Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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utILItY WEEK | 5th - 11th August 2016 | 17 two men piloted the cra alternately. taking off from Abu Dhabi in March 2015 and returning this month. The privately financed project was led by Swiss engineer and business- man Borschberg and Swiss psy- chiatrist and Bertrand Piccard, who aimed to demonstrate what could be achieved with renewable energy. If you have a project you would like to see featured in this slot, please contact: paulnewton@fav-house.com Pipe up Richard Lamb W hen newspapers scream "Hotter than Athens" and "Floods chaos" it's easy to forget that in the spring before the London Olympics the headlines were all about hosepipe bans, swily followed by the "wettest drought on record". The increasing unpredictability of our weather has a huge impact on the utility networks. Most major utility providers have produced reports for Defra outlining how they plan to adapt to the future climate. Despite their efforts, the government's own advisers say the UK is still not properly prepared. The second national climate change risk assessment (CCRA) published in July also highlights "a number of knowledge, information and data gaps" including data, risk assessment, decision- making, and adaptation monitoring and evaluation. Every organisation holds masses of data, not only on its networks and assets but also on its people, its customers and, hopefully, its decision-making and management processes. Many organisations don't recognise the value of this data until some well-meaning civil serv- ant asks how many of their service interruptions are caused by extreme weather. Would your organisation be able to access this kind of infor- mation with ease, or would you have to trawl for days through your records? Can you imagine a world where analysis of network interruptions could be completed in hours rather than days? This is the world of data analytics, where your organisation's data can give you a new win- dow into your operations, improving resilience, reducing risks and helping find efficiency improvements. The Institute for Environmental Analytics (IEA) works on clients' specific data challenges, scoping and testing a new idea over a period of two to three months, and providing rapid insight into what is possible. It then works with clients to develop a full commercial solution. So if your organisation is looking for new ways to improve its resilience, perhaps exploring the data you already hold is a great starting point. Looking at things from a new perspective won't change the headlines, but it could give you the foresight to avoid being labelled as unprepared for our weird and wonderful weather. Maybe this is the place for your organisation to begin exploring how it can exploit its data and ensure that, no matter what the weather, the nation's utility networks and their operators are using their data to improve and increase the resilience of the nation. Richard Lamb, knowledge exchange manager, Institute for Environmental Analytics "If you're looking for new ways to improve resilience, exploring the data you already hold is a great starting point" "Imagine a world where analysis of network interruptions is complete in hours, not days" Operations & Assets