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NETWORK / 33 / NOVEMBER 2018 They said the best way to an- noy customers is to warn them in advance that their supplies will be cut off for 10 minutes each day for the next several weeks, whilst carrying out no visible work. Another attendee said, whilst they agreed that customers do tend to be more forgiving of unplanned outages during the "honeymoon period", their patience can quickly wear thin. In general, there was a consen - sus that customers' responses to supply interruptions o en bears little relation to network companies' conduct. Digitalisation The digitalisation of energy networks should enhance their ability to predict when assets are going to fail and replace them before this happens, thereby avoiding outages. But several attendees argued predictive replacement is not necessarily the best approach in all cases. One gas distribution network (GDN) representative said many of their assets are deliberately replaced on a reactive basis where the consequences of fail - ure are minor, as replacing them before absolutely necessary can add to costs. As part of their transition towards a distribution system operator (DSO) model, distribu - tion network operators (DNOs) are taking a more active role in their management of their assets, using flexible connec - tions and services to deal with congestion. A representative of one of the DNOs noted that this will mean operating with less spare capac - ity to fall back on in the case of a problem. They said currently if their control room is le unmanned due to a fire alarm, there is little risk of power supplies being cut as a result. Under the DSO model, this risk will be much higher. However, an attendee from another of the DNOs said despite the reduction in redundancy, the ability to actively manage flows around Views from the speakers: "What can we do to support this industry better? We have ideas and we have some very smart people. Understanding what you as an industry are trying to achieve as the end goal will drive what we can put in place from a technology, process or change management perspective to optimise data quality from the outset." Martin Harris, IBM "We have a gas history of over 200 years, the principles of metering gas usage has changed little over this time; we meter the volume of gas put into the system and meter the volume of gas delivered to individual customers homes/ premises and we bill for energy consumed. "What if we think differently and unlock the capability and power of smart appliances? What could we achieve and what benefits would this bring to the customer in terms of lower supply costs and closer matching of the customers comfort and needs? Furthermore, how could we use the smart homes data, in a secure and safe way to make the networks work better." Simon Fairman, director of safety & network strategy, Cadent "There is a danger that a lot of our kit lasts a lot longer than any of the sensors will last. I can put an infrared camera looking at a transformer. It will tell nothing very interesting for 50 years. And at 51 years it starts doing something interesting. By that point, I've replaced the infrared sensor three times." Dan Wilson, asset data manager, Electricity North West In association with their networks could actually facilitate reactive replacement by offering operational solutions to asset failures. They said there might be a slight reduction in re- liability but this would be offset by lower costs. Attendees also touched on the importance of risk-based management, whereby assets are replaced on the basis of a comparative cost-benefit analy- sis that takes into account the likelihood and consequences of failure. One said GDNs are further ahead than DNOs when it comes to the risk-based man- agement due to their greater reliance of key individual assets. Another said, for DNOs, risk-based management is more relevant to the overall operation of their networks, rather than the replacement of individual assets. Data matters A common thread throughout the discussion was the topic of data. There was universal agree - ment that much of the historical asset data which energy net- works require is of poor quality or missing entirely. Attendees spoke despairingly about how much of the data which does exist has not yet been digital - ised, consisting of old paper documents buried away in dusty archives. Some feared that digitalisation would therefore only allow them to make bad decisions faster. However, others argued that this is better than making bad deci - sions slowly. Digitalisation will help them to identify where their data is lacking. There was also agreement that data sharing with parties from outside the sector will be essential, allowing them to come up with innovative prod - ucts and services that the net- works would never have come up with themselves and which could have enormous benefits for consumers. They called for Ofgem's help in opening up ac- cess to data. For further information from IBM visit https://ibm.com/iot