Is RWE considering a complete turnaround of their business plan?

Greentechgrid.com: “We may be about to witness one of the most profound transitions ever to occur in the utility industry. Challenged by the surge in distributed renewables and a strong decline in revenues, one of Europe’s largest largest utilities, RWE, is reportedly planning to completely transform itself from a traditional electricity provider into a renewable energy service provider.”….“The massive erosion of wholesale prices caused by the growth of German photovoltaics constitutes a serious problem for RWE which may even threaten the company’s survival,” wrote the utility in a recent strategy paper.
The strategy documents were initially outlined by the European energy website Energy Post. The site reported that the strategy was agreed upon by RWE’s board last month and will be evaluated within the entire company at the end of October.
Greentech Media has not been able to get the full report, but RWE confirmed that the strategy has been discussed within the company and with investors.
According to the documents, RWE wants to move away from simply being a developer and owner of centralized power plants and instead help use its expertise to help manage and integrate renewables into the grid.
….Citing a “prosumer” business strategy, the documents read as if they were written by a consumer electronics company, not a legacy utility.
“Developing an innovative and profitable prosumer business model is a challenge we also need to address successfully, as we see a billion-euro market emerging alongside our traditional value chain.”
….In a landmark report this summer, the Edison Electric Institute, a group representing America’s investor-owned utilities, warned that distributed generation is a looming danger to revenue and customer engagement.
“The threat of disruptive forces (i.e., new products/markets that replace existing products/markets) impacting the utility industry is increasing and is adding to the effects of other types of disruptive forces like declining sales and end-use efficiency,” wrote author Peter Kind. “Recent business history has provided many examples of companies and whole industries that either failed or were slow to respond to disruptive forces and suffered as a result.”