Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 27TH OCTOBER - 2ND NOVEMBER 2017 | 7 Interview A er ten years working in the regulated confines of the UK water industry, latterly as chief executive of Southern Water, Matthew Wright has taken the helm at the UK arm of Dong Energy – or Orsted, a shiny new name for a firm enthusiastically divesting its fossil fuel heritage and marching into a future "which runs entirely on renewable energy". Six months into that transition, and Wright isn't looking back. He wishes old colleagues in the water sector well as they head into the challenging 2019 price review, but admits he has no time to keep a weather eye on its outcomes for his former firm. Instead, Wright's attention is firmly on his new brief, and despite the dampening effects of a bad cold, he man- ages to convey genuine animation when considering the opportunities that a "paradigm shi" – an overused phrase, he admits – in the energy industry represents for a firm that is nimble enough to grasp them. And Dong is undoubtedly such a company. Of all Europe's big energy players, it has been among the fleetest of foot in acknowledging the new world order implicit in the decarbonisation agenda, and adjusting its business to fit. In 2006, Dong owned thermal power stations with a combined generating capacity of 5.7GW. It considered itself a leader in the construction of "clean coal" plants and also supported extensive oil and gas exploration and production activities in the North Sea, which brought in around 40 per cent of the group's pre-tax profit. Mean- while, offshore wind was a footnote in its annual report. By contrast, in 2016, Dong reported that its offshore wind business accounted for 63 per cent of the group's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amorti- sation (Ebitda), which totalled DKK25.6 billion (£3.1 bil- lion) for the year. Meanwhile, oil and gas exploration accounted for just 4 per cent of business activities (they are now discontinued altogether) and the company aims to phase out coal by 2023, either by closing its coal plants or converting them to biomass. Given this radical transformation, it is small wonder that Dong has decided it is time to dissociate itself from its fossil-fuel reliant past and create a new name to carry forward the group's green ambitions. Although he is relatively new to the company, Wright is nonetheless keen to sell the story behind its new brand – Orsted. "The old name – which originally stood for Danish Oil and Natural Gas – had to go. It was no longer a good description of who we are and who we want to be," he says. "The new name – I love the new name – is aer Hans Christian Orsted, who has been described as the Danish Tesla, or Edison, or Faraday to keep it more local." In 1820, Orsted discovered electromagnetism, which remains the fundamental physics behind the workings of today's wind turbines. "But he was also the first to extract aluminium, he also wrote poetry and philosophy and effectively founded the top technical university in Copenhagen. "It was that spirit of inventiveness, creativity, curi- osity, that really got people excited about the name," Wright continues. "It represents the whole culture that we want in our company, of reinvention, curiosity, pushing boundaries forward." The rebranding process will take hold in earnest in November, but already Wright is proud to proclaim that he has his Orsted cycling gear in action, and he jogs across his pristine corner office to point out his Orsted-branded model wind turbine, spinning the blades with satisfaction. Orsted's vision for a low-carbon future gravitates around its meaty portfolio of UK offshore wind assets, which currently have a combined capacity of 2.5GW. This will soon be extended with the construction of Hornsea 1, the world's biggest offshore windfarm, with a standalone capacity of 1.2GW. And earlier this year Dong was also given consent by the UK government to build Hornsea 2, an even bigger project, with a projected capacity of 1.8GW. With such a fleet at his fingertips, it's no wonder that Wright is keen to talk up the potential of a future energy system "based on a backbone of offshore wind". He welcomes the government's recent Clean Growth Strategy for the recognition it gives to the maturity offshore wind has achieved – halving technology costs in just a couple of years – and its promise to make £557 million avail- able for "pot 2" technologies, including offshore wind, in the upcoming contracts for difference (CfD) auction in early 2018. "It's a welcome continuation of a policy over succes- sive governments to complete the journey for renewable energy, and offshore wind in particular, to bring it to a

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