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6 Building Services
Smart meter accuracy depends on resilience-bydesign at the file system level, warns Umair Ejaz, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Tuxera.
10 Energy Storage
If the energy storage industry is going to continue growing, it needs to ensure it’s acting ethically – that means transparent supply chains and passports, says Pulse Clean Energy’s Aazzum Yassir.
14 Power
Following on from his Powered On Live keynote, Rolf Bienert of the OpenADR Alliance explains how standards can help harden our electrical grid.
24 Renewables
As the oil giants pivot away from renewables, Cressall’s Mike Torbitt highlights the real battleground in ensuring we keep up momentum.
26 Sustainability
The green skills gap threatens the UK’s net zero future – as Martijn Gerlag of Fluke EMEA urges large-scale upskilling to close it.
It’s official – Britain’s battery businesses are booming. Or at least, there’s been a wealth of new financing and planning approvals for new energy storage projects across the UK.
While China is driving much of the global demand for energy storage, the UK is punching well above its weight. In fact, when it comes to the more than 7,500 energy storage projects around the world, the UK accounts for nearly 4% of the total capacity. That may sound like a small number, but it means that the UK is ahead of nearly every other country, bar China, Australia and the US.
It’s not just about total capacity either, the UK is moving forward with installing ever-larger batteries to ensure that it can use even more of the renewable energy that it is generating. Just this month, the world’s biggest battery project secured about £750 million of financing, and where will that battery be located? No, not in China or the US, but in South Yorkshire – ironically in the constituency of the UK’s Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband.
There’s even more good news for Britain’s battery businesses too, as a record number of projects entered the planning stages in the second quarter of 2025. In fact, developers filed 100+ planning applications totalling 8.4 GW – more than double what we saw during Q2 2024.
Of course, there’s still work to be done on streamlining planning applications – because it’s one thing entering the planning system, and another thing entirely to actually get approval. But the Labour Government says they’re working on it – and as with all things when it comes to planning, it seems we just have to be patient.
In the meantime, however, the market is getting hotter and hotter. It’s not just about the sheer number of projects, it’s also about the projects that are now making serious cash. That’s because over the past year, battery energy storage systems in the UK have seen revenues quadruple. That should make the decision on whether to invest easier, although as with anything, the more competition there is – the more likely returns will begin falling.
But for now, there doesn’t seem to be anything slowing down Britain’s battery boom. Now, we just need to make sure the batteries we are sourcing are ethical – an issue that has been highlighted in this edition of Electrical Review.
We also need to keep taking account of the wins. After all, in this world, it can be easy to give in to the doom and gloom – but there is still light, even amidst all the darkness.
Jordan O’Brien, Editor
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SUmair
Ejaz, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Tuxera, lifts the lid on flash wear, power-loss events and why resilience-by-design at the file system level is now non-negotiable.
mart meters are the backbone of modern energy infrastructure, enabling utilities to modernise the grid, support decarbonisation, and deliver reliable, real-time consumption data. With a design lifespan of up to 20 years, these devices underpin accurate billing, regulatory compliance, and effective energy management for utilities, OEMs, and policymakers.
However, inaccurate or incomplete data is becoming a growing challenge. Silent data failures are typically rooted in software-level design, instead of obvious hardware breakdowns. These errors can lead to billing disputes, compliance failures, operational inefficiencies, and ESG performance setbacks; problems that only surface when they have already impacted business operations and customer trust.
If the energy sector is to achieve its digitalisation and sustainability
ambitions, smart meter accuracy must be ensured throughout a meter’s lifetime. That requires rethinking how these devices are designed from the inside out.
The often overlooked cause:
At the heart of many smart meter failures lies NAND flash memory, which is commonly used to store metering logs, firmware updates, event records, and diagnostics data. While flash memory is essential for nonvolatile data storage, it comes with a critical limitation: a finite number of write/erase cycles. Each data write wears down the flash memory, gradually degrading its ability to store data accurately over time.
Additionally, writing new data generates obsolete or redundant information that must later be cleared in a process called garbage collection. This process places extra stress on flash memory, especially when using standard file systems not optimised for flash environments. Such file systems may accelerate memory wear, leading to gradual data degradation and storage issues that appear years before the intended endof-life for the device.
Power loss and voltage fluctuations further complicate the situation. In the real world, power interruptions are inevitable, and if a smart meter loses power during a write operation, the meter could fail to boot and completely stop working, becoming a “brick” that requires a technician to reset or replace it. If it continues to function, data corruption may occur.
The worst-case scenario is the meter becoming unusable and needing physical intervention. Without software-level mechanisms to detect and correct errors or to ensure transaction safety, these data corruptions may go unnoticed until they trigger a billing error or compliance failure. Field data has demonstrated that many smart meters fail not due to catastrophic breakdowns but due to these slow, hidden degradations in data reliability, which undermine the operational value of smart meters in the field.
Inaccurate or missing data from smart meters carries substantial business and operational consequences for utilities and meter manufacturers alike. Replacing underperforming or failed meters is costly, with each unit replacement costing approximately £250–£350. When replacements are needed across thousands of meters in a large deployment, the financial implications quickly escalate into millions.
Beyond the direct hardware costs, inaccurate billing resulting from incomplete data erodes customer trust and increases the workload for customer support teams dealing with complaints, disputes, and adjustments. This situation raises the risk of customer churn, damages brand reputation, and increases operational overheads.
Regulatory compliance is another critical concern. National energy regulators enforce strict accuracy standards for smart meters, backed by audits, fines, and penalties for non-compliance. Poor data integrity also impacts ESG performance, as accurate consumption data underpins carbon accounting, energy efficiency initiatives, and sustainability reporting. Inaccurate data threatens a utility’s ability to meet its ESG goals, undermining investor confidence and potentially affecting access to green financing.
Moreover, the operational impacts extend to grid management and planning. Accurate data from smart meters informs demand forecasting, load balancing, and the integration of renewable energy resources into the grid. When data integrity is compromised, these operational processes suffer, limiting the effectiveness of grid modernisation efforts.
To meet the ambitious goals of modern energy systems and extend smart meter lifespans beyond 20 years, a resilience-by-design approach is essential, prioritising software-level robustness alongside hardware reliability.
Advanced, flash-aware, transactional copy-on-write file systems are central to this approach. These systems manage flash memory wear while enabling high-frequency data logging and rapid recovery from power loss. Unlike traditional journaling file systems that require timeconsuming replays on every restart, these advanced file systems can recover within 20 milliseconds while maintaining 100% data integrity, even after more than 20,000 simulated power interruptions. This capability ensures that billing and data transmission continue accurately, even in unstable grid environments.
Techniques such as dynamic transaction points and copy-on-write mechanisms protect the consistency of both metadata and user data, allowing systems to return to a known good state without requiring lengthy file system checks or manual interventions. This minimises downtime and service disruptions, reducing operational costs and
improving customer satisfaction.
Importantly, these advanced file systems are designed for resourceconstrained environments typical of smart meters, requiring as little as 4KB of RAM and 11KB of ROM. This enables manufacturers to integrate resilience without expanding the device footprint and the associated costs, preserving cost-efficiency in production while improving device reliability.
Given that many smart meters operate on proprietary or real-time operating systems (RTOS), including custom variants developed by OEMs, it is essential that these file systems must be easily portable across diverse platforms. Achieving long-term accuracy and resilience also hinges on how easily the file system can adapt across different hardware and operating systems. For smart meter OEMs, this level of portability means greater freedom to evolve hardware platforms, such as switching microcontrollers or updating RTOS versions, without having to redesign the underlying storage architecture. Although porting work is still involved, using a file system that supports broad interoperability significantly reduces the need for in-house development.
“ Policies and standards are vital for interoperability and asset protection but must be agile enough to avoid long-term asset loss
Many manufacturers estimate that building an equivalent level of resilience internally would require three to five person-years of engineering effort, which can substantially increase time-to-market and overall program costs. By selecting file systems designed for seamless integration, OEMs can accelerate product development, contain lifecycle costs, and deliver devices that remain reliable throughout their intended service life.
As the energy sector becomes more reliant on real-time data and grid intelligence, ensuring the accuracy and integrity of smart meter data is a strategic imperative for manufacturers, utilities, and regulators.
For engineers, this requires a shift towards systems-level thinking, recognising that software is not merely an add-on to hardware but an essential component of the device’s long-term performance and resilience. For business leaders, data integrity should be seen as a business-critical capability, directly impacting ROI, compliance, and customer trust.
Investing in resilient, flash-optimised embedded software allows manufacturers to extend smart meter lifespans, reduce maintenance and replacement costs, and ensure consistent, reliable data delivery throughout a device’s operational life. This approach helps utilities meet regulatory and ESG goals while reducing the environmental impact of early replacements.
By designing smart meters with embedded intelligence and resilience, the energy industry can close the data accuracy gap, enabling the infrastructure modernisation necessary for the transition to a lowcarbon, digitalised energy future.
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Edmund Vaughan, chapmanbdsp’s Design Group Director, argues that with programmes stretching up to two and a half years, owners must start electrifying now – using heat pumps, thermal storage and smart phasing despite lingering EPC B uncertainty
Building owners have varied motivations for reducing reliance on fossil fuels through electrification. With the UK grid decarbonising, electricity presents the largest operational opportunity: replacing gas-based heating with electric alternatives such as heat pumps, often while retaining the existing building fabric and tenants in situ.
Successful delivery starts with understanding priorities, leasing arrangements, budget and time constraints, then establishing a clear roadmap. Technical work typically includes integrating heat pumps into existing systems and optimising roof plant space.
There are challenges in both implementation and legislation. An industry-wide frustration is the lack of clarity around requirements for buildings to achieve EPC B, previously signalled for 2030. This uncertainty is delaying preparations, even though EPC modelling favours all-electric buildings because carbon factors reflect the decarbonised grid. Electrification is therefore a key lever, alongside demand-reduction measures such as lighting upgrades and fan efficiencies.
Risks and constraints are best surfaced at the feasibility stage. A first step is a feasibility strategy with an initial client meeting and site visit to review existing power provision, particularly where gas-based heating and hot-water systems are in use. This is also the point to define priorities such as phasing, treatment of costs within service charges, and planning risks. A clear understanding of leasing arrangements and tenant-retention priorities – whether the building is live (occupied) or vacant – should inform the study. Options can then be evaluated against these variables.
Technical integration requires careful load balancing. Heat pumps operate at lower temperatures than gas boilers, which affects compatibility and business continuity. Options include two-stage systems. Fan coil units and other emitters should be assessed to determine whether lower flow temperatures materially reduce heating output. Coordination with manufacturers helps confirm performance at revised temperatures.
Electrification projects often need space reconfiguration. Gas boilers
typically sit in basements or on roofs. In many ‘wedding-cake’ buildings with shrinking upper floorplates, roof plant space is at a premium. The task is to use available space without affecting lettable areas.
Thermal storage can address peak sizing. Design heating conditions reflect infrequent extremes. Stores charged off-peak can discharge at peak, boosting capacity without oversizing the heat pump plant. Thermal stores can be located within the building, reducing roof space needs.
“ Electrification is a key lever, alongside demand-reduction measures such as lighting upgrades and fan efficiencies
Combined air-source heat pumps that provide both heating and cooling support a holistic approach. By replacing chillers, they can reduce roof plant area and enable heat recovery between heating and cooling systems.
In a recent City of London project, conversion from gas to electric replaced roof cooling towers and selected chillers with air-source heat pumps that now provide both heating and cooling.
Complexity – especially with in-occupation works – extends programme length. Allow up to two and a half years. Seasonal changeovers, phased works to limit tenant disruption, and supply-chain issues also affect duration.
Progress should be checked against the feasibility strategy through regular EPC and thermal analyses to prevent scope drift and keep sustainability goals central. Engagement and clear communication with tenants are as important as the technical delivery.
In summary, legislative uncertainty should not delay decarbonisation planning. Given typical electrification timelines of up to two and a half years, the time to plan is now. Electrification will remain a growth area across the sector, providing roadmaps to a more sustainable and compliant future.
Pulse Clean Energy’s Aazzum Yassir says the energy storage sector must demand traceability and reform across global materials networks or risk the same nightmare that plagued the solar industry.
The global energy landscape is shifting beneath our feet. As nations race to meet clean energy commitments, the spotlight has turned on one critical vulnerability: supply chains. The question isn’t simply about whether we can scale clean energy fast enough – rather, can we build supply chains robust enough to withstand both ethical scrutiny and geopolitical storms?
Britain’s renewable energy ambitions are staggering in scope.
The Government’s Clean Power 2030 plan calls for 23-27GW of battery storage capacity – a fifteen-fold increase from today’s levels. This represents a fundamental rewiring of how energy flows through our economy.
Battery storage systems enable wind farms to supply power when the wind stops blowing and allow solar panels to provide electricity after sunset, by storing excess energy during periods of high generation and releasing it back on to the grid when demand exceeds supply.
Yet the supply chains supporting this critical technology have been subject to a troubling vulnerability. The materials needed for batteries – lithium, cobalt, nickel – travel through complex global networks that often lack proper oversight. Much of this processing happens in regions where working conditions are shadowy and hidden.
Chinese facilities handle the majority of global battery material processing, including operations in areas where labour practices have drawn international criticism.
The solar sector has already confronted similar challenges. Concerns over forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region led to import restrictions and supply chain chaos across Europe and North America.
Companies that had built their entire procurement strategies around cost optimisation suddenly faced impossible choices: maintain existing suppliers and risk regulatory sanctions, or rebuild supply chains from scratch with massive delays and cost overruns.
Battery storage companies now face the same scrutiny. As deployment accelerates, and the sector grows larger and more influential, it gains the power to demand better standards from suppliers.
Sustainable and socially responsible energy storage should mean caring about people at every stage – from the communities where materials are extracted to the communities where clean energy is delivered. Whilst full traceability remains a challenge across global supply chains, complexity is not an excuse for inaction.
It’s not impossible to make a stand – you could, like us, collaborate with a specialist consultant with experience navigating high-risk regions and complex supply chain mapping. That way you can build systematic capabilities to evaluate, monitor, and adapt your procurement strategies as conditions evolve.
Materials often pass through multiple intermediaries before reaching final assembly, with limited visibility into labour conditions, environmental impacts, or geopolitical risks at each stage. Traditional due diligence approaches – periodic audits and supplier questionnaires –cannot always keep pace with the complexity and rapid evolution of these networks.
The same innovations driving the energy transition can transform supply chain transparency. Modern due diligence platforms now combine private supplier data with public information, using AI to identify risks and track performance across complex global networks. These systems
move companies toward real-time monitoring and evidence-based decision making.
Major battery manufacturers, particularly in China, are already sharing supply chain data through specialised platforms that track everything from raw material sourcing to final assembly. This creates opportunities for storage companies to access detailed ESG performance data and make informed procurement decisions based on actual supplier practices rather than promises.
The European Union’s upcoming battery passport system, originally scheduled for 2025 and now launching in 2027 due to the traceability challenges mentioned above, will make such transparency mandatory. Every battery will carry a digital identity tracking its complete supply chain history – from raw material extraction through final assembly. Manufacturers will need comprehensive documentation proving ethical sourcing and environmental compliance.
Companies investing early in these transparency systems gain competitive advantages. They can respond quickly to investor due diligence requests, meet evolving regulatory requirements, and can prioritise responsible sourcing. More importantly, they can ensure their growth contributes to genuine progress rather than hidden harm.
“ Whilst full traceability remains a challenge across global supply chains, complexity is not an excuse for inaction
Individual company efforts, whilst essential, cannot solve systemic supply chain challenges alone. The battery storage industry needs coordinated action across multiple dimensions: standardised transparency requirements, shared due diligence platforms, and regulatory frameworks that reward ethical sourcing.
That’s why we, at Pulse Clean Energy, have joined with the UK’s leading battery storage providers and the Electricity Storage Network to advocate for urgent supply chain reform. Our collective power gives us influence that individual companies cannot match. Our shared standards create market incentives for suppliers to improve practices across their entire operations.
The clean energy transition will succeed or fail based on the supply chains we build today. As we scale from megawatts to gigawatts of storage capacity, every supply chain decision shapes individual projects and entire global markets simultaneously.
Supply chains must become as smart, resilient, and sustainable as the clean energy systems they support. If we rise to this challenge, the UK can lead the world not just in renewable generation and storage, but in setting the global standard for ethical and resilient energy supply chains. The batteries we build today will not only power our homes and cities, they will also define the legacy of the transition itself.
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ABB’s microgrids experts explain how community-scale generation, storage and control keep remote homes and businesses on supply while cutting fossil-fuel spend.
Microgrids allow rural and remote communities to strengthen the resilience, reliability and sustainability of their electricity supply. In fact, these innovative localised power solutions can be a lifeline for the communities they serve, enabling consumers and businesses to stay on supply with a dependable source of clean electricity, and a reduced reliance on costly fossil fuels.
Barring the occasional power cut in times of high demand or bad weather, it’s easy to take the availability of our electrical supply for granted. However, a dependable source of mains electricity can be far from guaranteed for homes and businesses located in rural and far-flung communities.
Physically distant from larger cities and conurbations, out-of-town populations and businesses have traditionally been reliant on connection
to the wider grid system, typically via overhead lines. The reliability of these connections is far from guaranteed, however, when supply may be compromised by storms, natural disasters and the limitations of an aging and increasingly fragile national grid infrastructure.
In response to these uncertainties – coupled with rising energy costs and the drive to decarbonise – rural communities are seeking more sustainable strategies to mitigate the disruption brought by grid outages to individuals and local economies. By pivoting away from their dependence on the main grid system, distant and rural areas can take increasing control over their own energy future.
What’s more, communities can take steps to insulate themselves from the pressures of rising energy costs while realising goals for decarbonisation. To achieve this, rural communities are increasingly turning to cutting-edge microgrid solutions as dependable, cost-effective providers of local power.
The ability for communities to ‘self-serve’ their own energy needs is being accelerated by the rise of cost-effective localised power generation and distribution technologies.
On-site sources of clean renewable power like solar and wind are
balance fluctuating demand with generating capacity. By seamlessly integrating these diverse distributed energy resources (DERs) with increasingly intelligent solutions for power management and control –the key elements of a microgrid – rural areas can accelerate their own energy transition and independence.
Alongside the additional energy security that microgrids provide, they can deliver other benefits for communities such as local job creation. Similarly, in some regions microgrids are an enabler for economic growth with the rise of peer-to-peer energy trading models and revenues earned from selling ‘home-grown’ electricity back to utility companies.
“ Microgrids allow rural and remote communities to strengthen the resilience, reliability and sustainability of their electricity supply
A microgrid is defined as a localised, decentralised energy system that can operate either independently from or in conjunction with the main utility grid. Their ability to store and distribute power locally allows them to maintain a reliable energy supply within a specified area, like a rural community, even when supply from the main grid is interrupted for any reason.
Microgrids can themselves be categorised as either grid-connected or ‘islanded’. In the first case, a grid-connected system can draw power from – and often return power to – the main utility grid on a commercial
basis. This contrasts with island grids that operate in complete isolation, as found in offshore and other remote communities far from connection to the main distribution network. These are exclusively reliant on their own generation of power from either fossil fuel sources, renewables such as wind and solar, or a mix of both.
Modern microgrids feature a number of common design elements. Renewable energy sources are typically complemented by back-up measures – including BESS or diesel generators – to maintain operating capacity even in the event of temporary disconnection from the main grid system, faults or sudden spikes in demand.
Power conversion, rectification, and control are required at points of connection between a microgrid and the grid, to ensure efficient energy exchange and seamless transitions between grid-connected and islanded modes as needed.
Protection is provided by circuit breakers, relays and fault detection systems to minimise the risks of damage to the microgrid and ensure its stability in the event of fault conditions.
Overall, the efficiency and reliability of microgrids is enabled by sophisticated data modelling and management techniques. These include predictive load forecasting and intelligent resource allocation to ensure system resilience and stability under all operating conditions.
The successful deployment of microgrids in rural areas comes with its own challenges. Communities may have to negotiate regulatory policy hurdles to integrate solutions into existing regional or national grid infrastructures. Initial capital investment can be significant, compounded by ongoing maintenance and support costs plus the need for access to specialised engineering and management skills.
Ensuring a microgrid’s efficient operation, resilience, and sustainability also depends critically on selecting and deploying the right blend of technologies from numerous options including LV and MV equipment, controllers and other elements. Solutions must be designed with sufficient capacity to meet local energy needs, while providing a costefficient route for future expansion, driven by factors such as growing EV ownership and increasing demand for additional capacity. What’s more, controllers and associated systems must be hardened against potential cybersecurity threats.
These potential obstacles can be minimised with the support of an experienced partner with the technological vision, practical know-how and access to complementary resources that can ensure success. Here companies with deep experience of designing, delivering and supporting electrical generation, storage and distribution systems, can serve as consultant and/or prime technology provider for local communities. Working closely with system integrators and other suppliers, the appropriate choice of experienced partner can be instrumental in the design, implementation and technical support of cost effective end-toend microgrid solutions.
Microgrids represent a transformative solution for rural and remote communities, reinforcing energy security, resilience, and sustainability. By integrating renewable energy sources, advanced storage systems and intelligent control technologies, these localised power networks enable communities to take greater control over their energy future.
The EV EXBOX team brings over 30 years’ experience in asset risk management within the energy sector.
We have successfully delivered our specialist EV charging risk assessments across clean energy transition infrastructure for:
• EV hubs
• Petrol filling stations
• Bus stations & repair depots
• Distribution depots
• Local Authority infrastructure
• Carparks
• Basement parking
• LiBess storage systems
www.ev-exbox.com
Our site-specific risk assessment services the following areas.
• Risk of fire spread on site
• Risk of fire spread beyond site boundary
• Risk of vapour cloud explosion
• Risk of contaminated fire water leaving site above and below ground
• Public
• Employee Safety
• Emergency ingress and egress.
To ensure your EV charging infrastructure is designed to mitigate as many risks as practically possible the EV EXBOX Team can help with the installation of efficient and cost-effective systems and solutions for the management of vehicle fires and fire water pollution prevention devices.
At
EV-EXBOX, we estimate that around 95% of the UK’s EV charging infrastructure has been installed without a risk assessment.
Instead of carrying out competent risk assessments, society has become polarised, comparing the fire frequency of petrol and diesel vehicles with that of electric vehicles.
The fact that electric vehicles catch fire less often than petrol or diesel vehicles is not a valid argument for skipping a risk assessment.
If you are adding EV charging to a facility that was never designed for it, it must undergo a risk assessment.
In the rare event of an EV fire or off-gassing event from the battery pack, a competent risk assessment will be the first document your insurers, the HSE or the Environment Agency ask you for.
In the eyes of the insurers if a site owner or operator provides the design brief to the contractor on the positioning of the charging area, then any property losses or physical injury claims arising from the positioning of the charging area would likely rest with them. However, any changes to that brief made by the contractor could bring them into the claim. If the contractor is responsible for the design of the site, then they would most likely join the site owner in any subsequent legal action.
Insurers for the site owners or operators might take the view that positioning an EV charging area close to business-critical areas
or combustible materials is negligent, and that the policyholder has failed to mitigate their exposure by doing so.
If the same insurers were not informed about the installation, any resulting claim could be declined.
In the event that multiple injuries occur, the risks to the operator go beyond insurance liabilities alone.
It is important to understand that a competent risk assessment for EV charging infrastructure must consider more than just a fire.
In general, the safety risk lies with the electric or hybrid vehicle, not the charger itself. However, where you locate the charger may change the site’s risk profile, and during our risk assessments we have seen EV chargers installed next to fuel tanks, gas mains, blocking fire escape routes, and in basements with no clear means of escape.
A lack of statutory regulations or approved codes of practice creates a large grey area in terms of guidance and the EV-EXBOX team has reviewed material that is not only incorrect but also conflicts with other guidance.
Even more importantly, a lack of regulations does not mean you can do what you want without consequences. In the event of an incident, you will always be asked for the risk
assessment for the EV charging installation.
The EV-EXBOX risk assessment process takes into account the risks and mitigation measures associated with a vapour cloud explosion, off-gassing, fire spread within a facility, fire spread across site boundaries, the management of contaminated firewater, early detection, emergency services’ access and, awareness training.
The EV-EXBOX risk assessments look at practical and affordable ways to reduce risks across a broad range of sites where EV charging has been installed, including:
Multi-storey and open-air car parks
Residential basements
Petrol filling stations
EV and eHGV hubs
Airports
Bus depots
Local authority depots
Competent risk assessment can be applied at the design stage or retrospectively to existing EV charging infrastructure.
Competent risk assessment is not about saying ‘no’ or slowing the deployment of EV charging down; it’s about ensuring that the UK’s future clean energy infrastructure is rolled out responsibly.
In his Powered On Live:
The Grid 2025 keynote session, Rolf Bienert, Technical and Managing Director at the OpenADR Alliance, discussed how standards and new technology can help make the grid more resilient while reducing emissions. Here, he explains more.
Europe’s energy demand is expected to rise over the next few years as populations grow. With this comes the corresponding growth in electrification (electric vehicles, charging systems, distributed energy devices, etc.) and, with AI, increased data centre use. McKinsey predicts that data centre demand will be a “primary near-term growth driver for power demand in Europe,” accounting for about 5% of total European power consumption by 2030 (from around 2% today).
We’re already seeing the increase in electricity demand across Europe. Recent power outages in Spain and Portugal affected large areas, impacting critical infrastructure like transport and mobile networks. The Spanish power grid operator attributed the issue to insufficient dynamic voltage control capacity reserves. Europe’s electricity grids maintain a 50 hertz frequency to ensure stability, and even slight deviations can lead to damage. This raises the question of where we can make an impact. We need smarter infrastructure. We are getting there.
Standards are important in making this happen, but customer-owned equipment and resources should remain under customer control. Balancing regulation with customer engagement is challenging, but flexibility for the customer should also offer value. Standards should be pliable enough to enable this.
The OpenADR Alliance collaborates with major European and UK organisations and government bodies, including the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), on energy-smart appliance standards. These cover end-to-end regulations for communication between distribution utilities and customer endpoints, such as gateways or consumer energy managers (CEMs).
As we support these efforts with ongoing development of the OpenADR standard – focusing on security, stability, and interoperability – it will be key for heat pumps, water heaters, EV chargers, and other energy-smart appliances. OpenADR-based appliance communication is expected to be implemented in a couple of years. The UK’s Energy Networks Association (ENA) has also started work on a flex market mechanism to standardise interactions between distribution system operators (DSOs) and energy aggregators, including large consumers and significant solar installations.
The Netherlands, for example, has been facing grid congestion issues, even halting building projects due to power shortages. To address this, it has built virtual power plants (VPPs) such as the Johan Cruijff Arena, which uses a large-scale energy storage system from repurposed EV batteries, powered by renewable energy sources, to store energy and use it during events, reducing its reliance on the grid.
E.ON’s Swedish subsidiary, SWITCH, offers flexibility to customers through its platform, which includes a marketplace for trading, a decision-support tool, and a flexibility service provider tool. It also monitors and notifies customers with non-firm connection agreements when they need to reduce their load.
Smart Energy Europe (smarten), which provides policy intelligence and reports to lobby regulators, the EU, and many others, meanwhile calls for standardised data formats, dynamic tariffs, and portability, similar to the ideas being considered by the UK’s DESNZ.
Inspired by the US market, we can look back to the energy crisis over 20 years ago when California suffered rolling blackouts. These led to emergency measures by the California Energy Commission (CEC), which established a standardised way of communicating with customer equipment. These principles remain relevant today. The customer owns the equipment, and direct control is limited unless necessary, using
informational and motivational messages.
The CEC worked with utilities to create the first version of OpenADR, the foundation of today’s standards. At the same time, the Zigbee Alliance created the Smart Energy Profile, later becoming Smart Energy Profile 2.0, now known as IEEE 2030.5, a standard for communications directly to energy devices.
Initially excited about the Smart Energy Profile protocol and Zigbee devices, utilities thought they could control all appliances in the house, from HVAC to a refrigerator. However, they realised that controlling every device was neither practical nor desirable. As local control systems and OpenADR evolved, it became clear that customers could be kept at a distance while still managing their systems.
These lessons now inform utility programmes.
“ We need smarter infrastructure. We are getting there.
Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Charge Ready programme, for example, requires public chargers and charging networks in its territory to receive grid-management messages that regulate capacity and power consumption over OpenADR. SCE simplified the programme by providing an interface for developers to connect to its server and control power consumption. This focuses on managing the load on a network rather than individual EV chargers and now runs alongside several similar programmes.
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), one of the pioneers in automated demand response programmes, is experimenting with dynamic pricing. Ford and other carmakers offer services to customers and utilities, controlling vehicle charging through the vehicle’s telemetry. This flexibility is transferred to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to manage charging times, providing benefits for customers, such as lower charging rates.
Well received in their own markets, these programmes offer insight into the kinds of initiatives that could be implemented in other markets.
Policies and standards are vital for interoperability and asset protection but must be agile enough to avoid long-term asset loss. Customer integration is crucial for transparent communication and future grid stability.
As electrification accelerates and energy demand decouples, Frederic Godemel, EVP Energy Management at Schneider Electric, calls for a rapid pivot to distributed energy to avoid costly delays and outages.
he IEA forecasts that electricity consumption will grow at around 4% per year through to 2027, driven by several forces: industrial growth, the expansion of data centres, and the triple whammy of urbanisation, digitisation and decarbonisation. As a result, consumption is expected to skyrocket over the coming decades. Are countries ready to meet this demand? In my opinion, not yet.
Before we get to solutions, let’s put the electrification story into context. Over the past decade, electricity’s share in total energy demand has increased, but only by around 2% (around 20% of total energy mix). What’s interesting about the next decade is that electricity demand will keep growing while overall energy demand ‘runs flat’, according to the IEA. There will be a decoupling. And what this means is that the share of electricity – and therefore electrification – is going to increase in the mix going forward. That’s new, and it matters.
Where’s the growth coming from? Sources linked to regular economic expansion, represent around half the growth, such as new industrial facilities, new buildings, more infrastructure for public transportationall this creates demand for more electricity, because modern economies rely on it. Then the other half comes from the new developments that come on top of natural economic expansion: the data centres, AI, and other emerging services.
And the extra half, as I’m calling it here, that comes from existing energy usage going electric. There are the big-ticket items like mobility –electric mobility – which is growing fast: a 23% increase last year. Then there are other electrification patterns, too, like buildings switching away from fossil fuel heating to electric HVAC systems. It’s a similar s tory in industry. There is also growth in air conditioning – particularly in emerging economies, not so rapid in Europe right now, but to materialise soon.
Yes, that adds up to 150%. And no, it’s not a mistake – that’s the whole point. This shift won’t be gradual or predictable. It’ll come fast, from
everywhere: the usual suspects, the wild cards, emerging markets, and corners no one’s watching. All at once.
Now here’s the challenge: as electrification accelerates, the availability of infrastructure – especially grid infrastructure – will become a bottleneck. The faster we grow as a society, the more technology develops, the sharper the shortage. For example, businesses eager to invest and expand, no matter their industry, size or purpose, might be faced with a lack of access to the grid.
Renewables can take a long time to be connected to the grid – up to 15 years in the UK – and this needs to be accelerated to meet demand, so that our businesses can grow through cheaper access to cleaner energy. That disconnect between business readiness and available infrastructure will define the years ahead.
“ As electrification accelerates, the availability of infrastructure – especially
grid infrastructure
– will become a bottleneck
Everything, everywhere, all at once
Make no mistake, this is a global issue, a competitiveness discussion. With electricity demand rising, electricity prices are likely to rise, because the infrastructure will require much more investment but also because of additional competition. Naturally, businesses will be negotiating for greater access, if they’ve done all the efficiency savings they can. It’s no coincidence then that the most prepared players have been thinking this way for years, partnering with those who can help, through digitalisation and smarter systems, to make every watt count.
If you don’t have access to the infrastructure, how can businesses build the capacity they need for their own use? This is where distributed energy solutions, like rooftop solar, come into play. Not only can these technologies be ramped up much faster than larger infrastructure projects, they’re also relatively easy to deploy. For example, the process of getting solar panels onto a rooftop can take up to a year, even though the paperwork is relatively light.
If you want to build the power grid infrastructure to connect that wind farm to a demand centre, wind energy projects face lengthy delays for grid connection and intense planning permissions, in our experience wind farms in major cities can take 10 to 12 years. And if you want to build the power grid infrastructure, say in London or Oxford, add another decade.
So, while we need to continue developing large-scale infrastructure, for me, the solution lies in distributed energy — in both buildings and industry.
In manufacturing, many of these solutions are already viable and being used, but it’s generally underleveraged. In the US, there’s a clearer understanding that distributed energy is viable – perhaps because it aligns with the spirit of independence – but in Europe, where businesses and individuals tend to look to the state and regulatory authorities, it’s less developed.
That said, there are promising examples – like Schneider Electric’s new flagship building in Grenoble, France. Called IntenCity, it’s a model of energy efficiency, integrating active solutions and collecting data to drive future research and innovation. Soon, distributed won’t just be a nice-tohave, it will be a necessity.
The other lever for tackling both grid limitations and rising prices is narrative. We talk a lot about electrification to decarbonise but something we often miss is equally important: electrification to modernise. If you look at our industrial footprint in Europe and the US, much of it is old. A lot of industrial processes still rely on fossil fuels and haven’t changed much in 50 years. Electricity is undeniably the energy of modernity – and that narrative hasn’t fully broken through yet.
The blackouts in Spain and Portugal were a warning – a glimpse of what happens when electrification moves faster than the grid. So too was the shutdown at Heathrow airport. While the exact cause remains unclear, a fire at a nearby electrical substation the night before led to a power outage at the airport.
But these events also highlight an opportunity: a future where rooftop solar, on-site batteries and a more up-to-date grid don’t just keep the lights on but modernise how we generate and use power. These systems build resilience, cut strain on the grid, and shift the story from vulnerability to progress. That’s the kind of narrative we need.
Ironically, many of the scenarios we developed in 2021 had the right idea: as economies modernise, they naturally decarbonise. Mobility improves – with better cars, fewer cars, and more alternatives. Buildings become more efficient, better insulated, and powered by distributed energy. As access expands and costs fall, economies don’t just modernise – they electrify and digitise. And through that electrification, decarbonisation happens as a byproduct. Infrastructures get smarter. Industry gets cleaner. And progress drives emissions down – not the other way around.
A common mistake I see in the energy transition is static thinking. Ask yourself – what were you doing 30 years ago? Then look at where we are today. Most political projections assume the next 40 years will look much like today: a growing population, a bigger economy, slightly more energy use. Maybe an extra fridge. A bigger TV. But not much more. That’s not how change works. The only area where this shift is starting to register is with data centres, AI, and related technologies. People are beginning to realise that something big is emerging. But no one knows how big.
At Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Research Institute, we often make projections about how these changes might unfold. Back in 2021, we developed a set of scenarios that already leaned heavily into electrification – and in many ways, they’ve aged well. But looking at the pace of change today, it’s clear we were still only scratching the surface. The future is arriving faster and with more complexity than most models anticipated. That’s not a failure of foresight, but a sign of just how rapidly the fundamentals are shifting. In that sense, our scenarios weren’t just projections – they were an early part of the very narrative we’re now seeing take shape.
The electrical industry is playing its part in in a more sustainable future. Rather than homing in on the efficacy of products, industrywide conversations now cover longevity, reusability, repairability, modularity, and embodied environmental impacts. The aim is to serve customers while improving overall environmental performance..
Early movers will benefit the most. Yet proving sustainability is complicated by many frameworks and standards. One thing is for sure: you cannot manage what you do not measure, so product-level calculations are essential.
So what metrics are available and which should be used?
The sector is moving toward efficient products made with recyclable or renewable materials, manufactured with clean energy, and supported by a decarbonised grid. Many firms are already progressing; others are just starting to assess their impact.
The question is not only how to make progress, but how to prove it. Buyers, specifiers, and contractors need reliable evidence of sustainability claims. Environmental metrics and frameworks provide that evidence.
Developed for lighting, TM66 assesses how well a product aligns with circular economy principles — moving away from take-makeuse-dispose to reduce resource use and waste. Published by the Society of Light and Lighting, TM66 assigns a 0-4 score based on recyclability, durability, and repairability.
Strengths:
• Quick, relatively inexpensive to apply
• Encourages design for end-of-life recovery
Limitations:
• UK-focused recognition
• Not independently certified
• Reduces complex impacts to a single score
As such, TM66 can serve as a starting point for circularity metrics.
Embodied carbon, the emissions from sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and disposal, is a growing focus. TM65 estimates embodied carbon when no Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is available.
Strengths:
• Straightforward calculation using standard conversion factors
• Enables product comparison on embodied carbon
• Based on actual materials and mass Limitations:
• UK-centric
• Can be self-certified
• Focuses only on carbon, excluding other environmental categories (such as water use and airborne pollutants)
• Relies on high-level assumptions, limiting accuracy
TM65 bridges the gap between no data and a full environmental product declaration (EPD)). For businesses starting to measure product impact, it is a practical first step.
A Life Cycle Assessment provides the most comprehensive picture of environmental impact. By analysing every stage, from raw material extraction to end-of-life, LCA studies estimate impacts from manufacture, use, and disposal. LCAs combine real material data with evidence-based assumptions and are widely recognised. For manufacturers pursuing serious sustainability, LCA is a key tool.
EPDs: Verified and standardised LCA is powerful, but comparisons require standardisation. An Environmental Product Declaration uses an LCA in a standard, internationally-recognised format, verified by a third party.
EPDs are common in Europe and growing in the UK, supported by updated construction products regulation that promotes environmental transparency. For electrical manufacturers, EPDs are becoming a competitive necessity and a customer expectation.
The direction of travel
TM66 and TM65 have raised awareness of sustainable design. Their simplicity helps manufacturers adopt circular thinking at low cost. Moving forward, LCAs and EPDs are likely to become specification norms due to their rigour.
What remains clear is that sustainability is not a trend but integral to how the industry will operate moving forward.
Contractors, specifiers, and wholesalers that prioritise responsible suppliers will help shape a greener, more resilient sector.
Fortunately, digital platforms are lowering the cost and complexity of creating LCAs and EPDs, making them accessible to smaller manufacturers.
Organisations such as Recolight offer LCA and EPD services for the electrical sector. EPD workshops, production, and verification give manufacturers accessible routes into measurement and reporting.
By adopting these tools, the industry can deliver products that are efficient in use and sustainable across the full life cycle, demonstrating progress to customers, regulators, and society.
retreating – or just recalibrating for net zero?
IWith BP and Shell cooling on renewables, Mike Torbitt of Cressall argues the real battleground is grid infrastructure – HVDC links and resistor technology that make cheap wind and solar dependable.
n February 2025, oil and gas giant BP announced it would cut its investment in renewable energy, instead refocusing on oil and gas production. The decision reflects a wider pattern of global corporations and energy providers easing or rethinking their sustainability strategies.
What’s driving this shift?
In 2020, BP pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, with its then CEO warning that “the world’s carbon budget is finite.” Just five years later, the company reversed course, announcing plans to boost investment in oil and gas production by 20%.
This new plan will see the oil giant produce 2.4 million barrels of oil per day by 2030. With only 36 fossil fuel companies accounting for more than half of global emissions, this reversal could significantly impact climate action.
And BP is not the only energy provider to retreat from its sustainability commitments. Following lowering its net carbon reduction intensity targets, in July 2025, Shell joined Canada Enbridge and BP in withdrawing from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which has committed to barring companies from pursuing new oil and gas fields after 2027.
So, why are energy providers turning their backs on these objectives?
“ Wind and solar simply generate far lower returns for oil and gas companies compared with traditional fossil fuels
The short answer is, at present, renewable energy projects such as wind and solar simply generate far lower returns for oil and gas companies compared with traditional fossil fuels.
According to 2023 figures from NPR, US oil and gas producers could anticipate a 20-50% return on investment for conventional projects, whereas wind and solar initiatives are estimated to yield just 5-10%.
As a result, investors have been less interested in the stocks of oil companies that are diverting their budgets towards renewable projects. Over the five years from the end of 2019 to the end of 2024, New York Times data shows BP’s stock price dropped by 19% and Shell’s grew by a modest 15%. In comparison, Exxon Mobil – which largely avoided investing in renewables – saw its stock climb more than 70%.
There are a few major barriers to profitability. The first is that oil companies often lack the specialised expertise needed to make wind and solar projects truly successful.
For example, Exxon Mobil focused its investments on hydrogen and lithium extraction, areas where the needed skillset for extraction is very similar to oil. While the mining of these elements comes with its
own environmental impacts, both hydrogen and lithium are essential for producing battery-powered vehicles.
Another factor limiting profitability is the high upfront cost of renewable projects coupled with the relatively low prices of wind and solar power. As a result, it can take years, or even decades, for investors to see a meaningful return on investment.
Finally, renewable energy generation can be incredibly unpredictable. Although wind and solar energy is cheaper to produce, production depends on weather conditions. This variability makes it challenging to rely on renewable energy without supporting grid infrastructure to store, distribute or balance the supply.
To make renewable energy truly viable and reliable, it must be effectively managed and transmitted. One way to achieve this is through interconnectors, specifically, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables.
HVDC cables can carry electricity over hundreds or even thousands of kilometres, with minimal energy losses – compared to alternating current (AC) systems. For this reason, they can be used to link international grids, allowing surplus renewable power to be exported to markets with higher demand and ensuring a more stable supply.
Resistors are essential for ensuring the safe and reliable operation of HVDC networks. One of the main challenges in HVDC transmission is the risk of overvoltage, which can occur due to sudden changes in generation, line faults or switching operations. Without proper control, these voltage surges can damage critical components, such as converter valves, smoothing reactors and transformers.
DC neutral earthing resistors are specifically used to manage lineto-ground faults and stabilise the system during transient conditions. By providing a controlled path to ground, these resistors limit the magnitude of fault currents, reducing stress on equipment and preventing catastrophic failures. They also help damp transient overvoltages caused lighting strikes, switching operations or sudden load changes, ensuring voltage does not exceed safe limits.
In modern HVDC systems, especially those using voltage source converters (VSCs), the need for resistors is even more pronounced. VSCs allow independent control of active and reactive power but are sensitive to overvoltage and oscillatory behaviour. Resistors in these networks act to stabilise voltage and current oscillations, improving system damping and maintaining operational stability.
By carefully selecting and integrating resistors, engineers can reinforce infrastructure, accelerate progress toward net zero emissions and sustain momentum on global climate goals.
Ultimately, privately owned oil and gas companies are more likely to be driven by shareholder interests than by environmental concerns. Yet, by ensuring that the correct infrastructure is in place, it is possible to optimise the use of renewable resources, balancing sustainability goals with profitability.
Martijn Gerlag, Application Engineer at Fluke EMEA, warns that the clean-energy shift will be throttled by a skills shortage unless industry and government invest in training, tools and standards.
Electricity is the backbone of the 21st century, but for many businesses it is time for an upgrade. Organisations across the globe are redefining how their energy is generated, distributed, and consumed.
On top of this, change is being championed at a national level, with world governments setting out ambitious targets to phase out fossil fuels, reduce carbon emissions, and prioritise cleaner, more sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind.
In 2023, the UK Government introduced the Energy Act, aiming to reduce energy costs, promote investment in the industry and support the drive to meet net zero goals by 2050.
Progress has since been made to strengthen cleaner infrastructure across the UK, however this commitment to renewable energy is facing some recent pushback. But we have the opportunity and responsibility to keep this momentum going.
By investing in workforce development, expanding infrastructure, and equipping professionals with the right tools and training, we can drive progress – regardless of shifting policies or government support.
The surge in electrification is driving an equally urgent demand for skilled workers capable of installing, maintaining, and optimising increasingly complex energy systems. The current workforce is not equipped to meet this challenge. For example, recent Fluke research found that 55% of companies surveyed outsource the majority of their solar maintenance due to insufficient in-house expertise.
Currently, only one in eight individuals today possess the skills needed to address the climate crisis. Without strategic and coordinated investments in training programs, this skills gap could become a critical bottleneck and significantly hinder the clean energy transition.
This situation is reminiscent of the internet boom in the mid-2000s when the demand for software engineers skyrocketed. Companies responded by investing heavily in training initiatives, mentorships, and apprenticeship programs.
Governments and private sector leaders must prioritise workforce development to address electrification demands. This includes creating robust upskilling initiatives such as apprenticeships, trade programs, and advanced certifications focused on emerging technologies like solar energy, battery storage, and electric vehicles. These programs should focus not only on building technical expertise but also on equipping workers with the foundational knowledge needed to thrive in this rapidly evolving sector.
Empowering workers through comprehensive training will be critical for advancing the electrified economy. These skilled professionals will play a pivotal role in developing and maintaining the infrastructure necessary to meet future energy demands, driving job growth and fostering long-term economic resilience.
The passing of the UK’s Energy Act two years ago marked a significant transition in the country’s regulatory framework. The act aimed to deliver a more efficient energy system across the country whilst keeping energy costs low. As well as reducing the financial cost of energy to consumers, the act also laid out plans to reduce the environmental costs incurred by nonsustainable energy use.
Its main goal is to lower carbon emissions – either through alternate energy sources or through carbon capture sites. One of the key points of the Energy Act focuses on a licensed framework for CO2 transport and storage – providing support for the development of the UK’s first carbon capture sites. There is also an emphasis on increasing investment in the country’s onshore electricity, with a particular focus on wind power to provide cleaner energy.
“ Currently, only one in eight individuals today possess the skills needed to address the climate crisis
Furthermore, as the Government looks to increase the UK’s low-carbon energy sector, there has also been greater support for the country’s nuclear power options. In order to meet the growing electricity demands whilst also keeping carbon costs low, the UK is implementing small modular reactors to provide nuclear energy to smaller, targeted regions and businesses.
Introducing this legislation not only demonstrates the commitment the government has to achieving a cleaner energy infrastructure but also serves as a clear standard for companies to follow. As more government initiatives make cleaner energy more accessible to businesses, renewable energy will become more prevalent, and a sustainable future will become even more attainable.
The electrification of the world represents an opportunity to redefine our energy systems and protect energy security. To fully realise the benefits of clean energy, we must encourage investment, workforce development, and infrastructure expansion.
Policymakers, industry leaders, and communities must work together to ensure that electrification efforts continue to be prioritised. With strategic investments in people, tools, and systems we can build a cleaner, more resilient energy future that benefits generations to come.
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