About the session
Keynote Speaker: Designing In Resiliency To A Net Zero Electricity Systems
David Wright, Group Chief Engineer & Group Director of Safety, Health & Business Resilience, National Grid
As National Grid, we are at the heart of the energy transition. We are decarbonising energy networks at pace and preparing for climate change. We need to ensure the energy transition is resilient, deliverable and affordable. We also need to adjust our asset engineering for a changing climate.
We are tackling 4 key categories of resilience risk:
Resilient Transition: We face deliverability challenges as we grow our networks to connect new clean energy and meet an increased demand for electricity driven largely by hydrogen electrolysis, EVs and heat pumps. Supply chain, internal resources and operational management will all need to be resilience to the transition
Network Evolution: The Electricity Network will undergo significant transformation on the road to net zero. Challenges around topology, quality of supply, and design standards will need to be addressed
System Interconnectedness: Our networks will become more interconnected with other critical sectors such as transport.
Climate Adaption: Our assets will be more vulnerable in the future.
The ESO is on track to operate the electricity system with 100% renewables from 2025, a key enabler for zero carbon operation by 2035. This provides several technical challenges to be resolved.
