Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
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Disrup on: the results and why they ma er By Dr Simon Harrison, group strategic development manager, Mo MacDonald, and Energy Policy Panel chair, Ins tu on of Energy and Technology " This list refl ects the range of views in the u lity sector regarding how radically energy in par cular but also the wider u lity space will be disrupted. If within the foreseeable future we see complete disrup on from the network edge, turning business models upside down across the whole sector, we might expect the disrup ve drive to come from companies currently marginal to the sector, or even players that we can't yet iden fy by name. If however we believe that progress will be in the form of con nuing incremental change from the status quo, then disrup on takes on a diff erent meaning. It would then become much more about how exis ng or new entrant players can disrupt broadly within the exis ng governance and regulatory frameworks. It's interes ng that the only water sector entry falls in this la er category. Meanwhile Na onal Grid is perhaps a special case, no ng its role as system operator, and its custodianship of what have become the standard scenarios to map electricity and gas industry futures. So who is missing? Network companies (power, gas and water), are striking by their absence, except for Na onal Grid. Some might think that a poor reward for the innova on deployed via LCNI in recent years. But whilst many talk of the u lity death spiral, we've not yet seen too many signs of the radical reinven on of the network companies that some futures might demand for them to succeed as businesses. I know some of them are talking about it internally, but perhaps RIIO2 and AMP7, and delivering on the current price controls, are a dominant focus for most. And which form of disrup on would create the most value for consumers? A Silicon Valley- led energy revolu on would likely reinvent the consumer value proposi on in the hyper- connected and digital era, transforming the consumer experience in a posi ve way …for those consumers who want it. But it could also threaten resilience and increase costs, unless we adopt proper 'whole system thinking'. The more limited sort of disrup on could drive lower bills and be er customer service within the tradi onal set of u lity/consumer rela onships. But which of these do consumers want? I recently a ended the launch of the Material Cultures of Energy project, which examined the societal response to historic energy transi ons to see what we could learn. One fi nding was that energy transi ons were messy, par al and proceeded haphazardly over many years. Some consumers benefi ted from the transforma on early on, but for many it was easier to transi on gradually with the old and new alongside one other for many years. But will the future be like the past? Nobody knows – but my feeling is that the tech company agenda will prove a more powerful engine for change than the u li es in the end – and quite possibly sooner and more disrup vely than we might expect. U lity Week Live takes place on 22-23rd May 2018 in Birmingham. Find out more: www.u lityweeklive.co.uk w w w . u t i l i t y w e e k l i v e . c o . u k TOP TEN COMPANIES DISRUPTING UTILITIES 1. Tesla 2. Google 3. Amazon 4. A company that doesn't exist yet 5. Water retailers 6. Small energy suppliers 7. Centrica/Bri sh Gas 8. Na onal Grid 9. SSE/Npower 10. Supermarkets I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | FEBRUARY 2018 | 23