National Grid connects millions of people in the UK and US with the energy they use in a rapidly evolving energy world. At the heart of a transforming energy system, the Grid’s business areas, driven by data, play a vital role in connecting millions of people to the energy they use. Additionally, it is continually seeking ways to make the energy system clean.
Connections like these are driven by data explains National Grid’s Global Head of Data Strategy, Andrew Burns. “We have new energy sources, greater demand and an opportunity to gather more data than ever before. Technologies like AI and augmented reality are revolutionising how we use that data. Today, data and these technologies are combining to increase our ability to deliver value to our customers, and society. And these shifts can be felt in every area of our organisation. The live outage alerts our customers rely on, the capacity forecasts we share with partners, the reporting regulators require. And the financial insights that give our investors confidence. These are all examples of how data is at the heart of everything we do.”
A community-driven ‘Data Story’
“Data is the stuff that enables our business to operate our networks smarter,” Andrew explains. “Furthermore, data helps our teams and partners to collaborate. It provides the insight to make better products, services and experiences for our customers and communities. It shows up in the data sets we access everyday as employees.”
The shift from a data strategy to a ‘data story’ was determined after Andrew quickly realised a heavily federated and regulated organisation doesn’t lend itself to having a traditional enterprise approach. “Our individual business units operate in different territories and under varying regulatory regimes. So, it’s extremely difficult to bring everything together across multiple timelines and funding mechanisms, which aren’t aligned,” he notes. “On top of that, each business unit had a different culture, operating model and historical technology stack, making enterprise engagement challenging.”
Partnering with Wipro and Frog to promote innovation
To work at pace on use cases through its Innovation Lab, National Grid is speeding up its delivery by collaborating with trusted partners. With 12 innovation use cases delivered and another 17 in the pipeline, Andrew is excited about the progress being made working with Wirpo and Capgemini.
“Wipro are our biggest partner for executing use cases through the Innovation Lab today. They’ve been key to our success in being able to be agile, deliver multiple use cases in parallel and deliver direct value back to the business. Moreover, the projects they’ve worked on have given direct tangible business benefits. Wipro have helped us to make sure the story we wanted to tell was clear. ‘Come to us, we can work with you to do this really quickly’. They enabled that and without them we wouldn’t have had such a great process. It prioritises it, assesses it, and without them we wouldn’t have been able to execute. So, they’ve been vital to that journey.”
“Capgemini were key to helping us set up the framework and the operating model for the Innovation Lab,” Andrew adds. “They’re currently supporting us in developing out our own internal research environment. We then have a capability to deploy use cases internally as well as working with our partners. They’re instrumental to building our core capabilities and evolving our approach to innovation.”