Innovation Stage

To achieve successful outcomes and minimise the impact on communities and road users, a step-change in collaboration and the broader adoption of innovative technologies/solutions is required.  This panel will bring together leading industry voices to share their experiences and provide valuable insight to inspire the acceleration in collaborative innovation we need. 

Understanding the challenges of vulnerability through the transition to Net Zero 

The need to accelerate pathways to net zero is increasingly apparent. A move away from long standing, embedded fossil based technologies to those which offer low to zero carbon emissions will bring challenges in terms of suitability across a broad range of application, their useability, impact and cost to the consumer and the complexity involved in making all of this happen from an energy network perspective. Adding further to this complex picture, the UK housing stock could prove particularly difficult to decarbonise with a sizable proportion of older building stock and levels of energy efficiency below that seen across Europe. Rising energy costs further exacerbate the challenge, with an increasing number of consumers finding themselves in fuel and digital poverty.  

In this session we will discuss the new facilities being created, which will consider energy and decarbonisation from both consumer centric and whole systems view point, to help identify and tackle the most complex challenge of our time, with examples of new research being undertaken, innovation that has been done and new thinking which could help unlock a fair transition for all. 

Chair: Keith Owen, Northern Gas Networks

Customer Energy Village project: Developing a research facility to support the Net Zero challenge  
Keith Owen, Northern Gas Networks

Exploring energy and water efficiency research  
Jess Cook, NEA 

An over view of Streetscore2 
Steve Dacre, Norther Gas Grid

How will changing electricity use may impact vulnerability 
Iain Miller – Northern Power Grid 

This session will consist of joint presentations in which the pairs of technology vendors and technology users who have successfully found a way to engage in a trial-to-purchase process will tag-team short first-hand accounts of how they managed to reach their agreements and more.