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Analysis
Does flexibility risk widening the fuel poverty gap?
As flexibility markets expand across Britain's energy system, the financial rewards seems to be being realised mostly by households who can afford solar panels, batteries and smart meters. We look at whether renters, lower-income consumers and younger households, who NESO data shows are already under-represented in flexibility schemes, risk being left to cover a growing share of network costs while missing out on the benefits.
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Analysis
Future of Utilities Summit 2026: the industry's take on flexibility
Flexibility dominated this year's Future of Utilities Summit, with broad agreement that the technology has stabilised and none at all on where the economic case lies. Across the interview series, Sean Layerle, David Watson and Kate Mulvaney set out three different views of what stands between flexibility and the mainstream: risk appetite, consumer trust, and automation that removes the question entirely.
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Analysis
Future of Utilities - Expert Voices - Sean Layerle
Sean Layerle argues that the technology behind flexibility has stabilised, yet customer adoption, both commercial and residential, remains the sector's real barrier to scale. Speaking with Talking Utilities at Future of Utilities Summit, he explains why the industry's biggest gap right now isn't tech, but hindsight, and why the companies pulling ahead are the ones willing to test, learn, and take the risk.
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Analysis
Future of Utilities Summit - Expert Voices - Kate Mulvany
Kate Mulvany has spent her career at the sharp end of energy change and regulation, and in this conversation we tackle how flexibility is becoming operationally real, how organisation should ride the wave of regulatory change, and what consolidation we can expect to see as the market matures.
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Analysis
Changes cycles are compressing - how does the energy industry keep up?
Three years of Future of Utilities Summit agendas tell a story that goes beyond conference themes. AI has arrived as the sector's defining priority, flexibility has found its commercial footing, and ambition has given way to a focus on delivery.
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Analysis
AI, Flex and the End of Debate: A Future of Utilities Roundup
The Future of Utilities Summit 2025 marked a turning point — AI is no longer a conversation topic, it's an operational imperative. From flexibility markets to customer debt, the sector is done debating and ready to build.
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Expert Voice
Future of Utilities - Expert Voice - Aarth Saraph - United Nations
How the UN are supporting on the energy transition - and bringing innovative energy projects to the developing world