DevicePilot CEO, Pilgrim Beart – founder of the platform which eventually became British Gas’ Hive – discusses the route to successful smart energy innovation and why service management holds the key to a smooth journey.
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Smart meters
Editor's picks
The fourth industrial revolution, with widespread rollout of the so-called Internet of Things, has been well publicised and long anticipated. There can be little doubt that, with UK utilities and their supply chain partners under increasing pressure to deliver more for less, smart devices that generate actionable insight are a must-have.
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The head of energy industry partnerships for Google’s Nest thermostat business, Aaron Berndt, discusses the tech giant’s pandemic ‘helpfulness campaigns’, efforts to streamline smart thermostat adoption and the impending challenge of scaling distributed energy resources.
Interviews
Latest in Smart meters
The unprecedented rise in energy prices has, according to Utilita founder and CEO Bill Bullen, created a ‘best-ever opportunity’ for the Government and energy suppliers alike to encourage energy efficient customer behaviour.
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Utility Week Innovate catches up with Utility Warehouse’s recently appointed chief commercial officer, David Walter, about an imminent ‘decade of complete reinvention’ and his grounding in groceries.
Interviews
Centre for Net Zero CEO Lucy Yu discusses what lessons utility firms can heed from consumer-facing sectors such as finance, transport, retail – and innovations such as Spotify Wrapped – in creating a richer energy data landscape.
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DevicePilot CEO, Pilgrim Beart, reflects on founding and selling the platform which would eventually form British Gas’ Hive brand, what utilities can learn from Silicon Valley, and the value of ‘co-opetition’.
Interviews
Centre for Net Zero CEO Lucy Yu mulls over key questions around the tech, transparency and level of device automation necessary to enable innovation and ‘hyper-personalisation’ in greener energy consumption.
Comment
Utilita’s director of new products, George Walters, discusses the importance of consumer-facing innovation and why he believes suppliers who aren’t creating technology that enable customers to understand and tweak their energy usage will lose out.
Interviews
Government has launched a new smart meter framework which aims to boost the rollout. So, what's next for suppliers as they ramp up the delivery programme?
Analysis
Utility Week Innovate’s first round-up of 2022 features Veolia’s first UK electric vehicle battery recycling facility, pan-utility efforts to improve priority services register support, and plans to trial solutions to smart meter ‘blackspots’.
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The challenge of scaling up the smart meter roll-out is shared across gas, water and electricity companies. As the panel debate and workshop at the Utility Week Live Summit discussed, smart meters prepare consumers for the changes to come on the net zero journey. But is there are also a case for using the energy sector's new dual band communications network for smart water meters too? Read on to hear more about delegates' views.
Analysis
The energy sector is seeing a rapid evolution of customer journeys and channels, with consumer expectations growing all the time. But are the energy market and the systems changing fast enough to meet these needs? This new white paper from Coeus Consulting considers some of the key challenges facing technology leaders across the energy sector and their wider significance.
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Local authorities are facing the dual pressures of boosting investment and decreasing emissions. However, these goals are not mutually exclusive. As part of our Countdown to COP series, SSE’s Stephen Stead looks at how forward-thinking councils are seeking to use the post-Covid economic recovery to modernise their energy infrastructure.
Opinion
Energy retailer Bulb has outlined plans to offer low-income or vulnerable customers a free smart thermostat. The company will trial the free fittings of Google Nest Thermostat E devices in 2,000 West Midlands homes and, if successful, will expand it to 30,000 properties across the UK.
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