Constellation: Retail Energy Suppliers Must Innovate to Meet Changing Customer Expectations

With dramatic changes taking place in energy markets, retail energy suppliers must drive new technology and innovation to develop new lines of business that can better meet evolving customer needs, Constellation said today.

In a keynote address at the 26th Retail Energy Executive Forum, Constellation CEO Joseph Nigro said that companies need to identify new technologies and opportunities that are about to emerge and capitalize on them, rather than reacting to them.

“The old way of doing business won’t work in this new environment,” Nigro said. “By embracing and leveraging technology, our industry can effectively improve reliability, transition to clean energy, and lay the groundwork for a truly modern, integrated grid, with a renewed focus on our customers.”

New opportunities to deliver customer value include distributed generation and smart technologies, Nigro said. He noted Constellation’s commitment to expanding its distributed energy customer offerings, including solar, battery storage, combined heat and power, fuel cells, and more. In addition, smart meters, smart thermostats and smart appliances are changing the way Constellation’s customers think about and use energy.

“All of us will continue to advocate for competitive markets and the benefits of energy choice for consumers,” Nigro said. “Yet at the same time, Constellation also is finding ways to create and enhance customer value in addition to competitive retail sales, such as distributed generation, energy efficiency solutions, compressed natural gas stations, and home services.”

Nigro also noted that Constellation is looking at new developments in the energy sector through its Constellation Technology Ventures group, which invests in growth-stage energy technology companies that can provide new solutions to Constellation and its customers.

“In the past, the energy industry often looked at new technologies as ‘disruptive.’ But to embrace innovation, we must look at these technologies as ‘enabling,’” Nigro said. “Our goal is to work with emerging businesses, not against them.”

Constellation is a leading competitive retail supplier of power, natural gas and energy products and services for homes and businesses across the continental United States. Constellation's family of retail businesses serves more than 2.5 million residential, public sector and business customers, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100. Baltimore-based Constellation is a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation's leading competitive energy provider, with 2014 revenues of approximately $27.4 billion, and more than 32,000 megawatts of owned capacity comprising one of the nation's cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets. Learn more at http://www.constellation.com or on Twitter at @ConstellationEG.