The results are in! We asked attendees of the 2018 LeadingAge Conference & Expo about the changing electrical grid & its impact on senior living. Respondents (n=41) included a cross-discipline mix of senior living community leaders and employees (nursing, financial, operations, facilities, etc.), professional service providers (developers, architects, engineers, builders), and even a few grad students.
Their responses are tabulated below. Key observations and some reflections:
- Ten years from now, making and saving energy seen as more relevant than Electric Vehicles and especially Energy Storage.
Reflection: EV adoption by residents may be primarily driven by younger populations aging into senior living facilities, although fleet and staff will be an important consideration. Additionally, there is a significant opportunity to educate about the advantages and use cases of energy storage systems. - ROI was seen as a key priority followed closely by environmental benefits. Resiliency was consistently a lower priority.
Reflection: This one was honestly surprising. It’s possible that resilience as a consideration is mitigated by critical backup mandates (i.e. diesel generators). - Technical & Financial > Regulatory. There is greater interest in technical possibilities and project economics than the nitty-gritty details of how an asset interacts with the marketplace.
- Reflection: In hindsight, it seems obvious that there’s more interest in understanding project origination than project implementation and operation.
Without further ado…
