Utility Week Live
Issue link: https://read.utilityweek.co.uk/i/497182
Key quotes We were breaking new ground for the gas industry by coming together to create a shared strategic view." Denise Massey, chief executive, Energy Innovation Centre – speaking 21 & 22 April We have to fi nd better, smarter, more eff ective ways of delivering streetworks – innovation is fundamental. The other fundamental is collaboration." Bob Gallienne, chief executive, NJUG – speaking 21 April We need to break down the barriers between sectors. Imagine a city where wastewater systems provide the feedstock to create biodiesel, and where solar cells create electricity and desalinated water simultaneously." Pater Madden, chief executive, Future Cities Catapult – speaking 23 April T hese are just some of the issues that will take centre stage in the pan-utility seminar at Utility Week Live where a number of experts will divulge their thoughts on the best way to tackle them. Collaboration and the sharing of best practice is key across the utility sectors and will be very much in evidence across the three-day seminar programme. Smart cities are increasingly being talked about, as statisticians suggest that 75 per cent of the world's nine billion inhabitants by 2050 will live in cities. As a result, utilities will have to change how they think about their own future infrastructure and how they will interact with other infrastructure providers, not to mention customers. Helping to shed some light on this topic will be Simens' Tacis Gavoyannis, who will discuss how an holistic approach to energy and water can provide opportunities for collaborative working. Business Information Modelling (Bim) is another area that is taking the utilities market by storm and Bim4Water chair Jon De Souza and the National Grid's Paul Lee will explain how this technology can off er wide ranging effi ciencies and support collaborative working. Roadworks, while universally loathed by the public, are a necessity for infrastructure provision and maintenance which all utilities hold in common. Elgin managing director James Harris will be on hand at utility Week Live to highlight how anti-social roadworks can be made more social. Meanwhile, Skanska innovation manager James Clarke will share his vision for a no-dig network. Then there's the contentious issue of fracking, the hydraulic fracturing process used for shale gas exploration. The Angling Trust's Martin Salter and SGH Martineau's Martin Edwards will debate the environmental costs of extracting shale gas, and whether public opinion will stand for it. In short, there'll never be a dull moment in Utility Week Live's pan-utility theatre. Maureen Gaines. Editor, WET News See p22 for seminar agenda details Pan-Utility/introduction 19 Pan-Utility Bim is central to reducing capital cost and the carbon burden from the construction and operation of the built environment by As individual companies, utilities may specialise in water, gas or electricity, yet they all have common challenges – streetworks, climate change, and health and safety, for instance. Throw cyber security, smart cities, data, innovation and even fracking into the mix and a load more commonalities become apparent.