Market Perspectives & Regulatory Management

Energy markets face major uncertainties. Will growth in renewables hit technical limits? What role will shale gas, nuclear power, and coal play in meeting future energy needs? How will spiraling consumer demand in China and India affect global fuel and materials supply?

To assess the value at stake, energy players need to understand current and emerging regulatory frameworks and translate broad trends into specific implications for local markets.

We help private companies and public-sector bodies make better-informed strategic decisions through a deeper understanding of the evolution of power markets, technological developments, and global, national, and local energy landscapes.

Supported by experts in technology development, fuel markets, and clean tech, our teams work closely with clients to develop and interpret scenarios, benchmark performance against industry peers, and strengthen internal capabilities for managing market uncertainty.

Developing market perspectives

We bring deep expertise in simulating the evolution of power markets and assessing the implications for long-term portfolio planning, asset valuation, and investment. We help generators, energy companies, end users, investors, and regulators to understand shifts in the fuel mix and wholesale market structures and capture opportunities while mitigating risks.

Engaging regulators and stakeholders

We help clients anticipate and respond to regulatory changes resulting from coal retirements and other forms of industry restructuring, as well as technological and policy developments in renewables, transmission, smart grid, and tariffs. Our approach includes a fact-based assessment of the value at stake coupled with a systematic plan for managing key stakeholders.

Mobilizing the organization

Implementing regulatory and external-affairs strategies requires top management commitment, cross-functional engagement, and organizational drive. We help clients allocate resources, recruit the right talent, and establish processes to secure stakeholder support for strategic priorities.

Midstream & Downstream Natural Gas

The natural gas industry presents complex challenges, from assessing the robustness of unconventional gas strategies in North America to evaluating the impact of liquefied natural gas (LNG) pricing on demand in Asia. To navigate an unpredictable market, companies need a global perspective on the dynamics of the business, analytical rigor in weighing strategic options, and the flexibility to respond swiftly to shifts in supply, demand, regulatory context, and competitive behavior.
We help clients develop distinctive insights into opportunities and risks, craft strategies, evaluate asset and contract portfolios, define their regulatory stance, build capabilities, manage talent, and achieve operational excellence. We serve top oil and gas companies, generators, pipeline operators, distribution utilities, traders, and industrial buyers.

Tailoring strategy to market outlook

We provide in-depth market perspectives based on an integrated view of how gas supply and demand are developing regionally and globally, and what that implies for infrastructure and marketing and sales. Using distinctive analyses and purpose-built modeling tools, we help our clients develop a robust, comprehensive fact base for sound strategic decision making.

Optimizing infrastructure assets, contracts, and portfolios

We help clients review their contract strategy and renegotiate terms to improve project risk/return ratios and optimize sourcing portfolios. To enhance trading activity, we work with clients to identify improvement opportunities, redesign risk procedures, and create new organization structures to support their strategic objectives.

Attaining operational excellence

We design individually tailored programs to improve assets and resources, identify technical solutions, and empower teams to transform entrenched processes. We help clients identify best practices, set ambitious targets, design effective progress-monitoring systems, and engage their people in performance dialogues to cultivate a best-in-class mind-set that endures long after a program ends.

Renewable Energy

Solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, waste-to-energy, and hydropower technologies are providing more of the world’s energy as costs fall and countries seek to limit carbon footprints and secure energy supplies. This growth is also being fueled by advances in distributed generation, smart grids, and energy storage. At the same time, companies face challenges such as grid integration, subsidy reductions, and supplier consolidation.

We help utilities, developers, equipment manufacturers, financial institutions, and governments capture value from renewable energy and build a sustainable competitive advantage. To bring the latest and best thinking on power and clean technologies to our clients, we invest in building our knowledge and drawing from external industry expertise. Through our work, we also help shape the debate in the renewables industry and society as a whole.

Developing market perspectives

By providing deep insight into the attractiveness of technologies, markets, and entry options, we support companies as they plan to enter renewable businesses or expand along the value chain. Our global presence enables us to help clients capture a broad range of opportunities across multiple markets and segments, including industrial demand for green power.

Driving operational excellence

We work with renewable-power operators and equipment manufacturers to identify cost drivers, improve return on investment, and minimize risks through long-term contracts and strategic partnerships. To support timely decision making and build clients’ capabilities in bidding, forecasting, and hedging, we help design and embed new organizational processes, skills, and mind-sets.

Advising on energy policy and regulation

To guide clients through the regulatory maze, we use proprietary models and insights to analyze the impact of regulatory changes and assess stakeholder interests. We support clients in creating a robust regulatory strategy, and provide objective analysis to help shape national- and regional-energy agendas.

Retail & New Downstream

Energy retail markets are going through a radical transformation as customers start to generate their own power, new players enter the market, and innovation in other industries raises the bar for service. Energy efficiency is reshaping consumption patterns, distributed generation is changing the game, and energy storage and demand management are becoming more important—and successful companies need to refocus strategies, embrace lean operations, and make organizations more proactive.
We work with clients to develop and implement new commercial approaches, from “lean and low fare” to “premium but worth it.” We help clients create innovative-marketing strategies to attract and retain customers, and design effective brand and portfolio strategies to win consumers and loyalty.

Cracking the new downstream opportunity

We carry out research on the energy needs of tomorrow’s homes and businesses and help retailers access new value pools beyond the meter. We work with clients to adapt strategies and evaluate competitive moves in distributed-generation and storage technologies, energy-efficiency services, electric-vehicle charging, and data solutions for demand response, load aggregation, and customer applications.

Optimizing the customer experience

Supporting clients in achieving excellence in customer relationships is at the heart of our work. We help energy retailers optimize back-office operations, design targeted branding and value propositions, fine-tune sales and channel strategies, and enhance digital marketing and customer lifecycle management.

Enhancing marketing and sales

We provide comprehensive benchmarks to help retailers understand how their performance compares with that of peers. Drawing on insights from our Marketing & Sales Practice, we work with clients to improve the management of channel and customer support, pricing, and margins, and build their capabilities to win public-sector accounts.

Water & Waste

We help private and public sector clients manage water and waste to capture economic and social benefits, reduce cost, and minimize risk. We help local and national governments assemble a fact base for decision making, craft strategies for stakeholder management, identify least-cost solutions through tailored cost curves, assess barriers and payback times, and produce practical implementation plans.

Transform water and waste utilities

We help utilities transform their operations along the entire value chain of water, waste, and waste water by optimizing elements such as network and pump station maintenance, pump energy efficiency, sludge treatment, waste asset configuration, aeration control, and support functions.

Optimize industrial operations

We work with industrial companies to manage the costs and risks of water consumption and find solutions to water challenges beyond their own four walls. We have help companies identify potential savings in indirect water costs and support industrial operators attempting to secure reliable and sustainable water supplies. For companies striving to eliminate waste from their operations, we advise on identifying pain points, saving resources in the supply chain, and adapting product design to reduce materials requirements in manufacture.

Identify profitable investment strategies

Although the $500 billion water market is growing fast and presents many opportunities for investment, profitable and addressable niches are hard to find. We help conduct technology and target scans for investors and entrants from adjacent businesses, and offer guidance on developing entry strategies, capturing opportunities, and building scale.

Capture the potential of waste services provision

We provide insights into the performance and costs of existing and emerging waste technologies and help public sector organizations develop and refine integrated waste management strategies. We also help national and local governments assess how recycled materials might contribute to resource management strategies and economic development targets.

Revolutionize products and systems

Most production and consumption systems in industrialized economies rely on the one-time use of resources. Only 20 out of 60 metals, for example, have an end-of-life recycling rate of 25 percent or more. We help companies devise product strategies and business models that capitalize on the enormous advantages offered by “closed loop” production and consumption systems, such as secure long-term access to resources.