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NETWORK / 8 / JULY/AUGUST 2016 INTERVIEW I f network operators were looking for a champion to support their transition to smart grids, they have found one in former shadow energy minister Alan Whitehead. Labour has traditionally held some arguably regressive views on energy, such as a desire for renationalisation. But Whitehead, a stalwart of energy policy before a loss of faith in Jeremy Corbyn's leadership drove him to resign in June, has recognised that energy is a changing world and smart grids are the fundamental building blocks on which its future will be built. His strength of support has gone as far as to call them "non-negotiable", adding that they should be considered a "public good investment". He also questioned the government's grasp of how key smart grids will be to solving the energy trilemma. It is clear that although Whitehead cares deeply about all elements of the energy sector, energy networks are a particular area of interest. Network managed to catch Whitehead for a snatched hour one a-ernoon in Westminster - before the thunderclap of the referendum vote and subsequent political storm forced him out of office. Delayed by chambers Whilehead wa-s away an aide attempting to chivvy him to the next meeting, preferring to take time to discuss the grid challenges which so animate him. Whitehead has firm views on how the energy storage market should develop, the potential benefits of a systems architect, the need for an independent systems operator, and why he thinks the future of gas lies in closer links between the energy and waste sectors rather than looking to shale gas as a saviour. It was at the Low Carbon Networks & Innovation conference in Liverpool in November last year that Whitehead spoke out on smart grids, calling for greater support for their development. He believes smart grids should be on an even par with other critical infrastructure, such as motorways and railways. But under the Conservative leadership, Whitehead thinks the development of smart grids may already be in real jeopardy at step one: the smart meter rollout. Smart meter data The digital revolution due to start in earnest this summer is hailed as the solution to the billing nightmare that continues to plague the energy sector, while also ushering in the promised world of connected home products. While obviously beneficial to customers, the real significance of the rollout is not lost on Whitehead. He is fully aware that smart meters will unlock a wealth of energy consumption data essential if distribution network operators (DNOs) are ever to accurately map energy flows, reduce losses and utilise the existing network topography to its full potential. Already in Italy, distribution system operator Enel is putting data from 32 million smart meters to work (see more on page 22). But the government is going about the rollout in completely the wrong way, Whitehead says. It should not have been given to energy suppliers to lead. "I would not have started from here, but we can't start again," he says. The argument that DNOs should lead the rollout is an old one, but the reasoning extends beyond efficiencies of scale and installation. DNOs could have ensured compatibility with their own systems, but under the leadership of suppliers this is not guaranteed, and much of the benefit of the metering programme is at risk of being lost. With merely a month until the programme starts, DNOs will have to make the best of whatever situation they find themselves in. Energy storage Another key technology to smart grids is energy storage. A ra- of regulatory legacies are holding the burgeoning market back. The government has promised to address these as soon as possible, finally issuing its long-promised call for evidence at the end of June, but one point is proving contentious. In an oral evidence session to the Energy and Climate Change Committee earlier this year for its Low Carbon Network investigation, Ofgem's associate partner, energy systems, Andy Burgess, expressed the regulator's intention to block DNOs from owning energy storage, one of the storage market's key asks, to allow a competitive market to develop. Despite the regulator's apparent set position, energy minister Andrea Leadsom assured in a later session that while its flexibility investigation is ongoing, all options are still being considered. Whitehead is puzzled by Ofgem's position. There is no such thing as a fully competitive market in the energy sector, he reasons, because of the subsidies and directive regulation attached to them. "I think having that better licensing arrangement is potentially very important and it is just wrong that Ofgem has rejected it in the way that it has. "The challenge of some of these new technologies is how you fit that in with that landscape, not invent a new landscape as you might wish it to be for the next period," he added. Of particular concern is Ofgem's willingness to leave the development of the sector to chance by "hoping people just come forward", Whitehead says. "Storage will have such a vital impact on all sorts of ways of doing things, suggesting that storage ought to be much better planned onto the system than simply hoping that someone is going to come forward with the right array and the right things. "I think we just need to get on with it and not hope for an ideal world of perfect competition where people are just going to come into the market in a completely unplanned way." Although Whitehead would wish for urgency, a policy update on storage is not expected until the end of the year. System planning The issue of system planning has risen to the fore recently as the UK heads towards closer integration between the electricity, gas, heat and transport sectors in the near future. "We can't go back to a whole pile of central generating plants and yet people are talking as if we could, and are proposing systems as if the thing hadn't really changed and we could just get on with business as usual and it will all work out."