The Event

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to speak at the Energyxtra event at Chester Racecourse which was a fantastic electricity industry conference where a number of different organisations came together to discuss the net zero challenge for, not just our industry, but our country as a whole.

Topics ranged from what SP Energy Networks are doing to upgrade their network in North Shropshire to manage increased power flows due to increased demand and new distributed generation, bi-directional vehicle chargers and how they can be integrated into a smart electricity grid to provide system flexibility using the ev.energy app and how extreme weather events can shape the design and operation of the electricity network with insights from Outlook Energy. I introduced the work we are doing with National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) to help them with their Grid Park projects to connect multiple customers to one transformer bay, increasing the efficiency and helping to reduce the connection application queue while facilitating the introduction of renewable energy generation and battery storage to the network.

The Consumer is Key

What struck me about the day was how much work is being done by a huge number of people in such a wide range of disciplines. There were so many great ideas being presented, with a lot of those ideas actually becoming reality with real-world trials either recently completed or planned for the near future. Understanding by the network and system operators is improving as high volume data harnessed, leading to the introduction of innovative technologies, improved systems and new ways of working. It’s impressive.

At the heart of many of the presentations was the consumer. A key theme was that the transition to net zero will be a challenge, but it’s absolutely achievable. The end user must be kept informed and confident that their day-to day lives won’t be impacted in terms of both cost and reliability. This is particularly relevant to electric vehicle charging. There is a huge challenge to increase the capacity on our electricity networks for electric vehicle charging however, this could be mitigated by bi-directional charging and smart scheduling reducing the potential peak demand. Despite the network benefits, people won’t want to sign up for the technology if there is a risk that they are left with an under-charged vehicle when they wake up in the morning.

Traction, Skills and Enthusiasm to Deliver

Another running topic of the day was the news that the Government was likely to “roll back” on some of the green initiatives that were committed to a only a few years ago. There was a sense of anger and frustration in the room about the announcement; emotions shared by my team and me. It is clear that there is a momentum in the industry and fantastic work being done in an attempt to meet the challenging net zero targets set by previous governments and this insight from Rishi Sunak risks taking stifling the inertia and reducing potential investment in the shorter term.

Despite that, I came away from the day feeling confident about the net zero challenge faced by our industry and on reflection am humbled to have been included in an event with so much talent, intelligence, innovation and passion about delivering net-zero and I’m proud that my team and I will play a part in the transition to a cleaner and more sustainable future.by the network 

Adam