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National Grid Partners

What does a 200-year-old tobacco warehouse have to do with the future of clean energy? Well, this summer, London’s historic Tobacco Dock hosted National Grid Group’s inaugural Innovation Day. The event brought together more than 200 people representing utilities, tech startups, industry leaders, regulators and policy makers. The goal: To celebrate National Grid’s history of innovation, provide updates on our latest technologies and invite collaborators to join us on the journey to net zero.

Attendees heard from senior National Grid executives as well as leaders from Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Hitachi Energy and more. Afternoon workshops and Q&A panels focused on utility customers, infrastructure and regulation. Three key themes emerged across the day:

·       Meeting the world’s future power demands will require a step change in investment and innovation.

·       The energy transition is a shared global challenge that necessitates collaboration across industries – and simplified regulations to reward companies that demonstrate an appetite for innovation.

·       The industry must shift its traditional mindset to embrace new technologies and design solutions with customers in mind.

“Investing at a scale never seen before.”

In a recorded message to attendees, Group CEO John Pettigrew noted that over the next five years, National Grid will invest £60 billion (nearly $77 billion) across our US and UK networks. This unprecedented outlay will modernize electric grids; support more than 60,000 new jobs; and unlock economic growth by ensuring the energy system can support the rise of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and decarbonized heating systems.

“It's clear to us that innovation is more important than ever before – and innovation is deeply embedded at National Grid,” Pettigrew said.  Attendees saw some of that history firsthand thanks to interactive displays that captured such innovations as the world’s first integrated, nationwide electric transmission grid (1935).

More recently, National Grid in 2018 launched the industry’s first and only Silicon Valley venture investment and innovation arm. National Grid Partners has since put more than £360 million (just under $460 milllion) to work in 50 energy focused startups and strategic funds. More than 80 percent of those startups have collaborated with National Grid on everything from improving customer service to protecting our networks from outages to boosting the amount of renewable electricity our lines can carry.

Where startup solutions don’t exist, our dedicated Innovation team can build them from the ground up. And to make sure those innovations have as broad an impact as possible, we’ve established the NextGrid Alliance – bringing together senior innovation leaders from more than 120 energy utilities around the world.

Following Pettigrew’s remarks, National Grid Board Chair Paula Rosput Reynolds and former Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Nora Mead Brownell took the stage to discuss “The Innovation Imperative,” laying out the scale of the utility industry’s looming transformation and the need for cultural change. Traditional utility business models, they noted, create long sales cycles and resistance to new technologies.

A second panel moderated by Carl Trowell, president of National Grid’s ambitious new Strategic Infrastructure business unit, drove home the importance of collaboration across the energy industry – and between large companies and startups. The aim, panelists agreed, is to combine the massive scale and reach of utility incumbents with fresh, outside thinking.

Startups showcased at the event included National Grid portfolio companies AiDash, LineVision, TS Conductor and Viridi. And innovations from across National Grid – such as OceanBrain, Take Charge and Spot the robo-dog – demonstrated the breadth of our commitment to find new ways of serving customers.

In the day’s closing keynote, author Matthew Syed emphasized the importance of a growth mindset to unlock innovation by embracing challenges; learning from failure; and collaborating across diverse viewpoints.

Innovation, like collaboration, doesn’t just happen – both require thinking bigger, pushing boundaries and taking that daring first step forward.

After all, when Tobacco Dock opened in 1812, the United States and United Kingdom were at war. Today, they’re key allies in the energy transition.

National Grid Innovation Day: Showcasing What's New, Exciting and Essential in the Energy Industry