A business model design framework for the viability of energy enterprises in a business ecosystem

The energy industry is changing rapidly because of increasing societal and political pressure to reduce CO2, changing customer needs, changing regulations, and new technologies. The changes render the traditional business models of energy businesses obsolete. To ensure success and long-term survival, energy businesses need to explore viable new business models.
Currently applied methods, such as business model ontologies, tools, and techniques do not fully support the design and evaluation of viable energy business models in a business ecosystem setting. The applied methods largely ignore relevant business model design perspectives, such as service/product, focal actor, business ecosystem, and technology. Moreover, they also use elements of business model design inconsistently, such as business model design principles, business rules, configuration techniques, and design choices.
In this research, a business model design framework for viability is developed and validated to address the above deficits. The framework is validated using two case studies. The first study involves a mono-commodity energy system with a community-owned solar farm. The second involves a multi-commodity energy system that integrates heat and electricity networks at an industrial park. Experts evaluated the output of the framework (i.e., the business models) positively.