This is just a hypothetical. Crux of my question is whether a career in electricity market policy (design) can ever lead to a career in Private Equity in the electricity space.
There's an ongoing shift in the provision of electricity infrastructure, which AFAIK will result in new decentralised electricity production/transmission/distribution, greater prevalence of cleantech, smart-grid (and other IT innovations) and distributed generation. This shift will carry out across all countries.
A big part of that, from my thesis, is the design of the electricity market. Electricity markets are artificial, and their design determines the market mechanisms for utilities and associated energy providers.
Thing is, i don't know much about a career in electricity market policy/design, although i plan on talking to a few people. But would being a policy expert in that field (ie knowing how electricity markets are designed/work) have any application for PE in the solar/utilities/electricity space going forward?
First of all, private equity is not a significant player in the "electric T&D" space. Some infrastructure funds have investments in T&D, specific transmission projects, or in some cases own electric utilities directly; but cost of capital will prevent most electricity investments from being profitable for PE players. I don't know if I would say the future is a decentralized system, but my comments are purely focused on the investment side. That said, electricity market policy is not a bad skill to have, although I wouldn't say it will be a substantial benefit for getting into power/utility/cleantech PE, at least not at a junior level. Most funds investing in the space are going to be more concerned about your financial prowess and ability to diligence / value an asset or company. One other thing to keep in mind, electricity markets don't move quickly. They're all highly regulated and introducing even the slightest change would likely take years. If the true goal is to get into PE, I would think a much more direct approach is getting the corporate finance experience. If you're talking clean tech, state / government funding and subsidies are going to be the major investment driver, electric market policy probably won't really change much (or all that quickly). But again, a PE fund is going to look to corporate / project finance abilities at a junior level.
Unsure if you'd be in the know... but in what realm in finance/business is electricity market policy a good or not bad skill to have?
It would be nice have a private electricity. The monopoly sucks
I completely agree that there is a constant shift in the energy industry, but I am sure that there will be no monopoly because there are many companies that are in this field and they all provide renewable electricity. However, your theory seems to me very interesting ... I recently read a similar article on usave.co.uk and now my brain just explodes from various theories. I'm currently interested in when all countries will switch to renewable energy sources ... Any ideas ??
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