Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | JANUARY 2022 | 19 Talking Points… "Water effi ciency does not get a seat at that table. It remains very niche in government and although it's improved with every price review, still the fi nancial rewards and penalties are much greater for leakage than effi ciency." Nicci Russell, chief executive, Waterwise "I would expect energy suppliers to be properly hedged. A well hedged company has clearly been in a much better position to ride out the big increases in global gas prices. Companies should have seen what the rules of the market were going into the rise in prices. Many companies have been able to ride out rise in prices." Greg Hands, energy minister, on the energy retail crisis "It was never going to work at this time, in this way, and that should have been blindingly obvious to the department. That it was not, is a serious worry. I am afraid there is no escaping the conclusion that this scheme was a slam dunk fail." Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, on the Green Homes Grant Quote, unquote speaking courses, watching how other engaging speakers do it, working with creative science communicators, and trying di erent things out to see what works, I started to understand that people connect with people. If you want to engage someone, tell them a personal story they can relate to. My approach now, which I am con- stantly trying to improve, is to under- stand my audience and tailor what I say speci cally for them. For example, for the 17-year-olds, I tell them honestly how lost I felt at the prospect of having to choose a career for the rest of my life, and my re• ections on this. I have also started to draw on my childhood memories of power cuts in Iraq, to highlight how a poor energy supply can impact people's lives. As well as presenting, I commu- nicate outwards through writing to spread the message about engineer- ing and energy. I want to show that engineers are normal people, and shatter the stereotypes surrounding the profession. I am taking this to the next level, by writing an accessible book about the global energy industry. In Power Up, due to be published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2024, I will take readers with a non-technical background on a journey through the backstage of the energy sector. I hope this will demystify energy, highlight the complexity of the system, and help readers to make more sense of climate change and understand why we are where we are today, and how we assess our options, make the right choices and move forward. Yasmin Ali, energy innovation programme manager, BEIS Storytelling can help to demystify energy A ged 17, I was blissfully una- ware of the energy sector. I spent zero time thinking about why the lights came on, why the house was warm in the winter, or how the fuel I pumped into my little Nissan Micra got to the petrol station. Distant child- hood memories of growing up in Baghdad, Iraq, and experiencing power cuts lurked like faint shadows in the back of my mind, but never quite man- aged to make it to the forefront. Nowadays, I am occupied by com- pletely di erent thoughts. How did the energy system get to where it is today? What happened in the past to in• uence this, and how do we go about building a more sustainable future? This transformation of thought started during a work placement at a gas- red power station during my third year of a chemical engineering degree. Over the three months, I started to connect the dots between the o - shore oil and gas sector, gas pipelines sprawling across the country. Most importantly, I started to understand the potential real-world applications of my degree, and the bene t I could bring to society by using my engineering skills to make sure homes, schools, hospi- tals and other essential services had a secure energy supply. A' er graduating, I immediately joined the energy sector and was keen to share my new discoveries with oth- ers. I gave talks at schools, as well as careers and public events. But I realised that the glassy-eyed members of the public and teenagers staring back at me were getting lost in the jargon. They were in the same place as me at the age of 17, so I had to rethink how and what I said to them. Simply telling them about my job was not doing the trick. Through various media and public Comment: Turning fuel into energy and delivering it to people's doors is a fascinating story that deserves a wider audience.

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