At Haddock Research we have been following the business opportunities for mCHP (press release of Dec 17, 2008), and for more residential power to come from natural gas in the U.S. (blog article of Sep 10, 2009). But which retail energy companies could help distribute mCHP systems? In the Globe and Mail of Dec 31, 2009, there is an interesting interview of Chris Weston, chief executive officer of Direct Energy Marketing - and it made me wonder if Direct Energy Marketing might offer opportunities for such mCHP distribution in the parts of North America in which it operates.
Direct Energy Marketing is committed to tackling climate change, and could potentially choose to partner from a range of mCHP companies. Its UK parent company, Centrica, is currently working with (and a minority owner of) Ceres Power. Other companies include Acumentrics (with new President and CEO, Adam Briggs), newly-formed BDR Thermea and Ceramic Fuel Cells - although the latter companies seem mainly focused on Europe.
Yet, choosing a mCHP boiler system for Direct Energy Marketing would need to take account of specific characteristics of the North American market, which include:
1. Business related issues - both Canada and the US have a decentralised energy infrastructure where utilities are tend to be regulated at the state (USA) or provincial (Canada) level. These regulations (including prices) can vary a great deal from state-to-state, province-to-province. These utilities have developed from 'the ground up' in a rather patchwork fashion (which is making a federal-level Smart Grid quite a challenge!).
2. Gas infrastructure - Currently, the usage of gas by retail customers varies considerable around different parts of Canada / USA.
3. Technical issues - There would likely be a number of technical issues to address. My layman queries include - Would the mCHP boilers work with the forced air systems common in North America? - Could they work with the 120v electrical supply? Presumably, field tests would be required to test any mCHP systems within the North American market.
4. Consumer needs - There could be many ways that Americans and Canadians are different to Europeans in terms of what they expect of a home heating system. From our Environmental Choices data we can see that there is more demand for air-conditioning in North America than in England. 83% of Americans and 65% of Canadians agree that they 'would like to use air conditioning in summer' compared to just 20% of English people - see the chart on this blog for Canadian regional distribution. How suitable would mCHP boilers be for these energy needs? (Our geothermal forced air system in Montreal offers both winter heating and summer cooling.) Additionally, there seems to be a focus on off-grid, uniterruptible power in North America. And there are likely to be a wide number of other consumer issues.
All these differences might prove quite a challenge to Chris Weston, who has only recently arrived in North America from the UK. Yet, maybe he can draw inspiration from a fellow countryman, Samuel Insull, who helped mould the current U.S. utility system a century ago.
I should mention that this blog is based on publically-available information, and our own Environmental Choices public opinion study. I am just speculating on what Direct Energy Marketing might do.
