Stepping into 2021 | Top 8 Priorities for Energy and Water companies

The Utilities industry has already faced and succeeded against the Covid19 pandemic this year, and with companies like E.ON, UK Power Networks (UKPN), Northumbrian Water (NWL) and Vyntelligence constantly innovating, the demanding future looks bright.

Below are the Top 8 Key Insights from Kapil Singhal (CEO, Vyntelligence), Tamsin Lishman (Asset Management Director, NWL), Michael Lewis (CEO, E.ON UK) and Basil Scarsella (CEO, UKPN) discussed at the Future of Utilities | Leaders Forum on industry priorities for 2021.

1. Stringent targets with Net Zero and Pricing Controls creates a need to achieve ‘More with Less (limited resources)
   Combine capabilities across People, Quality Data and AI

   “We must tackle these big societal problems around how do we achieve Net Zero and the changing climate. Utilities is such an exciting sector to be a part of – lots of change, lots of disruption and lots of possibility!” ~ Tamsin Lishman

2. Covid19 has provided a unique opportunity to personalise community engagement, driven by change in behaviour and faster adoption of digital.
   Safety & Sustainability are new drivers of building trust with the Brand

   “No one would have expected that our 3000 employees would have to work from home with the lockdown. How were we going to keep the lights on? But we saw digital transformation taking place within just 3 days, connecting our customers with our employees immediately” ~ Basil Scarsella

3. Intelligent Automation with smart meters gives more control to users and less struggle for engineers.
   

   “Taking a metre reading is not a pleasant job, especially when it is in the cupboard under the stairs. And we have been able to better serve our customers that have smart metres” ~ Mike Lewis

4. Necessity is a mother of innovation- we need to find the business problem and focus in on it
   Innovation should yield at least 10x ROI.

5. Start collecting quality data from your own people.
   It has the power to build a rich source of information, as well to enable Upskilling

6. Build information networks, eliminate silos.
   IT typically focussed on outputs, AI focuses on outcomes.

7. Get the right intelligence to the right people at the right time.
   AI should augment the human for smarter decisions.

   “Humans are great at making choices & decisions. Machines are fantastic at parsing & synthesising lots of data and provide useful insights  to enable faster decisions. Therefore building a powerful capability for field engineers and operations centers to get a clear picture on risks & progress across People, Assets and jobs” ~ Kapil Singhal

8. Situational awareness now feasible with Video on mobile.
   Opens a new world of remote working, safety inspections and customer resolutions.

As we prepare ourselves for next year and the fallout from the year of 2020, there is much hope to achieve greatness and success. We merely have to arm ourselves with the right tools for sustainable innovation to initiate the right processes, with the right people and at the right time.

2021 is a year for vynnovation. With the insights learnt, we are ready. Are you?

To find out more about Vyntelligence and how we’re prepared to boast sustainable innovation with our smart video, data and AI solutions, please arrange a demo or ask us any questions.