As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, my conversations with energy and utilities companies have largely focused on how to maintain operations, support employees, manage liquidity and access government support schemes.
As the lockdown restrictions start to ease, my conversations have moved on to what the industry can expect next. There’s a huge amount of uncertainty about what will happen as more of the economy reopens. Economic recovery and the impact on energy demand is high on the agenda. As is the approach to managing risk, especially climate risk – and I’ll talk about that in another blog. But the pandemic is likely to have a long and lasting impact on how energy and utilities companies operate.
Over the past few weeks, our team at KPMG has been putting a lot of thought into what the new reality will look like for the sector. Here are some of our ideas.