Utility Week

E mbracing the digital world is cri cal, whether you're a supplier, an investor or an innovator. New technologies disrupt the u li es industry constantly, and companies must always be ready to adapt strategies, processes and organisa onal infrastructure to ensure they are not outpaced in the race to keep up with ever-increasing customer service and efficiency expecta ons. Most u li es have recognised that while this disrup ve churn is challenging, it is worth the effort to keep running with it. As a consequence, even companies with stringent efficiency goals and slim margins are increasingly making money available for investments in technologies they see are closely aligned with their futures. By and large, this means investment in digital technologies, which will underpin data-enabled smart services and the opera on of intelligent infrastructure. Digital disrup on of u li es, if embraced effec vely, will allow them to meet customer demands, appease regulators, overcome environmental challenges and, in short, remain relevant. Recognising the significant and fast-paced changes u li es are grappling with on many fronts, U lity Week Live 2018 (22-23 May) has chosen disrup on as its headline theme. Held at the NEC in Birmingham, U lity Week Live 2018 will explore disrup on themes in rela on to water – retail and wholesale – gas and power networks, energy retail and pan-u lity opera ons such as streetworks. We'll also have technology-specific content on offer, and in the run-up to the main event, U lity Week Live sought to find out which technologies hold most disrup ve poten al for u li es by surveying its audience, and those of its sister brands U lity Week, WWT, WET News and Network. We asked them about the impact disrup on is having on their businesses, and to list the technologies they believe will most disrupt them in the next five to ten years – and why. In this second of a five-part series detailing the responses of more than 700 u li es professionals, we reveal the top ten technologies disrup ng the sector – and what they will mean for the industry. What our results told us first and foremost is that the future is local. As decentralised and digital technologies authority Neil Pennington puts it: "The days of the domina on of centralised large-scale assets, systems and processes are numbered. The future is one where autonomous, intelligent devices operate on a hyper-local basis, aggrega ng up to underpin the whole system in tandem with large-scale assets – whether it be solar, hydrogen, IoT [Internet of Things], renewables, or EVs [electric vehicles]." However, our results also highlighted the significance of "stepping stone technologies", which u li es need to implement U lity Week Live at the NEC on 22-23 May will be scru nising 'disrup on' in all its forms. Here, we list the top ten disrup ve technologies in the u li es industry – iden fied by you. U t i l i t y W e e k L i v e P R E S E N T S 10 | 2ND - 8TH MARCH 2018 | UTILITY WEEK P R E S E N T S

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