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NETWORK / 12 / FEBRUARY 2018 PAUL BIRCHAM COMMERCIAL STRATEGY AND SUPPORT DIRECTOR, ELECTRICIT Y NORTH WEST O ver recent weeks the spotlight has been shining brightly on the energy industry, from price caps to renationalisation to calls for a state-owned energy company in Scotland. The one thing that is certain is that the energy industry has to and is changing and as a network operator we are proud advocates of transform- ing the way energy is delivered to meet the needs of our ve million customers across the North West and share best practice now and for decades to come. The main challenge we face is the changing relation- ship with customers from passive to active. We need to proactively build stronger relationships with customers so that we can anticipate and plan for what's next for the energy industry. There is now an ever increasing range of customers using our network from solar farms, to o• shore wind farms to combined heat and power plant to commercial, domestic and in- dustrial customers. With the expected surge of new electric cars, a• er government plans to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040, and the continuing increase in distributed renewables the variety of customers and their energy needs will con- tinue to increase and evolve. The role of the distribution network operator (DNO) is no longer only to maintain the network and to keep the power on, it is now our responsibility to think smarter and get more out of the network to reduce costly new infrastructure, analyse and react to customer behaviours and help customers in fuel poverty. We are now on a journey to become a responsive and agile network operator with a hyper-local approach ena- bling customers connected to our networks the freedom to buy and sell their energy safely, securely and at the lowest cost. A new hyper-local approach To make this a reality it requires a new service model for network management and design and the facilita- tion of a † exible network through local and regional ca- pacity balancing and the move to a distribution system operator (DSO). Fundamentally our role will centre on identifying needs and securing the most eˆ cient means of network capacity provision for customers. We already see customers in our network looking to community energy and seeking to bene t from provid- ing † exibility. As this increases we will need to continue to innovate and provide new commercial o• erings. Benefi ts of an agile and fl exible power network There are many bene ts of enabling this transformation and building customer relationships. These include aid- ing a• ordability by lowering cost, providing additional income streams to customers, providing faster connec- tions, enabling deployment of low carbon technologies, reducing new infrastructure and avoiding uncertainties and risk to security of supply. In the last ve years we have won £42 million of competitive funding to ensure our network is t for the future. This includes our pioneering, award-winning Customer Load Active System Services (CLASS) project, Capacity to Customers and our community energy sav- ing project Power Saver Challenge. Capacity to Customers is now being implemented as business as usual and shared as best practice across the UK to accelerate renewable generation connections. CLASS provides signi cant bene ts to domestic customers through innovative unseen demand-side response techniques. By using 'automatic voltage con- trollers' (AVCs) to reduce demand for electricity, without customers even noticing a di• erence to their service, the CLASS project could save our customers around £100m over the next 25 years and £300m across the UK. Our changing approach to customer engagement is highlighted in our community engagement project Power Saver Challenge. The project tested ways of encouraging customers to re- duce their electricity usage to alleviate pressure on the network at times of peak demand. The Power Saver Challenge revealed that through engage- ment customers changed their energy usage behaviour and their attitude towards energy consumption. The North West is rich in renewable resources and opportunities and we're proud to support the Northern Powerhouse and help lead the way to a carbon neutral Manchester. It's an exciting time to be part of the energy industry and we're looking forward to taking the next steps on this journey. "The role of the distribution network operator (DNO) is no longer only to maintain the network and to keep the power on." BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH NETWORK CUSTOMERS