As utilities lead the way through the energy transition and tackle the climate emergency, expectations and social norms around the use of energy and water are changing. Does everyone have the right to as much water and energy as they want, whenever they want it? If so, how do we deliver and pay for the infrastructure for this? If not, how do we make these very difficult decisions about who can use what, and when? This high level debate will bring together a selection of industry leaders to pose and answer some of the difficult questions that will shape both utilities and society as a whole in the years and decades ahead.

Panel:
Paul Fuller, Head of regulation – So Energy
Fintan Slye, Executive director – ESO
Ian Cameron, Director of customer service and innovation – UKPN
Amy Marshall, Consumer energy expert – PA Consulting

In this session, we will explore what needs to be done to get more meters onto the walls of persistently disengaged or sceptical customers and what steps still need to be taken to ensure smart meter data is working as hard as it can to deliver customer benefits and market innovation.

Hear from expert speakers on:

// Generating demand and tackling the harder to reach installations – closing the engagement gap- George Walters, Chief
    home services officer, Utilita
// Optimising the data value chain for innovation – Jeremy Yapp, Head of flexible energy systems, BEAMA
// Maximising the value of smart meter data – what next?- Dr Katie Russell, Data director, OVO
// Optimising customer engagement – Ronald Starreveld, Enterprise architect, Salesforce

Awareness and concern about the volume of sewage entering our rivers and seas has gained momentum with widespread calls for the water sector to improve the situation. This is a complex situation, so what are the most effective approaches to significantly reducing the use of storm overflows and improving the quality of bathing and river water?

Hear from our expert speakers on:

// Significantly reducing overflows for cleaner seas and rivers – our approach- Nick Mills, Storm Overflow Task Force and
   Southern Water
// Putting green recovery funding to use – using nature based solutions to manage surface water – Adam Boucher,
   Operations Lead – Green Recovery, Mansfield Sustainable Flooding Resilience, Severn Trent
// Water quality risk forecasting – real time water quality and AI monitoring at Warleigh Weir and Poole Harbour – Ruth    Barden, Wessex Water
// Working towards a sewer overflow free future – a practical approach to a shared problem- Matt Humphreys, Adler and Allen

As the incidence of extreme weather events increases, utilities and other providers of critical national infrastructure need to plan, invest and respond in new ways. Yet at the same time, increasing digital complexities and converging dependence on power are making it harder to confidently invest for future resilience. This session will explore the risks to critical national infrastructure posed by today’s changing world, and explore how utilities are responding.

Panel:
Cathryn Ross, Director of strategy and external affairs – Thames Water
Mark Enzer OBE, Deputy chair, digital twin hub – connected places catapult and strategic advisor – Mott MacDonald
James Heath, Chief executive – National Infrastructure Commission
Molly Strauss, Head of infrastructure – GLA
Professor Roger Kemp, Lancaster University

Leakage continues to be a pressing issue for the water sector as it strives to protect water security. With tough targets set to save billions of litres of water a day by 2030 water companies need to fight battles on many fronts to stop water escaping from their networks – and this must include a focus on prevention of bursts before they add to the problem.

Hear from our expert speakers on:

// Leak Prevention: How do we stop them even occurring? -Jeremy Heath, Head of innovation, SES Water
// National Leakage Research and Test Centre – Enabling innovative solutions – Clive Surman Wells, Innovation partnerships
   manager, Northumbrian Water Group
// Best practice in engaging with consumers to cut customer-side leakage – Scott King, Benefits realisation manager, Anglian
   Water
// How can we accelerate the detection of leakage? – Mike Smith, Executive director, smart utilities networks, Arqiva