Getting the balance right

For the energy sector the next decade is going to be around finding a balance between technology and non-technology issues and the need to deliver a measured approach to meeting the 2050 target

The oddities of writing for journals is that I am writing this column in one decade for it to be read in the next one. Did I get the balance of life right in the last ten years? Not if you believe my wife who still thinks that my work life balance is scoring at around 80/20. I would love to disagree with her, but as the challenges have continued to pile up in recent years, I seem to be working harder now than I did in the first 35 years of my career.

So why a focus on balance for this column? I went to an event recently which for me highlighted the lack of balance in the current UK approach to meeting the net carbon zero target by 2050.

All the early focus has been on electricity with gas and the decarbonisation of home heating systems being somewhat left behind. For the main reason of tackling the low-hanging fruit first, current Government policy seems to be very unbalanced. In addition to the balance needed in terms of action there is also the obvious need for balance between the different needs and requirements of society – business, individuals, and the public sector. Whatever your view on the politics of it all, the balance in politics certainly seems to have not been in evidence recently. Going forward, the Government now must get the balance right in terms of its regional policies, balancing the need to look after its new constituencies in the north with the overall UK requirements for infrastructure investment.

And then there is the balance in the UK energy retail market between the consumer need for competition and the reality of the need to deliver services in what is a very tough market to operate in. As has been proved with the failures of some of the new market entrants it is of little use to try and artificially change the balance of competition in a market if insufficient due diligence has been done on the operating model of the new entrants to ensure long-term sustainability. All that has happened in 2019 is that so many consumers have been treated like contestants in a game of ‘pass the parcel’ being reallocated to other suppliers. As an accountant, I despair of the apparent failure of so many financial due diligence processes in 2019 and not of course just in the energy market.

From the perspective of ESTA, there is the balance in what a trade association does. The ESTA members carry out a wide range of services covering both technology and non-technology solutions. Members will be aware that since I joined ESTA there has been a lot of focus at our events on the behaviour change programme we launched in 2018. Some members have criticised this on the grounds that the AI solutions being developed by members will one day mean that human intervention will be very limited. The first member who contacted me about this suggested that as humans won’t ultimately be needed, neither will behaviour change programmes. In many ways that approach totally depressed me. I certainly hope that the day that the robots rule, or at least until they learn how to programme themselves will not happen for a long time ahead. At the other end of the scale the Prime Minister announced before the election that £1.2bn was going to be spent with scientists to find the next big technology solution. A balanced view could argue why not spend that money now on existing solutions including behaviour change.

We will be addressing this balance issue going forward ensuring that technology is not forgotten. We will be exploring a range of new energy efficiency solutions in 2020 through our events and are also widening out our relationships to embrace the ‘bigger picture’ of energy efficiency solutions.

So, my personal work/life balance is unlikely to improve in the next decade, but I am certainly looking forward to the challenges that are going to happen in what is without doubt going to be the critical decade in the planet’s history.

Mervyn Pilley is executive director of ESTA (Energy Services and Technology Association)