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National Grid ESO advances digitalisation for a Net Zero future
We supported National Grid ESO in driving energy sector digitalisation by defining how a shared digital infrastructure can be built and operated for the benefit of all energy stakeholders. Together, we developed a comprehensive vision for a ‘Digitalisation Orchestrator’ – a critical component for governing a successful Net Zero energy system.
Collaboration overview:
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Independent report highlights the need for coordinated digitalisation governance in the UK energy sector and outlines an action plan.
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Workshops, interviews, and concept testing with energy stakeholders and experts define how governance to oversee a shared digital infrastructure can best be created.
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Partnership with Zühlke helps define the role of a ‘Digitalisation Orchestrator’ to govern shared digital investments, allowing the market to shape and control a transparent system architecture to support UK’s Net Zero goals.
Evolving energy landscape demands a unified digital infrastructure
National Grid ESO (now known as NESO, following government acquisition and transition to public ownership) is Great Britain’s system operator that ensures electricity supply meets demand every second of every day.
With the energy industry evolving at a rapid pace and renewable generation growing, National Grid ESO wanted to address the urgent need for a coordinated digital system infrastructure.
Many energy companies are making investments to digitalise the energy system. However, without a coordinated approach, energy organisations risk operating in silos, leading to services that don’t integrate and data that doesn’t interoperate. This can result in an inefficient, fragmented energy system that will slow the country’s progress towards its decarbonisation goal.
To overcome this challenge, National Grid ESO needed partners to help define a governance model that would enable sector-wide collaboration, align digital investments, and facilitate seamless systems integration and interoperability of energy data.
Building a unified vision for digitalisation governance
Having been commissioned by the government’s Energy Digitalisation Taskforce, to produce an independent report recommending how to improve UK energy digitalisation governance, National Grid ESO recognised our expertise in this field.
Our original report highlighted the need for coordinated governance of digital investments across the energy sector. As a result, the system operator selected our energy experts, along with Energy Systems Catapult and Arup, to add detail to this vision to define a governance model for overseeing shared digital infrastructure across the energy system.
We defined the role of the ‘Digitalisation Orchestrator’ as a coordinating entity. This orchestrator is designed to oversee energy system architecture at a sector-wide level to ensure that energy organisations, each with their own IT investments and systems, can operate in a unified and sustainable way.
We drew on best practices from enterprise architecture, agile working methods, and technical design authority operating models to design features into the Digitalisation Orchestrator that:
- empower organisations to confidently make individual digital investment decisions.
- foster strong transparency and accountability.
- deliver an integrated systems architecture across the energy system and other national infrastructure.
To validate our design and vision, we ran a series of collaborative workshops with the system operator, Arup, Energy Systems Catapult, and key energy stakeholders.
These discussions and interviews ensured alignment, helping create a governance model capable of managing large-scale digital infrastructure across independently governed but co-dependent organisations.
Our findings and vision for the ‘Digitalisation Orchestrator’ were consolidated into a report, published by the system operator.
Collaboration helps advance energy digitalisation
With our support, National Grid ESO has taken a pivotal step towards creating the governance necessary for the UK’s energy system digitalisation and wider energy transition.
Our joint effort has resulted in:
- A clear digital governance model: the ‘Digitalisation Orchestrator’ design provides a strategic, actionable solution to ensure that the energy sector’s digital systems work together seamlessly. It addresses the risk of fragmentation and sets the UK’s sector on a path to effective digital transformation.
- Enhanced collaboration and transparency: by facilitating consensus among energy sector stakeholders, we’ve ensured that the process of developing digital infrastructure is transparent and collaborative. This open approach has laid the groundwork for ongoing cooperation and innovation in the industry.
- Accelerating progress toward Net Zero: the orchestration framework gives energy companies the tools and guidance to align their digital investments with national decarbonisation goals, accelerating the UK’s transition to a zero-carbon grid.
