Energy professionals agree on collaboration strategy

ST ALBANS, ENGLAND, December 05, 2010 (Press-News.org) There is no chance of successfully delivering any of the UK's energy strategy for the next 20 years or so unless the organisations involved engage in effective collaboration. That was the message of energy experts at the Energy conference held in the grounds of the iconic Battersea Power Station on 30th November.

Organised by PSL (Partnership Sourcing Limited) - an organisation which provides practical guidance to help organisations, large and small, in both the public and private sectors, to build and develop effective competitive business relationships based upon a collaborative approach - the event was sponsored by Siemens, a global energy corporation and a key member of the PSL Executive Network.

These discussions took place only days before the official launch of BS 11000, the world's first standard for collaborative business relationships - at the House of Lords on 7th December. The standard, developed by BSI with PSL along with Government and industry professionals, helps organisations to establish, manage and improve collaborative working within and across the public and private sectors.

The conference was opened by Lord David Evans, PSL's chairman, who commented: "The launch of BS 11000 is a landmark for the world of business by providing a consistent framework for collaborative working, an increasingly important feature of today's and tomorrow's business."

At the conference in Battersea, Steve Wildman of Siemens gave an overview of the global energy situation. Against a projected increase in world population of 1.1bn to 7.5bn by 2020, he explained that power consumption is rising by 5.2 per cent a year in the world's emerging regions and by 1.4 per cent a year in the developed world.

Wildman explained: "The world's population is increasing; we're all living longer; we're worried about greenhouse gases and increasing temperatures and, between 2008 and 2030 we're expecting to see a 50 per cent increase - at a rate of some 2.3 per cent per year - in the demand for energy.

"In the UK, as old energy generating plants retire, we're expecting to see a sizeable gap between the demand for, and supply of, energy," he said. "The Government has a key role to play in setting the policy to ensure an adequate supply of cheap energy, along with guaranteeing security of supply and ensuring that the energy is produced in a 'green', sustainable way.

"Of course, there's no single - or easy - solution," he added. "However, we need to be more efficient at producing our energy because, at present, our energy output is only around 40 per cent of the amount of energy it takes to produce it."

Julius Brinkworth a director from Power Efficiency, examined various approaches to energy efficiency for new and existing buildings, industrial, commercial and residential; demonstrating how new technologies and innovative approaches are leading to reducing overall energy demand and optimising demand timing to reduce cost.

This led to the topic of SMART Grid. Colin Henry, business development manager at Siemens Energy, outlined the ideas behind SMART Grid, which aims to produce a fully integrated energy strategy, encompassing every area of life.

One example of this is the UK Power Networks approach, which involves a collaborative agreement between 13 stakeholders including Siemens focused on London's energy use as a trailblazing initiative for other major urban areas.

Stressing the need for collaborative ventures in the energy sector, Henry explained that there were challenges for the stakeholders in terms of building trust, aligning shared goals from different business models aiming at different targets, and negotiating and achieving balanced stakeholder value - in a word: collaboration.

Siemens' James O'Hagan discussed the redevelopment of existing energy generating plants, such as at the Drax Power Station - the largest coal fired power station in Western Europe. O'Hagan explained how a team drawn from three stakeholders - Drax Power Ltd, Siemens and RWE, one of Siemens' competitors - collaborated in order to achieve significant efficiency improvements to double the output and significantly reduce the environmental impact of such a major fossil fuel power station. He concluded: "Working in collaboration was the catalyst to our success."

Adrian Worker, of AMEC, described the plans for the major collaborative venture in the 'new build' sector of the nuclear industry between AMEC, EDF and UK EPR. This undertaking will be one of the biggest construction programmes over the next decade to deliver a major part of our energy needs for the rest of this century

Peter Jones OBE, a consultant to the energy industry, discussed the major technology and business issues around turning waste into energy and, by so doing, reduce the amount of landfill and add another dimension to satisfying our energy needs.

He identified three key elements of energy policy implementation: economics, technology and attitude. He concluded that: "No one company in the UK understands all of the issues involved in developing, implementing and achieving a successful energy strategy. So we need collaboration between those that have the technology and those that have the money."

Steve Wildman of Siemens rounded off the formal sessions by discussing the major investment that Siemens has announced in the UK for the development and implementation of Wind as a source of green energy. Again this is a collaborative approach with a number of major parties working together in order to deliver the UK commitment to carbon reduction through the use of green energy.

There followed a lively debate on what is a major topic which finished on re-emphasising the importance of BS 11000, whose framework comprises methodologies supported by a wide range of tools and guides which have been established over some 20 years experience in relationship management.

PSL's operations director, David Hawkins commented: "Adopting BS 11000 will create an invaluable common structure to offer an alternative and enhanced capability to build new value propositions which are beyond the capabilities of an individual organisation. Moreover, it offers the opportunity to share the flow of knowledge and experience between individuals and organisations to deliver benefit and add value."

Copies of the 46-page standard - known as BS 11000-1:2010 (ISBN number 978 0 580 69562 9) - are available, price GBP162, from http://www.standardsuk.com/BS 11000-1:2010

Ends
Notes for Editors
About PSL
PSL was established in 1990 as a joint initiative between the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (formerly DTI)) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). PSL is a self-financing not-for-profit organisation. Its role is to help organisations, large and small, in both the public and private sectors, to build and develop effective competitive business relationships based upon a collaborative approach.

PSL provides practical guidance based on a wide portfolio of experience utilising knowledge from extensive relationships within the commercial, Government and academic arenas.

PSL's unique CRAFT methodology provides a framework for business relationship management developed from the collective experience of the PSL knowledge network. This programme was adopted by the British Standards Institution (BSI) as the foundation of the Collaborative Business Relationship Framework - PAS 11000, published in November 2006 - the world's first Standard in relationship management.

Future PSL events include:
• Partnering in Transport, in March 2011

Further information from:

Les Pyle, PSL, 0207 824 1807; les.pyle@PSLCBI.com
David Hawkins, PSL, 0207 824 1807; david.hawkins@PSLCBI.com
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 01727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

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