Innovation Lounge
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Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
The energy sector is at a pivotal moment. Transforming how energy is delivered, experiences and valued by customers is essential to achieving a clean energy future. This session brings you the team who engineered EON Next Gen Home energy as a service as they talk through:
- The challenges and opportunities presented by co-creation and partnership working
- First-hand experiences from the innovation journey
- The co-curation of services which change the way energy is valued and consumed
- Successful approaches to true innovation and partnership working
- Overcoming sticking points and barriers and how competing organisations can work together
Facilitator
Dulcie Omonubi, Senior Innovation Manager - E.ON Next
Panel
Zac Curtis, Project Lead - EON Next Gen Home - EON Next
Mike Lonergan, Partnerships Director - Vaillant Group
David Humphriss, Head of Residential - Solar Edge
Christian Steiner, Head of Customer Success - Podero
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Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
To meet the ambitious goals set for the short and medium term, utilities must embrace new ways of working. Fairer risk sharing across projects reduces unnecessary contingency, encourages early engagement and gives the supply chain the confidence to invest in new methods, technologies and skills. Join this session to unearth how to better manage risk in construction to build stronger relationships in the supply chain and encourage innovation to drive efficient project delivery.
In partnership with:
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Facilitator
Kate Lloyd, Sector Group Manager - CECA Policy
Panel
Daniel Foster, Head of Commercial - Capital Supply Chain - Severn Trent
Steven Warwick, Preconstruction Manager (Water) - Knights Brown
Oliver Kerwin, Commercial Director - Mott MacDonald Bentley
Danielle Williams, Capital Framework Manager - Welsh Water Capital Delivery
Chairperson -
Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
Deploying and scaling innovation is never straightforward challenges range from securing stakeholder buy-in to adapting solutions for wider rollout. This interactive Q&A session will cover:
- How to turn a successful trial into a business-as-usual solution
- The importance of prioritising genuine problems not innovation for innovations sake
- The value in engaging with stakeholders early and often to overcome the valley of death
Facilitator
Matt Hastings - Ideaonomy
Panel
Chris Rison, Head of Smart Network - Cadent
Chris Bolt, Innovation Portfolio Manager - Northumbrian Water Group
Natalie Wadley, Co-Founder - Change Maker 3D
Katrina Flavell, Innovation Technical Specialist - Yorkshire Water
Chairperson -
Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
With a wealth of innovation projects underway in the utilities industry, there is a clear need to streamline approaches, join forces and reduce the duplication of efforts. This session explores how AI presents a huge opportunity as the panel discuss how AI can:
- Align challenges and streamline investment
- Drive efficiency in innovation trials
- Improve knowledge sharing from projects to encourage faster deployment
Panel
Jeremy Heath, Innovation Manager - SES Water
Matt Hastings - Ideaonomy
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Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
Sponsored by:

Utilities shouldn’t innovate for innovation's sake but seek to uncover hidden inefficiencies. Finding breakthrough solutions and scaling them responsibly is far from straightforward. This session explores how utilities and innovators can work together to surface innovative solutions, validate new approaches and navigate the financial and operational risks of moving from pilot to business‑as‑usual.
Facilitator
Matthew Hempstead, Commissioning Editor - Springwise
Panel
Rob Ambrose, Technical Validation and Scoping Lead - Energised Futures - powered by Centrica
Phil Steele, Future Technologies Evangelist - Octopus
Jeannette Henderson, Principal - Innovation - Ofwat
Susan Fox, Client Director - Energy - Frazer-Nash
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Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
Utilities need to change the way they currently operate to deliver for consumers, achieve sustainability and net zero targets and operate more efficiently. Startups bring a world of potential with fresh ideas, agility and innovative solutions to the utilities industry but maximising new partnerships presents its own challenges. This session offers practical guidance on:
- How to build strong partnerships with emerging companies
- Ways to navigate procurement approaches to fostering trust
- Managing and mitigating risk while accelerating innovation
Facilitator
Matthew Hempstead, Commissioning Editor - Springwise
Panel
Ian Small - Water Innovator Alliance
Corinne Day, Senior Partnerships Lead - Southern Water
Sam Walker, Senior Policy Manager - Energy Innovation - Ofgem
Nic Wallet, Energy Systems Innovation Lead - Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) - Ofgem
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Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
There's one ingredient that's critical for innovation: failure. Time and again, we're told that if you're going to be successful at innovation, you must be prepared to fail and must create a culture where failure is acceptable. UWL26 is going to do just that, with speakers at our innovation mess up night sharing stories of their own failures, and what they learned from them.
Facilitator
Piers Clark, Founder - Isle Utilities
Speaker
Tony Conway, Director - Conway Water Consulting
Panel
Jeremy Heath, Innovation Manager - SES Water
Avi Aithal, Strategic Programme Director - ENA
Dr Natalie Lamb, Senior Manager, Sector Intelligence - Spring
Chairperson
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Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
As the energy system undergoes rapid transformation, closer collaboration between academia and the utility industry has never been more critical. This panel brings together researchers, utility leaders and non-departmental public body to explore how academic innovation can more effectively translate into real-world utility applications and how industry challenges can better inform research priorities. Through practical examples and candid discussion, the session will highlight pathways to accelerate knowledge transfer, reduce implementation barriers and build long-term partnerships that support a reliable, affordable, and decarbonised energy future.
- How do we shorten the cycle from academic insight to utility deployment and close the time to impact gap?
- Why do many clean energy pilots stall and how academia and utilities co-design programs that are scalable, repeatable and investment-ready?
- How can industry and academia better align incentives and success metrics to reward impact, deployment, and system benefit?
- Using CP230 frameworks and standards to align research, planning, and investment decisions around outcomes rather than isolated projects
- How can both academia and industry ensure graduates, researchers and practitioners are equipped for modern grid challenges?
Facilitator
Avi Aithal, Strategic Programme Director - ENA
Panel
Muditha Abeysekera - Energy Systems Catapult
Laura Brown, Lead Flexibility Forecasting Engineer, System Forecasting, Energy Systems - Northern Powergrid
Anca-Elena Mihalache, Head of strategy, policy and regulation - Axle Energy
Agusti Egea - University of Strathclyde/SP Energy Networks
Chairperson -
Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
The newly formed Institute of Innovation Management and some of its founding partners; EON and BSI, explore how ISO 56001 may offer a foundation to Innovation Management System Frameworks that provide momentum for best practice delivery, impact and resiliency. This session will explore:
- The challenges faced by those seeking to innovate
- How frameworks can help embed innovation as a system
- How systemic innovation management delivers greater value – for organisations and ecosystems
- Hear from those professionalising innovation management with firsthand experiences bringing the process to life
Facilitator
Matthew Hempstead, Commissioning Editor - Springwise
Panel
Zac Curtis, Project Lead - EON Next Gen Home - EON Next
Victoria Milne, Executive Director - Institute of Innovation Management (The IIM)
Duncan Steel, Group Director – Technology, Digital and Innovation - Amentum
Abbey Dorian, Head of Sector – Energy - British Standards Institution
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Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
Utilities face a critical crossroads continuing with business as usual is no longer an option. Meeting ambitious deliverability and sustainability targets to provide resilient critical national infrastructure requires bold change and fresh thinking. This session brings representatives from Ofwat and Ofgem's innovations funds together to discuss:
- Why networks need to embrace new approaches and innovate better
- What it takes to succeed in a rapidly evolving digital landscape
- How to maximise innovation funding
Facilitator
Eric Brown, Director - Grid Scientific Limited
Panel
Jodie Giles, Programme Director Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund - Innovation As A Service - Energy & Environment - Innovate UK
Marc Hannis, Principal - Innovation Fund - Ofwat
Chairperson -
Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )

Join the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) and guests to learn about the Industry Innovator Action Plan and how it aims to help innovators like you.
Learn about the history of the Action Plan, its core aims and the progress being made by the EIC and its energy network partners to streamline access, improve collaboration, enhance support and help accelerate innovation from idea to business-as-usual deployment.
Facilitator
Angus Dent, Senior Innovation Engineer - EIC
Panel
Sam Morre, Innovation Engagement & Deployment Lead - National Grid
Amjad Karim, Founder & CEO - Keen AI
Hannah Docherty, Senior Policy Manager (Innovation) - Ofgem
Chairperson -
Innovation Lounge( Your local time: - )
Water is an undervalued resource in the UK and ensuring a sustainable water future can’t rely on building infrastructure alone. Customers need to change their habits.
Join this creative session to breakdown the challenges and explore innovative ways to engage consumers meaningfully to bridge the ”say-do” gap to truly help change behaviours for the long term. Our expert panellists will exchange insights of behaviour change research, the role of AI and practical applications on what’s working and what’s not and how we can shift perceptions of water and its value.
This session will cover:- The key barriers and gaps to innovation in behaviour change
- The role of AI and data science – how personal can we go?
- How do we ensure inclusive and ethical design of interventions
Facilitator
Mumin Islam, Trustee - Waterwise
Panel
Kirsty Laing, Associate Director - Explain Research
Armenak Antinyan, Head of Behavioural Economics - Thames Water
Professor Benjamin Gardner, School of Psychology - University of Surrey
Chairperson