Utility Week

32 | JANUARY 2022 | UTILITY WEEK Business transformation Download report Move fast and fi x things Utility Week spoke to sector experts about what can be learnt from disruptors and other industries about stepping out of their comfort zone and adopting a DevOps culture. The utilities sector is currently witnessing a real-time example of the need for an agile mindset. The disruption in the energy retail market, sparked by soaring wholesale power prices, has forced rms to react quickly and nd new ways of working in the face of a rapidly changing landscape. Elvin Nagamootoo, head of product at Shell Energy Retail, says legacy suppli- ers must step out of their comfort zone and learn from the innovation unleashed by disruptors. "The sector as a whole has seen signi - cant change in the past 10 years, with chal- lenger brands bringing positive disruption into the market. In order to meet the evolv- ing energy needs of our customers and to achieve net zero, the next 10 years will need energy retailers to again make a signi cant step change, and part of this will be adopting working cultures and organisational struc- tures that enable their customers' needs to be at the very centre of their decision making and product development," he says. It is clear that many incumbents have already grasped this need. Two of them – Eon and EDF – have now adopted Octo- pus Energy's proprietary technology plat- form, Kraken, which is also being rolled out internationally. While not yet a household name in the sense of Octopus, Ever‰ ow is seeking to have the same kind of impact in the water retail sector. Paul Williams, the group's chief technol- ogy o‹ cer, says: "Agile is not random, it's not chaos. Agile is really about improving. It's the focus on how do we do things better and the key feature of that is being able to take intervals between doing and learning. "The so' ware development manifesto of agile puts people before process. While we want a lot of rigour in how we do things, you are focusing on the people aspect, how they are improving or developing. It's not about squeezing capacity from developers. It's not about working ‰ at out, it's about sus- tainability and learning lessons quickly and developing. "We've embedded agile within the culture of the organisation from the ground up. "So' ware development-wise, we run sprints, we don't just have scrum mas- ters, we have an agile coach. It's about facilitation, it's about nurturing, it's about development." Responding to unprecedented change Ian Cameron, head of customer services and innovation at UK Power Networks (UKPN), agrees that rapid change is needed to "keep the power ‰ owing and work safely". "The energy system is undergoing unprecedented change as a result of decen- tralisation of renewable generation, decar- bonisation of energy, heat and transport, " "We operate dynamically to constantly scan the horizon for risks and opportunities and fi nd ways to progressively improve what we off er for customers." Paul Williams, chief technology o cer, Everflow "We operate dynamically to constantly scan the horizon for risks and opportunities and fi nd ways to progressively improve what we off er for customers." Paul Williams M onolithic utilities" need to deliver change to avoid being "eaten up by start-ups". That was the message from experts in the sector who are seeking to adopt a culture of agile working. They were speaking to Utility Week for a new report, Move Fast and Fix Things: Can Utilities Embrace Agile Ways of Working?, produced in association with Amazon Web Services. Inspired by so' ware development inno- vators, agile methodology moves away from the traditional waterfall approach of "plan, design, build, test, deliver" to a work- ing model relying on trusting employees and teams to work directly with custom- ers to understand their goals and provide solutions. Agile techniques – which can be in terms of processes or people – are an interactive, incremental approach to managing change and allow companies to react more quickly when there are market upheavals. Key to agile working is the scrum process frame- work, used to manage product development and sprints – short cycles of work to com- plete set tasks. Agile operations may start with IT but the real frontrunners are scaling the methodology across whole operations.

• Cover