News

On April 22nd we hosted the first in our new series of webinars: The Future of energy retail.

The event focused on the future of the energy market for retailers and customers and considered some of the potential ways of unlocking new assets and business models to enable the energy transition.

Chaired by Director Rob Gross, the event opened with a presentation from Laura Sandy’s of Challenging Ideas, followed by responses from three panellists: Sarah Keay-Bright (practice manager for policy & regulation, Energy Systems Catapult); Will Blyth (researcher, UKERC/Director, Oxford Energy Associates); and Jeff Hardy (senior researcher, The Grantham Institute at Imperial College)

Drawing on key themes highlighted in the recent ReCosting Energy report, Laura called for a move from treating energy like a commodity to a service, where demand and supply side actions are treated equally. Whilst energy is treated like a commodity there are no incentives for providers to make the necessary changes, but with the transition to energy as a service, providers will work to deliver more for less, delivering better value for consumers. New assets and business models will be needed, and it should be the service provider, not the consumer, who is expected to implement the heavy lifting, delivering whole system benefits.

Covering topics such as energy efficiency+, regulation, risk and trust, it was a lively discussion. You can watch a video of the event below.