG, reiterates the common goal of the innovation platform: "By participating in the cross-company and cross-sector innovation platform, the municipal utilities are positioning themselves as a driving force for a future energy system."

Open Innovation

An open and collaborative innovation process provides space to jointly develop unexplored ideas. Through the collaboration of companies from different sectors as well as industry and science partners, in-house (knowledge) resources and external capabilities are combined. Overcoming corporate boundaries expands the scope for developing ideas and leads to the development of complementary know-how. An additional culture of employee participation strengthens interdisciplinary learning processes, promotes creativity and thus activates further untapped innovation potential.

Source: Swisspower AG