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NETWORK / 9 /MAY 2018 David Murray, CEO at Kirona shares his insight as to how some of the leading multi-utility infrastructure and services providers are increasing productivity of their mobile workforce by an average of 20 per cent, whilst also improving customer service. Since I established Kirona 15 years ago, we have gained a leading position in providing innovative mobile workforce management solutions that enable businesses to optimise the planning, scheduling, allocation and mobilisation of their field-based resource. We work with a wide variety of organisations, many of which have contracts that are sometimes geographically spread. This results in their operatives being required to carry out multiple jobs per day across a large geographical area, with significant time spent travelling between sites. Key to overcoming these challenges is implementing a fully integrated, flexible mobile workforce management and scheduling solution that enables real-time visibility of mobile workers, streamlines the process of raising work and gives the option of jobs being created by the operatives in the field that are immediately visible to the back office team; empowering workers. Having a truly dynamic resource scheduling solution as part of the field service management toolkit is key. This ensures that the requirements of each job are met in accordance with your SLAs. In addition it provides customers with greater control over appointments, reducing the risk of wasted bookings. Effective mobile workforce management is achievable with the right supplier. The Kirona team will be at Utility Week Live. For further information email info@Kirona.com I N D U S T RY I N S I G H T Mobile workforce management: How to achieve a 20% increase in productivity can make fuller use of the free, low-carbon fuel on offer from renewable resources. Heat consumption in the UK is five times that of electric- ity. Only focusing on electrical energy will likely not resolve our current dilemma in decarbonis- ing the energy system. We need to start thinking about how we use, recycle and store heat alongside our demands for elec- tricity and energy for transport - this is something that a whole systems approach seems to of- fer. This is especially important if we consider the potential electrification of road transport as more EVs plug into the grid. With EVs becoming virtual grid assets vehicle-to-grid energy storage could become common - place in the near future. This is why we are working with Nissan and others to deliver a £10m large scale trial of vehicle to grid technology. What else does an inte- grated approach to energy offer? For energy distributers it could mean sharing storage and other assets that could be spread across the entire energy system, along with customer demand side response, to balance sup - ply with demand especially during spikes in energy usage. Long-term planning for energy infrastructure is also made pos - sible by understanding dynamic changes within the energy system at multiple scales: from individuals to buildings, cities, regions and countries. Advanced modelling of energy flows improves forecast - ing and allows distributers to do more with less, increase system efficiencies and reliability. Energy could be made more af - fordable depending on custom- ers' actual need, since a flexible energy system can respond to different customer scenarios to ensure people receive the energy service they need when they need it. A smarter energy system with increased flexibility also means greater opportunity to end fuel poverty. As energy supply evolves so does demand, one influences the other. Demand influences infrastructure and vice versa. Rather than looking at each in isolation CESI is studying the big picture to represent the interlinkages so we can better understand how they might co- evolve and develop over time. Because these different aspects of the big picture of energy interact together we need this systems view. Taking into account these and other new demands placed on the energy system, a whole systems approach to energy is necessary for delivering the future of the UK's energy infra - structure. The role of CESI is to work with our national and international partners and col- laborators to play a decisive role in making an integrated energy system in the UK a reality. Quantifying the certainty of the future In our modelling of the energy system, backed by real-world data from our demonstrators, we are also tackling uncer - tainty in how our energy system works. This is of importance to policy makers, regulators and industry since an understanding of uncertainty in scenarios can enable more informed decision making. Uncertainty is a major factor that is o"en unaccounted for in modelling the energy system. To respond to this CESI is working with the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's national centre for data science, to incorporate uncer - tainty into all of our research. If we're going to move to an 80 per cent reduction in CO2 by 2050 then some decisions taken early on will likely influence the range of decisions yet to be made. CESI aims to provide as much information as possible to help inform those decisions. Combining our shared ex - pertise in energy infrastructure, supply, demand, demonstration and policy, we are securing an integrated energy system for the UK, and this has significant po- tential to serve as an exemplar for future energy systems.