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Event UTILITY WEEK | 7TH - 13TH APRIL 2017 | 11 While an admirable achievement on its own, starting a new energy retail company will not win a place in the industry's top ten trans- formers. With Brighter World Energy, founder and chief executive Cheryl Latham is doing much more. She has created a company which hopes to not only engage the UK's notoriously uninterested energy consumer, but to bring power to villages in Africa for the first time by doing so. In an exclusive interview with Utility Week Live, Latham says the idea for Brighter World Energy came from the paradox that UK con- sumers were being overcharged by £1.2 billion, while 600 million people in Africa didn't have access to energy at all. "We didn't really know how the two could exist together," she says. The promise is that for every 2,000 custom- ers that join Brighter World Energy, a solar powered micro-grid is built in Africa. In its early months of operation, Brighter World Energy is on the verge of reaching the 2,000 customer milestone that triggers its first microgrid. Around 90 per cent of customers have been people who had previously been with one of the major six energy suppliers and not switched for at least three years. Latham is "unsticking the stickies". That alone is not enough for Latham. She is keen for her customers to have a connection to the good that is taking place. The company is currently developing an online platform that will allow customers to zoom in on the African village that has benefitted from a micro-grid as a result of their custom, as well as stories and real-life testimonies. On top of this, some lucky customers will be invited to join Latham to visit one of these villages "to see their grid and their village and tell that story to others". "The energy industry was in need of some- thing different. I think we're truly differenti- ated proposition on the market. We're asking people to come to us because we're a values- driven company and that goes right the way throughout the company," says Latham. "We are empowering them to give back without giv- ing more, and by engaging them we hope they will begin to understand and appreciate what they're giving." Brighter World Energy is an energy supplier 2.0. It is offering a unique proposition that, if successful, could provide a genuine alternative for UK energy consumers while changing lives on the other side of the world Cheryl Latham will be speaking on the keynote stage at Utility Week Live on 24 May at 3pm. Consultancy view - GIS DSR Geographical information system (GIS) technology creates visual models of geographical data. Its use in the sector represents a major leap forward due to its ability to visualise, ques- tion, analyse and interpret data; to under- stand relationships, patterns and trends. The utilities sector has been moving towards a closer alignment between their delivery outcomes and service, and what the customer desires, says Barry Middleton, power and utilities director at PwC. "GIS sup- ports that strategy." "It's giving a geographical view of where a company's assets are, how they are performing, what condition they are in and what work is being performed on those assets. It plays to the whole agenda around analytics as companies drive efficiency." GIS is an important component of an eco-system of technologies. "If you're going to drive data collection out among the field force then the GIS system also needs to be coupled with mobile technology so workers can go in and update the GIS systems." "If you couple GIS with analytics and a strong asset manage- ment and work management system, you've got the three key pil- lars for driving customer-driven asset plans, efficient and optimised asset management plans and work arrangements. You've got all the analytics to understand what risks might exist and how that might impact your customers." GIS will be among the topics discussed in the Transformation in Action seminar on the Customer Solutions Theatre at 11:15am on 23 May. Demand-side response (DSR) is provided by electricity end- users temporarily changing their electricity demand in the following ways. • Turn-down DSR • Turn-up DSR • DSR by on-site generation Current National Grid Reserve Services: • Short Term Operating Reserve must be delivered within 20 minutes and sustained for two hours. National Grid typically procures about 2.8GW of which DSR provides 43 per cent. • Fast Reserve must be delivered in two minutes and sustained for 15 minutes. National Grid procures 0.8GW of which DSR contributes 38 per cent. • Frequency Response must be delivered within 2-30 seconds and maintained for 10-30 minutes. National Grid typically procures 1.2GW with DSR contributing 8 per cent. Demand-side response will be one of the topics debated on the Water Wholesale Theatre in the Optimising Energy in the Water Industry at 12:45pm on 23 May at Utility Week Live.