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a ordability. One attendee said they believed that market engagement has to be accessible. Delegates further discussed consumer engagement, with one suggesting customers may not be engaged with a localised energy market so long as their household bills are kept to a minimum. Another suggested that each household is di erent and that while it is right to consider what consumers want, it would be wrong to expect a single answer. For the • nal part of the a• ernoon the attendees discussed the role of frameworks and whether they are • t for purpose or if the industry should instead be "looking further ahead". One suggested looking into the use of data and that by digitising the network its operators can get access to more informa- tion that is closer to real-time in order to understand what the network is doing and what its capabilities are. "That to me is unlocking part of the op- portunity that comes about and having to deal with uncertainty in better ways, that we can ex di erent solutions and see what comes out best," they added. Another said: "We're doing a lot of work at the moment to allow us to create a model of the network right down to the end user to allow us to start running these scenarios. Once we get those models in place we can start understanding what this all means." In the closing section of the discussion, the delegates were asked what one thing can be done in the short term to support a whole systems approach to localised energy. One said: "Local energy is all about local opportunity otherwise a central system with scale is always going to be cheaper and better to do it. What does local bring to the table and are we really focusing on that?" "I think we need to come up with a logi- cal model that allows various communities to come together as an overall coordinated plan, but it is not necessarily driven by the centre," another stated. NETWORK / 39 / MAY 2019 In association with: Views from the speakers: "Being able to take those local things but build them perhaps around a more national-level policy I think will be something that will really help get to a genuine whole system type of position." Duncan Hughes, electricity transmission power systems manager, National Grid. "I think we should have local energy plans, in Scotland there is legislation going through that would require local authorities to start doing local energy/energy effi ciency planning and some cities are thinking about it. "To me that is probably one of the key routes into whole systems in its biggest space. I think some of those conversations are beginning but I don't think we yet have anything that you would pick up off the table." Maxine Frerk, director, Grid Edge Policy. "I think there is quite a lot of research that does demonstrate that people do like decentralised energy systems but always with something underpinning it to make sure the lights don't go off." Dhara Vyas, future energy systems, Citizens Advice. "There is growing evidence that even at a local level you have got to get cooperation to get effi ciency. Really we should be looking at what the possible frameworks of regulation could be to deal with a system that is so highly interrelated." Peter Jones, technical manager, Energy Research Partnership. Key conversation points: Driving whole system outcomes through incentivisation and frameworks. Regulatory barriers for innovation and identifying the right triggers for investment. Transmission network investments affecting local island supplies. Consumer benefi ts from a whole system approach in terms of trilemma.