Technology, cable, phone companies ‘cast covetous eye’ on power utility industry’s customers

Technology, cable, and phone companies are beginning to make their way into the retail energy market.

Columbus Business First
Written by: Tom Knox

A lack of technological innovation and a business model that still clings to a regulated market could soon have the utility industry fighting for relevance among upstarts and businesses new to the power arena.

So-called ‘Technarians at the Gate’ – technology, cable and phone companies – have started “to cast a covetous eye on the utility industry’s customers and revenue by exploiting the portals that they already have into tens of millions of American homes,” Bloomberg reports.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) entered the fray in January when it bought Nest Labs Inc. and its smart-thermostat for $3.2 billion. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is entering the smart thermostat field, too, and ComcastCorp. (NYSE: CCZ) has started a pilot to sell electricity with its cable.

Smaller companies are there, too, especially in Silicon Valley.

Peter Hebert, co-founder and managing partner of venture capital firm Lux Capital, sees “a proliferation of smaller startups all targeting this market,” the Bloomberg report says.

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