Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1111696
NETWORK / 13 / MAY 2019 STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Stakeholder input is key Gary Stokes, stakeholder engagement manager – National Grid Electricity Transmission – talks about the role stakeholders are playing in shaping the company's plans. S takeholder engagement and Na- tional Grid haven't always been words you'd expect to hear in the same sentence. Even we would struggle to say we were leaders in this eld. There were obvious exceptions to this, such as our major construction projects, which have always involved extensive engagement with a wide range of stake- holders, o• en over a period of years. But in the past, engagement for us usually meant talking with (or at) our stakeholders only when we had to. Or we'd use the System Operator (now a legally-separate company within the National Grid group) as the route to our stakeholders. Generally, we had room for improvement. This was frequently reƒ ected in what we heard from our stakeholders, particu- larly that we were good at talking but not so great at listening; that we were slow to act on what people were telling us; that we involved stakeholders too late in the process, when National Grid 'experts' had already decided on the solution; and that all of this had a less-than-positive impact on how trusted we were by those we interacted with. But why was any of this a problem for a regulated monopoly with widely-recognised technical expertise, a great record of deliver- ing a safe and reliable supply of power to its customers, and a relatively small impact on the consumer bill? The answer is that everything we do (and all organisations do) is better and more e‡ cient if we start by looking at what people want from us. Designing a reliable network is all about starting with what our stakeholders need from it. Being safe is all about how our stakeholders interact with us. Being innovative means working with stakeholders to jointly solve the right problems. And providing the right, value for money service has to begin by understand- ing what we should (or shouldn't) deliver for our stakeholders (and by 'stakeholders', we include our direct customers, end con- sumers and anyone else we impact). Making improvements So a couple of years ago, we started looking at how we could improve – initially to play catch-up with others who were already more stakeholder-focused, and ultimately to make sure we're one of the leaders in our industry. We recognised that some improve- ments would be relatively quick to make, but many would require slow-burn, longer term changes to the way we do business. Two years on, we're in a very diŒ erent place. We can de nitely still improve, but it genuinely feels as though we're now build- ing our plans with our stakeholders, rather than telling them what we're going to do. We've taken loads of advice along the way from inside and outside the energy industry (I'd really recommend this approach – the more people you talk to, the more you learn what to do and what not to do!), and we've also been set some signi cant challenges by our independent stakeholder group. They've set the bar really high for us, par- ticularly when it comes to ensuring we're talking to a representative sample of our stakeholders, and on our engagement with consumers, and they're continuing to push us beyond average improvement. That's all very nice, but isn't there an element of 'so what' in all of this? A few years ago, we might have agreed. But there's so much changing in our industry at the moment that there's no way an insular ap- proach is going to deliver our collective re- sponsibilities. From whole system solutions for a more decentralised energy system, to ensuring we're minimising consumer bills, to helping the country move towards decarbonisation, stakeholder input is the key ingredient. "Designing a reliable network is all about starting with what our stakeholders need from it. Being safe is all about how our stakeholders interact with us. Being innovative means working with stakeholders to jointly solve the right problems."