Skip to main content
The Institution of Engineering and Technology iet.tv
Site name
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Events
  • Series

Access and Account

Access your personal account

Log in to see your favourites, lists and progress.

IET Login

Access via institution

Not currently connected to any institutions

Connect via

  1. Videos
  2. Video

Disrupting engagement cutting out the traditional utility

  • WhatsApp
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Bluesky
CPD This content can contribute towards your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) as part of the IET's CPD Monitoring scheme.
Event
  • Session
  • Wednesday, 23 May 2018
  • 11:23 - 11:23
  • Duration: 12 mins
  • Publication date: 08 Jun 2018
  • Location: Customer Solutions Theatre, NEC, Birmingham, United Kingdom
  • Part of event Utility week Live 2018

About the session

New technologies and new market entrants are bringing forward innovations which offer to make consumer choices easier and to automate their engagement with the utilities market. Others are supporting values-based utility provision which plays on community belonging and social purpose.

Both of these trends have the potential – or indeed the intent – of cutting out the traditional utility business in order to deliver an enhanced customer experience.

How might the rise of peer-to-peer trading platforms accelerate this threat? Will more customers soon become energy self-sufficient? What is the growth trajectory of municipal and smart city energy companies and can incumbent players turn threats from these all of these into opportunities for evolution?

Chair: Alice Cooke, Content Editor, Utility Week

Keywords:
  • GDPR
  • climate change
  • cloud migration
  • cyber defence
  • data governance
  • decarbonisation
  • electric vehicle
  • energy
  • energy crisis
  • energy sector
  • fuel bank
  • npower
  • power consumption
  • priority services
  • renewable
  • smart meter
  • smart meter data
  • water sector

Channels

Power

Power

Speakers

  • Ian Allan

    Ian Allan

    Switch 2, Head of R&D

  • Matthew Rhodes

    Matthew Rhodes

    Energy Capital, Independent consultant and chair

    Matthew Rhodes is Chair of Energy Capital, which is the body accountable to the Mayor and Combined Authority in the West Midlands for delivery of the regional energy strategy. He’s worked in the energy sector for over 20 years, largely on innovation and with a focus on demand side technologies. For 14 years he ran a specialist technology and economics consultancy working internationally at the leading edge of the clean energy transition.
  • Neil Barnes

    Neil Barnes

    Associate partner, Ofgem

    Neil Barnes is Deputy Director, Consumers & Markets at Ofgem , the GB energy regulator. He is responsible for exploring whether the current ‘supplier hub’ market model is still fit for purpose. He is also in charge of Ofgem’s programme of trials to identify ways to prompt greater consumer engagement in the retail energy market. Neil previously led the policy design phase of the GB smart metering implementation programme and the development of Ofgem’s strategy to promote smarter energy markets from the platform of smart metering. More recently, he was responsible for the monitoring of GB retail energy markets and overseeing Ofgem’s move to rely more on principles in the way it regulates energy suppliers. Prior to joining Ofgem in 2008, Neil worked for over ten years at HM Treasury as a senior economic adviser. He worked on a range of policy areas including competition, energy and financial services. During this period, he spent time on secondment to the European Commission’s Competition Directorate General.
  • Alice Cooke

    Alice Cooke

    Utility Week, Content editor

The Institution of Engineering and Technology iet.tv

Address: Futures Place, Kings Way, Stevenage, SG1 2UA

Telephone: +44 (0)33 049 9123

Email:  iet.tv@theiet.org

© 2026 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology is registered as a Charity in England & Wales (no 211014) and Scotland (no SC038698). Futures Place, Kings Way, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2UA, United Kingdom

  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Privacy statement Cookie Preferences Accessibility About us theiet.org Help

Powered by Cadmore Media

Embed Code

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://play.cadmore.media/js/EMBED.js"></script> <div class="cmpl_iframe_div"> <iframe src="https://play.cadmore.media/Player/c1e573c2-a84c-4629-a0ec-6a3c22ff1009" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true" allowautoplay="true" frameborder="0" allow="encrypted-media;autoplay;fullscreen" class="cmpl_iframe" allowfullscreen="" style="overflow: hidden;border: 0px; margin: 0px; height: 100%; width:100%;"></iframe> </div>

Are you sure you want to reset your password?

If so, you will be redirected to the Authentication Service

Title

Prompt