Utility Week

Operations & Assets 22 | 3RD - 9TH MAY 2019 | UTILITY WEEK T he utilities sector, in common with most industries, is undergoing a tech- nological revolution. And yet the shape in which this revolution will leave the sector is far from certain. Indeed, it is not yet clear which technolo- gies will have the biggest impact on water and energy companies, nor necessarily what that impact will be. What we can say with confidence is that organisations that want to be fit for purpose in a digital future need to be aware of technology potential and the role it could play in accelerating the delivery of organisational goals. Yet a survey of senior industry fig- ures, carried out by Utility Week, in asso- ciation with global technology consultancy Wipro, reveals that a surprising number of businesses seem under-prepared in this respect. Over one-third of our expert respondents – technology and innovation leaders who are members of the Utility Week-Wipro Technol- ogy and Innovation Council – said they do not yet have what they would describe as a clear vision for the role technology will play in how they meet their industry's challenges. John Beaumont, chief digital officer at Thames Water, believes one explanation for this result is that the conversation around innovation in the sector has been too nebu- lous to date. "Every company talks about it [a vision] and there's lots of media hype," he says. "That's helpful in a way but also unhelpful. Ofwat is certainly trying to encourage indus- try-wide effort on innovation but it's more a statement than an effort to help deliver it. I don't think they've targeted where that inno- vation should be. "There are a series of problems that need to be solved, and to solve those we'll need to innovate," he adds, citing cutting pollution and re-plumbing London's sewers as two examples from his own business. "Rather than generic innovation challenges, it would be better to help the industry coalesce around those [specific] challenges." He argues that this would most produc- tively be done collaboratively but that this is Insight report Technology doubt Utility Week, in association with Wipro, asked utility technology leaders about their strategic vision and the role key technology fields will play in the future of their organisations. About the Technology and Innovation Council The Utility Week-Wipro Technology and Innovation council originally launched in 2015 with the ambition of providing a regular forum for ideas sharing and inspiration for utilities professionals with responsibility for technology uptake and innovation. The council has gone from strength to strength and now has the support of a broad community of innovators and technology experts from across the energy and water sectors. Their guidance and insight has led to the publication of a series of bespoke research reports, each uncovering valuable insights into the priorities and challenges faced by those attempting to create the utilities of tomorrow. a problem in a sector which is "incentivised to compete". Beaumont says that he believes the energy sector is "more focused on the prob- lems" than water. It's a statement supported by Barry Carruthers, head of innovation, sus- tainability and quality at Scottish Power. Carruthers is among those with a very clear idea for the role technology will play in delivering organisational ambitions and overcoming its challenges. Outlining Scottish Power's strategic approach to innovation and technology application, he describes it as a "radar approach", with technologies being assessed as either "now, near or far" in terms of how close to being deployed they are. In Utility Week's survey of technology leaders, a number of questions were asked about four "building block" technologies which previous industry research and wider experience-based evidence had highlighted as having potential to transform utilities services and operations in a number of different ways. The foundation technologies were: the Internet of Things (IoT); artificial intelligence (AI); virtual or augmented reality; and block- chain. Our survey asked how important each technology was to respondents' businesses and how they personally felt about its trans- formative potential. For Carruthers, all of these technologies should be viewed in the "near" category. Indeed, Scottish Power is already actively using some in isolated parts of the business. Our broader survey group, however, was divided in sentiment over just how transfor- mational these different technologies will turn out to be. IoT and AI are viewed as far more likely to have an impact on the sector in the short to medium-term future than either virtual or augmented reality, or blockchain. Around two-thirds of respondents said IoT features either "quite" or "very" promi- nently in their organisational plans on a five- ten-year horizon. A slightly larger proportion said the same of AI. Given the fundamental role IoT and AI are playing in the emergence "Industrial IoT is going to be a transformational technology for the water industry." Jeremy Heath, innovation manager, SES Water

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