Next in my Future of Utilities Summit Insights series is the ever brilliant Kate Mulvaney. A true industry expert, I wanted to speak to Kate about the pace of regulatory change and how the industry should be engaging - with an ever-faster flow of mod’s, consultations and other industry outputs showing just how fast the entry sector is moving right now. We also tackled flexibility - and how it had moved beyond the IoT ‘hype phase’ (remember that?) into actual delivery
Kate’s key points:
Flexibility is now fast becoming an operational reality, which means there is an ever decreasing window of opportunity to influence design before the system locks down.
The consumer engagement gap needs to be solved by getting automation right; informed consent depends on flexibility working invisibly in the background rather than asking people to act.
Regulatory focus should be needs driven, and not a blanket approach; generators, storage operators and investors should watch local market coordination and national portfolio implications, while consumer facing players need to track standards and retail innovation moving flexibility beyond the early adopters we’re seeing now.
I also asked a meaty question around the influx of flexibility players and who would be the winners and losers. Kate’s view was that consolidation among flexibility providers would happen, but it will likely be triggered by market price movements rather than gradual attrition, with geopolitical and electoral uncertainty as key drivers for volatility.