From Concept to Reality: Smart Utility Technology

Interview by Helen Winsor, Smart Utilities

Chris Harris, Head of Retail Regulation at RWE, joins Smart Utilities to discuss moving towards next generation operations.

Smart Utilities: What elements of Smart Utility technology fall within your remit at RWE? C Harris: We have a number of teams involved in Smart. We have a strategy team that looks into the long term and looks at alliances with other companies, we have a programme team which sorts out the delivery of the whole programme, we have energy services teams that manage getting the meters to our customers and the services that follow that, and then our customer markets team that manages all of the tariffs that go with that. My job is to manage our relationship with the regulator and looking at how the regulations can support the policy. Smart Utilities: What sort of challenges are you currently facing when it comes to moving Smart Utility technology from concept to reality? C Harris: A very important aspect about the programme is not getting it wrong, so it's getting all the basics right. So customer experience is absolutely paramount because we don't want bad experiences at the beginning of a programme and we want customers to have good experiences and sell the concept to all their neighbours. To do that, the technology needs to work correctly, which means that the in-home displays for all those customers, they must work. The signals to the communications must also work. And then as we look forward, all the technological advances that we're expecting will need to work seamlessly, not just for individual customers, but will enable customers to change from supplier to supplier. Smart Utilities: Now, onto your presentation, Chris. You'll be talking about setting the vision for utilities at the event. Without giving too much away, what sort of developments do you see on the horizon? C Harris: I'll be focusing on how utilities work within... To read the full interview or to listen to the podcast, plase visit the Smart Utility download centre: http://bit.ly/hvow0r The Smart Utility Conference 2011 will take place from 28th to 29th June and it will be hosted at the Chelsea Football Club in London. For further details about the agenda and the speakers that will be talking part, please visit www.smartutilityevent.com. Alternatively, you can contact our enquiries team on telephone number +44 207 3689300 or email enquire@iqpc.co.uk.

IQPC Please note that we do all we can to ensure accuracy within the translation to word of audio interviews but that errors may still understandably occur in some cases. If you believe that a serious inaccuracy has been made within the text, please contact +44 (0) 207 368 9425 or email helen.winsor@iqpc.co.uk.