Ecosystem-driven business opportunity identification method and web-based tool with a case study of the electric vehicle home charging energy ecosystem in Denmark

Understanding the local needs and challenges is critical for technology adoption in the energy sector. However, it is still a big challenge for most ecosystem stakeholders. Furthermore, technology adoption theories have mainly focused on the technology itself, and the business ecosystem perspective has been neglected. Therefore, this paper proposes an ecosystem-driven business opportunity identification method, a systematic approach for ecosystem stakeholders to conduct business opportunity analysis and evaluation based on the CSTEP ecosystem analysis and evaluation method. This method includes four correlated steps: Step 1: Identify the five CSTEP dimensions of the business ecosystem; Step 2: Identify potential changes in the business ecosystem; Step 3: Identify future ecosystem trends and timeline; Step 4: Select business opportunities; and Step 5: Potential solution identification. A web-based tool called opportunity identifier is developed for implementing the proposed method. A case study of the electric vehicle (EV) home charging energy ecosystem in Denmark is applied and demonstrates the application of the proposed method and the implementation of the developed web-based tool. Three value propositions are identified in the case study: 1) EV users can have optimal EV charging cost and optimal CO2 emission consumption with the intelligent EV charging algorithms that consider electricity prices, tariffs, and CO2 emission; 2) DSOs can avoid grid overloads and postpone the grid upgrade by applying intelligent EV charging algorithms; 3) Independent aggregators can aggregate EVs and participate in the ancillary service market or provide Vehicle-to-Grid services by using intelligent EV charging algorithms. Moreover, three feasible decentralized EV charging strategies (Real Time Pricing, Time-of-Use Pricing, and Timed charging) are identified as the potential solutions targeting the first value proposition.