Case Study | 24 July 2025
How a Utility Company Tackled Competitive and Benchmarking Challenges in the Smart Energy Sector?
Posted by : Preeti Wani
As the global energy industry rapidly shifted toward sustainability and digitization, a smart energy utility company found itself struggling with fierce competition from both traditional energy providers and new-age green tech startups. Trying to future-proof its business model, the company sought the guidance of Research Nester to analyze the competitive landscape and strengthen its market position through data-driven benchmarking.
An overview:
This case study demonstrates how a traditional energy utility company in Eastern Europe successfully navigated its transformation into a smart energy solutions provider with the help of Research Nester. Facing rising competition from green tech startups and shifting consumer demands, the company needed clear market insights and competitive benchmarking to reposition itself in the evolving energy landscape. Through thorough regional analysis, strategic forecasting, and customized recommendations, Research Nester helped the company to launch innovative smart grid services, expand into emerging markets, and develop a 10-year roadmap for sustained growth. The results explain how data-driven consulting can fuel resilience and innovation in legacy industries.
The Story
A mid-sized energy utility company operating primarily in Eastern Europe and parts of Central Asia had been offering conventional electricity distribution services for over three decades. However, with a sharp global turn toward renewable energy, energy efficiency, and smart infrastructure, the company started losing ground to newer competitors offering real-time metering, app-based energy management, and green energy alternatives. Determined not to become outdated, the company jumped on a mission to reinvent itself. It wanted to move from a traditional utility to a smart energy service provider, providing solar integrations, smart meters, real-time consumption analytics, and predictive energy management.
While the vision was ambitious, the lack of market insights and competitive benchmarking made it difficult for the company to define a concrete go-to-market strategy. To address this shortcoming and gain clarity on their steps ahead, the utility company turned to Research Nester, a top leader in strategic market research and consulting. The company needed to identify where they stood in the evolving energy tech landscape, what the customers expected, and what the competitors were doing better. The transition from conventional utilities to smart energy services is never seamless. Several hurdles were identified in advance, allowing the company to prepare for tackling hurdles as follows:
- Not all regions had favorable legislation for smart grid rollouts. Research Nester highlighted the need to engage in policy advocacy and pilot programs to gain regulatory confidence.
- Smart meters and real-time monitoring systems necessitated high initial investments. To diminish this, the company explored public-private partnership models and green tech subsidies.
- Older customers were skeptical about taking up new energy technologies. Educational campaigns and introductory offers were recommended to ease the transition.
- With data collection becoming integral to smart utilities, ensuring data protection and GDPR compliance became a priority. Research Nester recommended building partnerships with cybersecurity vendors.
By being made aware of these challenges early in the transformation journey, the company developed mitigation plans that reduced friction during execution.
Our Solution:
Research Nester approached the challenges methodically. The core objective was to make the utility’s smart energy offerings against its competitors across Europe, Central Asia, and emerging African markets, regions where energy transformation was just new. The team implemented a 4-step procedure as mentioned below:
- A Regional Benchmarking System: Research Nester’s team created a comprehensive matrix comparing 15 competitors from Europe, Central Asia, and Northern Africa, covering factors such as pricing, customer support, app-based features, smart meter penetration, integration with renewable sources, government partnerships, and user satisfaction levels.
- Customized Market Insights Report: The team conducted an in-depth market study of the smart energy sector, emphasizing three main verticals: residential smart grid solutions, industrial demand-response systems, and hybrid solar-grid systems.
- Customer Preference Analysis: Through surveys and sentiment analysis, our team analyzed the expectations of both urban and semi-rural customers, discovering that there was a growing interest in flexible billing cycles, energy budgeting dashboards, and solar compatibility. Research Nester emphasized local partnerships with government energy regulators to promote subsidized expansion.
- Technology Adoption Trends: Forecasts were granted on smart meter installations, real-time monitoring systems, and IoT adoption for the years 2022 to 2034. User education programs were undertaken to drive awareness and trust in digital energy platforms.
Results
The partnership with Research Nester delivered noticeable results just within the first 3 years, making way for long-term growth and innovation. Some of the key outcomes involved:
- Reinvention of Service Portfolio: The company successfully shifted from being a traditional utility provider to a smart energy solutions brand, providing smart meters, real-time dashboards, solar integration, and predictive analytics to residential and commercial customers.
- Market Expansion Over 7 Countries: By 2024, the company had expanded its smart energy services to seven countries, such as Georgia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and Tunisia. These regions were selected based on high growth potential and gaps in smart energy penetration highlighted in Research Nester’s market report.
- High Customer Retention and Loyalty: Client turnover fell by 28% in two years, due to additional features such as real-time consumption tracking, mobile apps, and personalized billing options. Research Nester’s data-driven ideas helped redefine customer journeys for better engagement.
- 10-Year Strategic Roadmap Execution: In accordance with the 10-year strategic plan, the company is now in the third phase of its transformation, increasing solar hybrid services and incorporating AI for load forecasting.
Conclusion
By partnering with Research Nester, the smart energy utility company not only survived an imminent fall but flourished in an increasingly competitive landscape. Through meticulous competitive analysis, precise forecasting, and an actionable competitive approach, the company made market threats into growth opportunities. The case stands as proof of how insight-led transformation can reinvent even the most traditional industries in the era of smart, sustainable technologies.
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