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NETWORK / 15 / FEBRUARY 2017 Whether their initiatives take the form of sharing ideas, funding initiatives or cross-vector projects, network operators must move now to address the challenges that are facing the sector and to shape a future network that places the customers at its heart. The third annual Future Networks Conference, sponsored by Schneider and Capula, will provide a platform for leading speakers from both industry and government to explore the challenges ahead. Delegates will gather in Birmingham on 21 March to hear them address system operation, innovation and system architecture. Representatives from the DBEI and Ofgem will also divulge the intended direction of travel. Ahead of the conference, three of the speakers unpick here the topics they will be†covering. N Ofgem wants more innovation funded through the Networks Innovation Competition to be adopted as business as usual (BAU). How effective is the funding in achieving that conversion to everyday practice? There is a limit to how much you can learn in a funded innovation environment. Things like commercial and contractual risk are distorted by innovation funding. Deploying things into BAU requires different criteria to what funded innovation projects are measured against, and as a result you get different types of outcomes. How much of a challenge will it be to move innovation to BAU? There are a whole range of challenges from changing internal views to presenting business cases. It's about new ways of working, new skills in the industry, businesses taking on risks they have never experienced before, and how you actually go about quantifying these risks and presenting them in a language a business can understand. What are the next steps for moving into BAU? It's not a big bang approach that is needed. Innovations that we are working on at the moment don't necessarily work in all parts of the country or in all scenarios at once. One of the key things we have to acknowledge with smart solutions is that there will be certain parts of the network where there is more stress and differing socio-political factors and topography. This means that solutions work in one place but not at all in another. So we have to accept that innovation needs to grow geographically and through the networks. What do networks mean by behaviour change? Electricity North West conducted a three-year study, known as the Power Saver Challenge, into the feasibility of engaging consumers to change their energy consumption and thereby avoid the need for costly and disruptive network reinforcement. The project was a success and the fi nal report will be published shortly. It demonstrates that a 4- 5% sustainable reduction in peak electricity demand can be achieved. The project also showed that to secure and use a behavioural change by customers, signifi cant DNO behavioural change is required to utilise the power of community engagement. How hard will it be to change behaviour? The success of the Power Saver Challenge project shows that behavioural change by the DNO and its customers is diffi cult, but achievable. Is there enough time for DNOs to adapt to the transition to electric vehicles, whenever that might be? My belief is that the EV transition will be the next rapid change in the journey towards a low- carbon economy. However, there is suffi cient capacity in the current distribution networks to support the initial rollout of several million EVs. This fact, coupled with the ability of other innovative developments, including the development of the distribution system operator role, will provide suffi cient time for DNOs to undertake the necessary adaptation to ensure that the EV transition is achieved at an affordable cost. In the changing energy landscape, how is the role of system operator changing? The shape of the energy landscape is changing with the shift towards digitisation, decentralisation, decarbonisation. There is increasing penetration of embedded generation, more solar and storage, and the nature of demand is also shifting. This all affects the technical aspects of how the system works. What is National Grid doing to address those challenges? There is a whole host of different ways of operating that we will need to consider. In our system operability framework, we set out several hundred pages worth of things that need to be considered. Some of them you can call challenges and some you can call opportunities, and I hesitate to refer to them as either specifi cally. There are many interesting meaty and specifi c technical innovations going on. We have just been awarded funding for our Network Innovation Competition project TDI 2.0. It will look very specifi cally into the distribution systems transmission interface and how it needs to evolve. The project is being carried out jointly with UK power networks. What is the future of the network system over the next fi ve to 10 years? Decarbonisation and decentralisation will continue over the next few years. We should see more testing of different solutions within the industry in how to manage the power system at all levels, and more experimentation in the way we deliver effi cient and economic solutions that don't affect consumers. Stewart Reid, head of asset management & innovation, SSEN Paul Bircham, networks strategy & technical services director, ENW Richard Smith, network capability (electricity) head, National Grid S P E A K E R P R E V I E W S CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY GET TO Future Networks Conference 2017, 21 March, Birmingham Conference and Events Centre For more information contact: Benjamin McNamara business development director Email: benmcnamara@fav-house.com Ed Roberts, business development director Email: edroberts@fav-house.com Book now: events.networks.online/future