Utility Week Live 2018: Key take-aways

Author: Joakim Botha

Myself  and one of Eliq’s advisors, Chris Wall, attended Utility Week Live 2018, themed Utilities Disrupted. Our overarching conclusion from the various seminar sessions attended was, that’s putting it mildly!

One of the promotional videos for the event featured a clip of Philip New, CEO, Energy Systems Catapult who referred to disruption being evidenced by, “Asking questions and we’re not even sure that they are the right questions!”

Key streams featured:

• Evolving challenges and opportunities in the service sector
• Growing recognition that consumers are demanding service rather than products, with automation
• The push to decarbonise heat and transport
• Transformational impact of renewables on the UK energy sector
• Emerging infrastructure issues to support EV expansion

Of course, Smart Metering also featured with BEIS confirming that 10m Smart Meters are now installed in UK (71% up onDec 16 = 18% of the installed base). Smart Meters will provide a 5,000 foldincrease in energy data provision (based on half-hourly data, versus quarterlyreadings) totally transforming the customer experience and the utilities supplyand demand modelling.

This explosion of Big Data provides the engine for data analytics, which of course is where Eliq adds value; analytics are essential to inform and deliver new levels of customer engagement. With time, utilities should be able to transition to trusted energy advisors.

The overall challenge is that there are new technologies, new entrants and emerging customer requirements, that are rapidly influencing and shaping the sector. But this is only the beginning…

Jennifer Major – Head of IoT – SAS, summed it up, “Cool stuff is happening in the energy sector!”