Companies are working hard to predict the future of smart energy and providers are looking to meet the future ups and downs of the energy grid.

GlobalData's power technology writer Yoana Cholteeva picks out five intriguing insights from speakers at this year's Future of Utilities event in London.

Democratisation

An important part of the sequence of D terms the event revolved around (decarbonisation, digitalisation, delivery, and decentralisation) was democratisation. SSEN distribution system operations director Andrew Roper highlighted that energy democratisation is based on people having a voice in energy operations and therefore establishing a better level of energy trust in the energy industry.

Roper says: "We need to involve the community, there's a lot of people out there who want to be part of this."

Trust and communication in the industry

UK Power Networks energy markets lead Efstathios Mokkas focused on the progressiveness of the energy market, but also the communication needed to help it develop and advance.

Mokkas said: "The way we develop is by continuing to take other ideas, other than the ones we already have with hope to save the future. In order to achieve growth in our network, we try to capture the market and share insights with participants, because you can't just have a seller and a buyer, you need both of them to meet and create a unique marketplace."

Decentralisation is key

Another crucial part of the Future of Utilities event was decentralisation and its application as part of the energy industry. The world of energy has got a lot smaller. This in turn, has allowed for energy management to involve regional flexibility schemes which ease the user and create a better structure for providers. To do that, current activities include storage and community projects coming as part of decentralisation.

Andrew Roper says: "These changes create the need for companies to alter the planning process to predict not just electricity needs, but energy as a whole."

Port and airport infrastructure must be decarbonised

National Grid head of innovation Ili Portugues talked about one of the biggest areas that has been looked at right now in terms of transport - shore shipping and airports.

Portugues says: "As 74%, of total imports in the UK are goods, and around 50% of all UK food is imported from abroad, the industry rarely focuses on development of innovative airport and port infrastructures, whose carbon footprint is not insignificant. "These are normally attached to a significant amount of building facilities, and they are very close to cities.

"In order to achieve existing environment targets, the industry really needs to focus on decarbonisation of ports and airports, and also the vehicles that arrive at these hubs as they are one of the key carbon footprint producers."

Electric vehicle growth as a challenge

Almost all speakers mentioned the fact that the predicted growth of electric vehicles will introduce a brand new challenge to the power industry.

National grid estimated that by 2050, electric vehicles in the consumer power scenario will create an annual demand of 46TWh - or about 11% of 2050 national demand, with the number of electric vehicles only in London forecasted to grow from 20,600 currently to more than 145,500 by 2025.

Although this increase will prove beneficial for the reduction of carbon emissions and achievement of the Paris Agreement, a significant amount of power infrastructure has to be built to catch up with the pace of greener transportation growth.

While this may add an additional strain to the power sector it can also provide many new opportunities for growth and optimisation of power technologies in the quickly approaching future.

ENDS

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