The effects of disruptive technologies on power utility company’s performance; empirical evidence from Indonesia

ABSTRACT

The power utility industry is in the midst of transition driven by three global movements; de-carbonisation, de-centralisation and digitalisation. The 4.0 revolution direct the electricity environment is becoming more complex than ever before, with rapidly evolving disruptive technologies. This study is to assess empirically how such disruptive technology affect power utility industry. The three most disruptive technologies have been investigated; solar PV, battery energy storage and smart grid. Based on 336 engineers’ reviews from 118 business unit of Indonesia Electricity State Company, it is found that not all disruptive technology does negatively affect the firm performance. The customer pulls and digitalisation as the antecedents of the disruptive technology have been assessed. Instead of their negative impact, the firms can utilise certain disruptive innovation to be beneficial for their competitive advantages if they know a way to deal with it.

KEYWORDS:

• Disruptive technology
• digitalisation
• power utility industry
• customer pull
• solar PV
• battery storage
• smart grid

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zainal Arifin

Zainal Arifin received a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) Indonesia in 1994, MBA in Operation Management in 2010 from University of Missouri – St Louis (UMSL), USA, and PhD in Strategic Management from Universitas Indonesia in 2016. He is Board Member of Global Smart Energy Federation (GSEF), Indonesia Strategic Management Society (ISMS) and Indonesia Electricity Society. He is also member of IEEE Technology and Management Society.