All-Energy 2025: Grid Expansion Very Much in Focus

RICHMOND, UNITED KINGDOM, May 8, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Both Scottish Transmission Operators (TOs) Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Transmission and SP Energy Networks are heavily committed to upgrading the power grid and exhibiting at All-Energy (SEC Glasgow – 14-15 May) along with key suppliers such as Hitachi Energ UK and Schnider Electric UK.

Announcements from them come thick and fast. Today (8 May) The National Wealth Fund (NWF) has announced a £600m commitment to help Iberdrola and ScottishPower upgrade the British electricity grid – supporting hundreds of jobs and helping to pave the way for a new era of clean electricity. Only last month SSEN Distribution announced that it is to invest almost half a billion pounds improving the north of Scotland’s local electricity networks, an investment that will make the existing network more resilient and provide additional capacity to support the decarbonisation of communities and industry.

With grid expansion a key conference topic, there is a specially built large theatre (Conference Stage 1) in Hall 3 at SEC to house five of the seven conference session devoted to grid. This is in addition to the FutureGrid show floor theatre programme, which will be in operation throughout the two days of the UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy exhibition and conference.

Registration is at https://www.all-energy.co.uk/PR and is free for all with relevant business or academic interests. Once registered, visitors can take advantage of the All-Energy App, which is ready to download and use. It can be used to browse the full exhibitor directory (over 300 organisations from 17 countries will be taking part) using filters to find the companies involved with grid and networks listed, and all main conference and show floor theatre programmes, special features and networking facilities. These networking facilities can be used to browse profiles, send messages and request meetings as well as checking the ‘What’s On’ facility for a variety of events and opportunities.

The first grid session in the main conference ‘Where is the UK on its energy transition journey? And how is Grid helping or hindering?’ will set the scene and is chaired by Professor Keith Bell, ScottishPower Chair in Smart Grids at Strathclyde University.

His explanatory introduction to the 90-minute session explains: “Everything is in place for clean energy: there is plenty of low carbon generation and storage in the connection queue and strong appetite from investors; there are government commitments to reform planning and place ample new contracts for difference; there has been lots of innovation; and there are well-advanced plans for transmission network development.

“Or: only a portion of the grid connection queue can be expected to be advanced and the ‘stickability’ of queue reforms is yet to be tested; constraint costs are large and growing; we keep changing our minds on what a holistic network design looks like; Britain’s network companies have been slow out of the blocks in striking contracts for equipment and hiring and training personnel; wholesale market reform raises big uncertainties; there are questions about resilience; and we haven’t even started thinking about how to accommodate increased demand for power. Which of these narratives is true? Join this panel of experts to find out.”

He certainly has experts on his panel - Rob McDonald, Managing Director SSEN Transmission; Nicola Connelly, CEO, SP Energy Networks; Julian Lesley, Director of Strategi Energy Planning and Chief Engineer at the National Energy System Operator (NESO); Melanie Macrae, Deputy Director Clean Power 2030 Unit, Policy and Delivery at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zerio (DESNZ); Tom Hughes, Assistant Director energy, National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. The quality of the line-up is reflected in all the sessions in the grid and network stream.

Other sessions look at ‘The complexity of the grid upgrade: the Net Zero grid must be smarter as well as higher capacity‘ sponsored by Hitachi Energy UK with Laura Fleming, Country Managing Director for Hitachi Energy in the UK and Ireland delivering a keynote address and then joining the panel of experts from National Grid, Innovate UK, Grid Enhancing Technologies, and NESO with Susan McDonald, Energy Transition Lead, Deloitte in the chair.

Next come sessions on two vital topics – connections, and REMA . Both have been discussed before at All-Energy in 2023 and 2034. The first (on 14 May) is ‘Connections Strategy and Reform: Aligning with Clean Power 2030’ with Lawrence Slade, CEO of the Energy Networks Association once again in the chair; and the second, with Kersti Berge, Director of Energy and Climate Change, Scottish Government in the chair for the third year running is ‘Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA): An update’ (on 15th).

Other grid-related sessions are an Innovate UK, SIF, Ofgem ‘Consortium building workshop for Ofgem SIF Round 5’; and ‘Marketing the Transition’. Session descriptions and full speaker lists are online at https://www.all-energy.co.uk/25 and on the All-Energy 2025 App.

All-Energy’s headline sponsor, Shepherd and Wedderburn, celebrates its 11th year in the role; other sponsors include Noventa, Hitachi Energy UK, Statkraft, SEFC, Black & Veatch, SGS, Flexitricity, AMSC, XING Mobility Inc and the University of Sheffield. Glasgow Convention Bureau is All-Energy’s official partner; and The Society for Underwater Technology is its Learned Society Patron. All combine to make this year’s show, set right in the middle of Glasgow’s Climate Week, and during Glasgow’s 850 year celebrations, a very special two days.

ENDS

All-Energy, the history: The UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy exhibition and conference has been held since February 2001. The first 14 All-Energy events were held in Aberdeen; the show moved to Glasgow in 2015.

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All-Energy – how can we help you?
Photographs: you can download 2024 photographs from www.all-energy.co.uk/en-gb/about/media.htmlbut if you would prefer to be sent one that suits your particular needs, or a selection, please contact Judith Patten at JudithPatten@JPPR.uk.com

Videos: At show videos and an interview with the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy (and many more) are at https://www.youtube.com/user/AllEnergyConference

Issued on behalf of All-Energy by

Judith Patten
JPPR
JudithPatten@JPPR.uk.com