Bright Moves: How U.S. Utility Innovation Is Driving the Cleantech Transition

A comprehensive look at how utilities are driving clean energy innovation

With Bright Moves, expert utilities consultant Tom Flaherty examines the past, present, and future of innovation in the utilities industry. He explores the complexities of what it truly means to innovate, considers the past and current disruptors driving innovation, and discusses the role of research and development in how utilities need to approach their businesses in an era of technology and market disruption.

The book includes detailed profiles of today’s top innovators to illustrate:

• What types of challenges utilities face today
• How successful innovation requires intentional and consequential actions
• How utilities are rapidly evolving toward broader and more innovative thinking
• Why more commercialization is the way forward for the utilities sector

These innovators pave exemplary pathways for start-ups and long-established companies alike as they navigate the cleantech transition and other developments. Bright Moves is for innovators in all fields―but especially utilities leadership, business executives from companies engaging utilities, start-up leaders, and other innovation professionals who are driven to succeed in a demanding and quickly changing global economy.

Thomas J. Flaherty, a retired senior partner at Strategy&, enjoyed a global consulting career that spanned more than forty-five years, leading utilities consulting practices at several top-tier firms. Focusing on all sectors of the utilities industry, he specialized in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business models, organization architecture, and innovation. He is currently a senior advisor to EY-Parthenon, focusing on these same areas.

Starting in 2013, Mr. Flaherty assisted numerous utilities in identifying market trends that would drive reshaping industry market position; evaluating emerging technologies and use cases that could benefit grid and network performance, flexibility, and insight; and supporting the introduction of utility innovation models, stand-up of focused innovation centers, and adoption of potential methods to embed a culture of innovation within the business.

He is also the author of Roll-Up: The Past, Present, and Future of Utilities Consolidation, a look at how industry consolidation developed and was executed through the modern era of utility mergers and acquisitions.