Pivoting from Consumer to Utility: Span

As a Span customer, I’ve always appreciated their vision: to make home electrification cleaner, simpler, and more efficient through beautifully designed, tech-enabled electrical panels. But, let’s be honest, selling a product like this directly to consumers is tough. Electrical panels are not top-of-mind for most people until there’s a problem — and explaining the value proposition of “a smarter electrical panel” to justify the high price tag can be a real challenge. That’s why I’m unsurprised by their recent shift in strategy towards utilities.

This pivot to partnering with utility companies makes a lot of sense. Instead of trying to convince individual homeowners to upgrade, Span can now work directly with those who can impact community-scale electrification.

While the value proposition of avoiding costly service upgrades is undeniably beneficial for utilities, understanding precisely how that translates into financial savings for the utilities needs much more nuance. That, along with the fact that rebates & policy will vary wildly by locality, raises many uncertainties about pricing strategy (not to mention that there are other, larger smart electric panel companies like Leviton and Schneider Electric, albeit with less functional and less well-designed offerings).

I wish the company well. We need better electrical infrastructure in the US (and especially California, where I live) and one way to achieve that is for companies like Span to find a successful path to market.