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14 | 20TH - 26TH JANUARY 2017 | UTILITY WEEK Policy & Regulation What is the Northern Powerhouse? The phrase "Northern Powerhouse" was first coined by then chancellor George Osborne in June 2014. This was the government's attempt to use the 15 million population in the north to create an economic force that could compete with and rival London and the South East, as well as to address the North-South economic imbalance in England. Osborne said it would be "a collection of northern cities sufficiently close to each other that combined they can take on the world". Aer the 2015 general election and the fallout from the EU referendum, which saw the exit of David Cameron and Osborne replaced as chancellor, new prime minister Theresa May reaffirmed the government's commitment to the idea by appointing Andrew Percy as the minister for the Northern Powerhouse at the Department for Communities and Local Government. The former chancellor has continued his involvement with the initiative, taking up the role of chair at the North- ern Powerhouse Partnership, a new body whose creation has been backed by the government, in September. "Energy businesses across the North should work together with local and national government to champion and drive forward the Northern Powerhouse." Opinion Denise Massey T he Northern Powerhouse needs to place itself at the centre of the UK's energy innovation agenda by being the first region to lead major collabora- tion across the industry. Securing the UK's future energy supplies is one of the most important issues on today's political agenda with ramifications for everyone from the individual householder to the Ministry of Defence. And it is only collaboration between the different sec- tors making up the energy industry – renewables, oil, gas, nuclear, etc – that could meet the challenges of the energy trilemma of energy security, energy access and affordability, and lower carbon, that is, environmentally sustainable. Yet at the moment there seems to be little appetite for actually taking action on developing this collaborative approach nationally. The government is open to new ideas and approaches where things are working well in order to inform the development of the national policy frame- work, but at the moment those models are simply not there. This is where the Northern Powerhouse could come in. We've got an incredible asset base in terms of energy – nuclear, gas, electricity, renewables, offshore – and a comprehensive network of small and medium-sized enterprises primed for innovation. It's all right here in the region. We could provide a framework for how the different strands of the sector could work together and provide part of the blueprint which could, over time, be rolled out nationally. There's already appetite for this collabora- tion in the sector. Mark Horsley, chief execu- tive of Northern Gas Network has already worked with consultancy KPMG on a "Power- ing the North" report exploring these very issues Starting to work together is the best way to reach, if not a solution, then the start of a solu- tion, to an issue that affects all of us. Cross- sector collaboration in the industry is challenging and almost too big a task to tackle nationally, but the Northern Pow- erhouse is ideally placed to start a shi towards a collaborative way of working by "thinking big, acting small". What we need to do is paint the pic- ture, plot the direction of travel, and then start taking those small steps that ensure we're aligned and mov- ing together in the right direction. But collaboration is not easy and requires dedicated resources. To do this, energy businesses across the North and national and local government should explore the pos- sibility of jointly funding a body to drive forward the agenda to achieve progress in this area. Once organisa- tions have some money invested and own the agenda, they're much more likely to push for results. And there is a precedent for this sort of collaboration in the work of the Energy Innovation Centre, which was launched in 2008 to accelerate the discovery, develop- ment and deployment of innovation among energy firms. This sort of collaboration is not rocket science but it does take commitment and the dedicated effort of senior players in the industry as well as both local and national government. Now is the time for deeds, not words, and the Northern Powerhouse is in a great position to start taking the actions required. If we want incremental growth and change, busi- nesses compete, but to achieve exponential growth and change, businesses need to collaborate. Denise Massey, managing director, Energy Innovation Centre