Digital Transformation: determinants and challenges in the electricity distribution sector in Brazil
Be shaped by fluctuating energy and fuel prices, environmental and safety issues, aspects of technological innovations, goals to improve energy access or energy transition; attention is regularly turned to ways to improve energy pathways, so the evolution and adaptation of organizations to the new becomes critical. Digital transformation (TD) seeks to keep up with the demands and needs of an increasingly competitive and demanding market. In Brazil, although the same trend is noted, the level of digital maturity of companies is a few steps behind the most developed countries. From these premises, and the rapid advance of DT, the objective of this study is to analyze the determinants and challenges of DT within the electric energy distribution sector in Brazil (DEE), from the perspective of an existing literature model. This study applies a literature review to analyze such determinants from the DEE perspective. The research is qualitative, characterized by the analysis of the content of interviews with organizational, academic and social agents who work in DEE in Brazil. Initial results, based on the literature review, point out that smart grids, data analysis and distributed energy resources, are indicated as digital technologies and keys that enable unidirectional flow of energy and information. This phenomenon allows the decentralization of the sector through the insertion of new agents (consumers and “prosumers”), new service offerings and business models; in addition to the capacity for greater insertion of renewable sources, incentives for decarbonization. The challenges for organizations are related to merging business strategies with digital business strategy. Market design and the regulatory and institutional framework are identified as the main external barriers, followed by non-economic barriers and growing uncertainties about the conditioning factors for the sector's evolution and technological development. The positive impacts of the sector's TD point to the optimization of the energy value chain and the enhancement of the energy transition (ET). On the other hand, undesirable outcomes such as data security and privacy and complexity of supply reliability need to be addressed.