Connected Strategy for Hydrogen Value Chain ^ Top ^ 33 Current Value Chain and Business Model An energy utility is a generator and supplier of energy (electricity, gas, and heat) to households, communities, businesses, and other organizations that recovers its costs through the charging of rates. These rates reflect the areas of the energy ‘value chain’ (Figure 16) across which the energy utility operates (shaded). Figure 16 | Areas of the energy value chain Utilities have traditionally recovered the cost for generating, transmitting, distributing, and selling electricity, gas, and heat to end-consumers. Given the liberalization of modern energy markets, most energy utilities' operations are now focused on the generation, trading, and retail of energy. The value proposition at the center of this business model is the bulk generation of electricity, typical scale is of 100s-1000s of megawatts (MW), using traditional sources such as coal or gas. Figure 17 shows the business model. Figure 17 | Current Energy and Utility business model