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UTILITY WEEK | NOVEMBER 2020 | 39 Operational Excellence that level. As average pressures have a ten- dency to rise following mains replacement through insertion more advanced solutions are clearly needed." Untapped potential in biomethane In a separate trial with Northern Gas Net- works (NGN), Utonomy is looking at how a new approach to feed-in management can allow biomethane to enter the gas grid. Kingdon explains: "A bit like renewable electricity, biomethane plants have to con- nect into the network a bit lower down the pressure tiers, so they're actually connect- ing into the medium pressure part of the network. In the summer or at night there may not be enough demand to get the biom- ethane in. So, what happens at the moment is that the biomethane plants have to flare, which is a huge waste and it's very expen- sive for the plants. It takes about five days for them to change their output. "We're able to use our control system and AI [artificial intelligence] to control the pres- sure on the network and readjust it so the biomethane feed is always prioritised over the natural gas feed." This trial begins next month based on the Gravel Pit biomethane plant in York. Kingdon says that going forward the same technology could also be used for hydrogen. Paul Massara, the former Npower chief executive, joined the Utonomy board as chair this summer and tells Utility Week he is excited about the potential in a too-oen ignored area of innovation. "If you look at the electricity side, there is a lot of distributed electricity coming into the grid so that has led to the use of AI, digital twins, digitisation in general and flexibility. All of this applies to gas as well. How do you get biomethane in, how do you control pres- sure, how do you get data and how do you use AI to reduce carbon?" However, he insists that clear signals are needed from the government for future investment in this area. "There has been a lot of progress on decarbonisation of power, there's a pretty well-established roadmap for the decarboni- sation of transport but we're still be kicking the can down the road in gas. We need to invest now in the technologies to allow us to green the gas grid." Massara also points to the potential for the UK to be a world leader in the gas net- work. "This is a global issue given the interest in hydrogen and I think in many ways we are at the forefront. We are talking to other coun- tries who just don't have a solution for this." James Wallin, digital editor O pen Banking – and the regulation behind it – is changing the way consumers can make payments. It offers them new, fast and secure ways to pay for goods and services across chan- nels, directly from their bank account. According to the Open Banking Imple- mentation Entity (OBIE) over two million customers are now using Open Banking enabled products and user numbers have doubled since January 2021*. Open Bank- ing technology offers providers, particu- larly in the utilities sector, the chance to improve the experience they offer custom- ers and increase the efficiency of their payment processes. Tackling mis-allocated funds Despite advances, the utilities sector is still widely affected by the problem of mis-attributed or unreconciled customer payments, oen arising when incorrect reference numbers or inaccurate account details are used by customers when making one-off payments such as first or final payments. This is also still an issue for those who use facilities like Direct Debits, such as when they need to settle balances on accounts or switch providers. This problem may extend to many millions of pounds of unaccounted for funds across the sector – creating extra admin for finance teams, as well as headaches for customers whose payments have not been correctly allocated against their account. How Open Banking can help Payment capabilities made possible by Open Banking tackle the payments challenge, by facilitating safe, fast and accurate payments in the utilities sector. New products, such as Pay with Bank transfer from American Express, mean customers are able to settle bills from their bank account, without needing to have a payment card to hand. They don't even need to be an American Express® Cardmember, just hold a UK bank account. One of the ways consumers can pay their utility bill is by simply clicking on the "Pay with Bank transfer" button on the payment page and select the bank they wish to pay from. American Express powers the connection between the website and the consumer's bank using the Open Banking platform. The consumer is automatically redirected to their bank's web page or app to authenticate themselves and approve the payment detail. For the merchant this means that they receive the funds almost instantly. This presents a valuable way to tackle the challenges associated with one- off payments. Pay with Bank transfer removes the requirement to manually enter payment information, making it an easy and convenient payment method while ensuring funds are more accurately allocated against accounts. Given the competitive landscape and potentially high customer churn rates in the utilities sector, where customers turn to tariff comparison sites and online reviews, ease of payment is another important differentiator between providers. Customised integration options enabled by Pay with Bank transfer mean this payment method can be directly integrated into digital bills, or they can receive a link straight to their phone, offering customers the ability to pay with just a few clicks. Accurate account details can be safely embedded into the transaction, ending the pain of mis-allocated payments. Open Banking tools like this are a great way to help customers stay in control of their payments, while reducing the administrative and cashflow burden for providers. For more information about Pay with Bank transfer please visit: americanexpress.com/pwbt or email: paywithbanktransfer@aexp.com EXPERT VIEW DAN EDELMAN, VICE PRESIDENT & UK GENERAL MANAGER, GLOBAL MERCHANT SERVICES AT AMERICAN EXPRESS How Open Banking can improve the customer experience for utility payments Promoted content by American Express * Source: OBIE September 2020 https://www. openbanking.org.uk/about-us/latest-news/real- demand-for-open-banking-as-user-numbers-grow- to-more-than-two-million/ American Express Services Europe Limited. Registered Office: Belgrave House, 76 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9AX, United Kingdom. Registered in England and Wales with Company Number 1833139.