The ADE has worked for several years with SE2 supporting a major conference and awards dinner for over 300 guests. SE2 are superbly professional - always thinking ahead and providing reassurance and confidence that all will be well handled.
Tim Rotheray, Director, ADE
Smart grids and consumer issues: facilitating for Consumer Focus
In March, SE2 facilitated a workshop to launch and discuss Consumer Focus’s position paper on smart grids. Smart grids are a new topic for SE2, so it was fascinating to be involved at such a formative stage of Consumer Focus’s thinking.
Sophie Neuberg, author of the position paper and Policy Manager at Consumer Focus opened the meeting with insights into the development of the paper and a consideration of the issues that still need further exploration.
“SE2 were very supportive in helping to devise the agenda for our workshop on electricity smart grids so as to get the best discussion out of our delegates. Not only did they facilitate effectively, but also completely took the stress out of running the event from the set-up until the end.” Sophie Neuberg, Policy Manager, Consumer Focus
Initial discussions amongst delegates focussed on overarching issues surrounding smart grid rollout, such as how to ensure the benefits of smart grids are passed back to consumers, and how to balance smart grid investment with other long-term investments currently being considered by policy makers. The debate then moved on to consider demand-side response, data security and vulnerable customers in more detail. The session concluded with time for final questions, and some interesting points were raised regarding the impact of smart grid roll out on electricity only households, and whether there is enough of a case for demand side response in the UK.
As ever, it was great to see stakeholders coming together, discussing issues from different perspectives and seeking common ground. With smart grids being such a relatively new topic, it was clear that many of the issues raised by Consumer Focus have yet to be considered in depth by some other players in the field: Consumer Focus’ intervention is therefore a timely and welcome one.
As well as facilitating, SE2 took minutes and notes during the session, and wrote up a report on the launch so that input from the day could be included in a final draft of the position paper on Smart Grids and Consumer Issues. The paper is expected to be made available on the Consumer Focus website by the end of this month.