It’s this understanding that made it so inspiring to see over 450 innovators really get their teeth into practical problems from fresh perspectives. This took place in March at our Innovation Basecamp event, held in Birmingham, that marked the start of a collaboration between ENA, Ofgem and Innovate UK to create an innovation work programme focused on rapidly developing solutions to net zero energy challenges.
The event was the first time all gas and electricity network operators, along with many energy suppliers and regulators came together to lay out their challenges, and present over 50 ‘problem statements’, statements that innovators from the private, public and community sectors could use to shape their work. The problem statements were loosely themed around ENA’s whole system innovation strategy but were honed by a focus on the key concerns of our members and partners. It was great to see so many people in attendance, we even had to switch to a bigger room.
These problem statement covered perennial challenges, like optimising the way we lay cables and reducing excavation costs, and challenges that are only now emerging as the energy system evolves, like how AI enabled modelling can best be deployed or how to create the next generation of energy storage. The problem statements also reflect the changing nature of the world around us, including looking at how whole building solutions for decarbonisation can best be deployed and assessing what models provide the best prediction of extreme weather events.
The problem statements aren’t just general summaries – each one has been designed to be specific, technical and granular, guiding innovators to creating truly useful proposals. Each problem statement was presented to the audience at Basecamp, with the innovators in attendance able to probe industry leaders and test their initial thinking around the challenges.
Following the event, innovators have been working together to develop their ideas for projects and submit them to an online portal. Everyone who contributes a proposal will receive feedback on their ideas, and as the work programme isn’t tied to a specific funding stream, any number of innovation funding programmes, like the Network Innovation Allowance (NIA) and the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), could be used to take forward the idea. The portal will be open until 5 May, after which point all proposals will be assessed and those ready to move to the next stage will be invited to a collaborative ‘pitching’ session in June.
I am proud that so many fantastic ideas were shared at the event, as I believe a culture of innovation that supports creative, bold technical ideas is one of the UK’s great strengths as we progress towards net zero. In the months and years ahead I’m confident that some of bold blueprints and radical proposals will form the core of a whole energy system, the outline of which currently exists only in the implications of the problem statements innovators are grappling with.