Utility Week

22 | MAY 2023 | UTILITY WEEK Talking Points… "We absolutely need to raise our game on leaks in our pipes … We know it's not enough, and with leakage you have to run to standstill because as we're getting more extreme weather events that's impacting the ground." Cathryn Ross, strategy and external a airs direc- tor, Thames Water "It's just getting more and more diffi cult to get people to cooperate with an installation. We've been at it a long time, we've got an off ering that customers generally really like but we're still short of 95% so I don't think we're ever going to get to 100% unless the government mandates it." Bill Bullen, chief execu- tive, Utilita, on the smart meter rollout "If you take just one message from this report, it should be the urgent need to upgrade our national grid for a world of high renewables penetration, and widespread electrifi cation of homes and businesses." Tim Pick, the govern- ment's o shore wind champion Quote, unquote we're ever going to get to 100% unless the government mandates it." Bill Bullen tive, Utilita, on the smart meter rollout widespread electrifi cation of homes and businesses." weather events that's impacting the ground." Cathryn Ross external a airs direc- tor, Thames Water Innovation is shaping the vision of the UK grid in 2050 Opinion Dan Clarke Head of innovation, ENA A mong the cornucopia of recent energy announcements and reports from government, you might have missed Sir Patrick Vallance's review of how to support growth and innovation in green industries. It's a wide-ranging document focused on regulation, but a cross-cutting theme is just how essential innovation will be to get us to net zero. The absolute necessity of innovation to decarbonise the UK is a priority energy networks have long understood. It's this understanding that made it so inspiring to see over 450 innovators really get their teeth into practical problems from fresh perspectives. This took place in March at our Innovation Basecamp event, held in Birmingham, that marked the start of a collaboration between ENA, Ofgem and Innovate UK to create an innovation work programme focused on rapidly developing solutions to net-zero energy challenges. The event was the ‡ rst time all gas and electricity network operators, along with many energy suppliers and regulators came together to lay out their challenges, and present over 50 "problem statements", statements that innovators from the private, public and community sectors could use to shape their work. The problem state- ments were loosely themed around ENA's whole system innovation strategy but were honed by a focus on the key concerns of our members and partners. It was great to see so many people in attendance, we even had to switch to a bigger room. These problem statement covered peren- nial challenges, like optimising the way we lay cables and reducing excavation costs, and challenges that are only now emerging as the energy system evolves, like how AI- enabled modelling can best be deployed or how to create the next generation of energy storage. The problem statements also re‹ ect the changing nature of the world around us, including looking at how whole building solutions for decarbonisation can best be deployed and assessing what models pro- vide the best prediction of extreme weather events. The problem statements aren't just general summaries – each one has been designed to be speci‡ c, technical and granu- lar, guiding innovators to creating truly useful proposals. Each problem statement was presented to the audience at Basecamp, with the innovators in attendance able to probe industry leaders and test their initial thinking around the challenges. Following the event, innovators have been working together to develop their ideas for projects and submit them to an online portal. Everyone who contributes a proposal will receive feedback on their ideas, and as the work programme isn't tied to a speci‡ c funding stream, any number of innovation funding programmes, like the Network Inno- vation Allowance (NIA) and the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), could be used to take forward the idea. The portal will be open until 5 May, a" er which point all proposals will be assessed and those ready to move to the next stage will be invited to a collabora- tive 'pitching' session in June. I am proud that so many fantastic ideas were shared at the event, as I believe a culture of innovation that supports crea- tive, bold technical ideas is one of the UK's great strengths as we progress towards net zero. In the months and years ahead I'm con‡ dent that some of bold blueprints and radical proposals will form the core of a whole energy system, the outline of which currently exists only in the implications of the problem statements innovators are grap- pling with.

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