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UtILItY WeeK | 10th - 16th OctOber 2014 | 25 Operations & Assets ity system that during half-time of the FA Cup final, the Central Electricity Generat- ing Board had to ask British Rail to slow trains passing through city just to keep the lights on. National Grid is under huge pressure for asking businesses to switch off at a time when there is significant grid latency. By maximising transparency and providing the ability to shi demand around the network to where it is needed, dynamic demand would allow this latency can be kept to a minimum, easing strains on National Grid while also helping businesses to avoid Triad charges that can amount to more than £50,000 of avoidable annual energy costs. Exploiting excess capacity in existing markets not only makes financial sense, it also unlocks new knowledge about asset per- formance for companies. David Hill, business development director at Open Energi Market view Dire skills straits Utility companies must do more to recruit and retain domestic talent at all levels, says David Spencer- Percival. T here is an ongoing skills shortage in the UK energy sector, exacerbated by the emergence of new tech- nologies. Although this is acknowledged by indus- try leaders, it is not a situation we expect to change imminently – in part due to the availability of foreign labour. The UK imports a lot of skilled workers, benefit- ting from being able to draw experienced professionals from around the European Union without visa issues, and this is a practice that looks set to continue. The impact of this is not all negative. For the UK, it means access to a wealth of knowledge and experience from a variety of markets. Talent migration means highly skilled workers are a commodity, which has a positive impact on the economy. Ultimately, though, the lack of skilled domestic talent, coupled with an ageing work- force, is detrimental to long-term energy security. According to Energy & Utility Skills (EU Skills), the power industry faces losing 80 per cent of its workforce by 2024, mainly due to retirement, and in that time will need to hire at least 45,000 new employees. In the UK, we currently need 110,000 science, engineering and technology graduates a year to address industry require- ments. We currently produce around two-thirds of this number. Energy companies, as well as government, are partly to blame for the severity of this skills crisis. They have lagged behind in providing improved train- ing and incentives to encourage young people in the UK to consider a career in their sector. The limited avail- ability of sponsored training programmes, apprentice- ships and partnerships with universities has resulted in a shortage not only of highly skilled experts but also lower level technicians. At the most basic level, there needs to be far greater interaction between academic institutions and busi- nesses to ensure the content of university courses is relevant and recognised by businesses as preparing graduates to the required level. In addition, businesses should work with universities to increase the availability and take-up of industrial placements. Another important way to attract young people into the sector in the UK is to offer salaries that reflect the need for skills. We have started to see this at the top level but it is important that businesses are also able to keep offering attractive packages to lower level manage- ment and graduates. The onus is on companies to ensure that top talent is appropriately rewarded throughout the business. David Spencer-Percival, chief executive, Spencer Ogden *The Triad season is a four-month winter period, during which National Grid looks back to find the three half-hour periods when electricity demand was highest in the UK. These are known as the Triad demand periods. National Grid then uses this information to set a capacity charge for each local electricity network operator across the UK. 00:00 04:00 08:00 12:00 16:00 20:00 00:00 15:40:00 15:50:00 16:00:00 16:10:00 16:20:00 16:30:00 16:40:00 16:50:00 UK daily demand profile (nUmber of events), march 2011 - aUgUst 2014 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 Number of events High events Low events asset responses to changes in grid freqUency 15:40:00 15:50:00 16:00:00 16:10:00 16:20:00 16:30:00 16:40:00 16:50:00 50.20 50:15 50:10 50:05 50:00 49:95 49:00 Grid frequency, Hz Demand response loads, percent £1.2bn Amount the UK could save on grid reinforcement and new generation capacity in the next six years by using dynamic demand response Source: Open Energi