Digitisation in the Electricity Industry Proceeds at Too Slow a Pace

The digital revolution is gradually encroaching on all economic sectors, including the electricity industry. The "Act on the Digitisation of the Energy Transition" shows just how high this development ranks on the German political agenda. The digitisation process in the German and French electricity industry is, however, still too slow-paced. This is one of the key findings of the ZEW Energy Market Barometer, a survey among approximately 200 energy market experts conducted biannually by the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW).

In this current study, ZEW and the Grenoble École de Management (GEM) surveyed experts with special regard to the progress of digitisation in the German and French electricity industry. Within the framework of the GEM Energy Market Barometer, the GEM surveyed approximately 80 French energy market experts.

According to the findings, experts from both countries consider the pace of the digitisation to be too slow. In total, 40 per cent of the German energy market experts claimed that the speed of digitisation in Germany is adequate. 41 per cent of the respondents consider the pace at which digitisation proceeds to be too slow, and six per cent stated that the progress of digitisation is much too slow. The results of the French survey were even more clear-cut: The absolute majority of the participants from France stated that the digitisation is proceeding at too slow a pace. Merely 33 per cent of the French survey participants consider the speed of digitisation to be adequate.

When asked about the German electricity industry, a relative majority of the German experts perceive the level of digitisation in Germany to be average in comparison to other West European countries. Nevertheless, experts consider the speed of the progress to be too slow.

The ZEW Energy Market Barometer

The ZEW Energy Market Barometer is a biannual survey conducted amongst some 200 experts from academia and the private sector (including energy supply, trading, and service providers). Participants are surveyed in regard to their expectations concerning short- (six-month horizon) and medium-term (five-year horizon) developments in national and international energy markets and prices. A summary of the full results from the latest survey (survey period: May 2016, approximately 180 responses) is published in the German edition of the ZEWnews. Upon request, we are happy to send you this summary in advance. Please submit your request to the ZEW press office.

For more information please contact:

Philipp Massier, Phone +49 (0)621/1235-332, E-mail massier@zew.de