Roundtables
DAY 1
Thursday 1st October
WSP
11:00 - 12:15 (Platinum 5)
Independent Transmission Licenses: Unlocking Competition and Investment in the UK Grid
Discussion themes:
What the new CATO regime means for the UK transmission sector
How new market entrants could transform network ownership and delivery
The scale of investment opportunities and economic benefits
Regulatory and legal challenges facing investors and developers
AtkinsRéalis
11:00 - 12:15 (Platinum 6)
Protecting critical energy infrastructure in an era of rapid network expansion
As the UK's energy network grows to meet rising demand and support economic growth, ensuring resilience and security has never been more important. This roundtable will bring together senior leaders to share insights, explore emerging threats and discuss how resilience can be built into infrastructure, investment and decision-making from day one.
Aker Systems
11:00 - 12:15 (Platinum 7)
Are operational leaders capturing real value from AI, or does fragmented data limit its potential?
Discuss how organisations can maximise the future potential of AI by making the right investments in their data infrastructure today
What have your own experiences been with AI deployment to date—both successful implementations and lessons learned from failed pilots?
Where do you see the most immediate and impactful opportunities for data and AI within the UK electricity network context?
What are the primary technical and organizational issues holding back broader AI deployment?
What specific industry initiatives, supply chain collaborations, or technology solutions would you like to see over the next 5 years?
Cambridge Consultants
11:00 - 12:15 (Boardroom)
Aligning Regional Growth with Grid Planning
Throughout the session, participants will be invited to test key hypotheses, challenge long-standing bottlenecks and identify practical actions that can accelerate progress.
Discussion areas:
Access to power as a determinant of regional competitiveness
What it means for a region to 'benefit' from electrification
How infrastructure investment translates into regional economic growth
Balancing competing economic, environmental and social priorities
British Hydropower Association
13:15 - 14:30 (Platinum 5)
Is the UK costing resilience into the energy transition?
Using the 23 June system stress event, the roundtable will explore the value of certainty, limitations of LCOE, interconnected delivery risks, and who owns resilience, seeking better metrics and governance for an affordable, operable and resilient future energy system.
Invitation only
Stantec
13:15 - 14:30 (Platinum 6)
GridLab
In this session, teams take on roles to build, connect and operate Britain's grid across fifteen years of change. Combining a novel game setting with a taste of real-world energy planning, glimpse into possible futures while contributing to a repeatable format designed to help grow our industry.
GHD
13:15 - 14:30 (Platinum 7)
Freeing Planners to Plan: Automation in Network Modelling
Power networks are expanding at unprecedented pace, leaving planners less time to keep models accurate before studies begin. This session explores how automating model builds from existing data can cut maintenance effort, followed by a roundtable on how accurate modelling supports network capacity, reinforcement decisions and investment planning.
AECOM
15:30 - 16:45 (Platinum 5)
Delivering resilience: how a system-wide approach can future-proof the UK's energy system
As the UK’s energy system rapidly evolves, resilience is critical to business continuity, energy security and reliable power delivery. With rising electrification, changing demand and climate and cyber risks, resilience must be built into infrastructure planning and delivery.
Hosted by AECOM, this executive roundtable will bring together industry leaders to explore how a proactive approach to resilience can strengthen the energy system, support future demand and enable the UK’s Clean Power mission.
Key talking points:
Embedding resilience into planning and investment
Managing operational, climate and cyber risks
Building flexibility through digitalisation and network modernisation
Managing cross-sector infrastructure dependencies
Preparing infrastructure for future demand
EBERO Pipe Systems
15:30 - 16:45 (Platinum 6)
PowerShield+ Class 1 ENATS 12-24 Ducts from EBERO
EBERO Pipe Systems offering our PowerShield+ Class 1 ENATS 12-24 approved alternative cable ducting and custom bends with or without ring seal connections offering 1,5 bar tested sealing pressure from 50mm to 250mm in Black, Red, other RAL variants available.
Oaklin
15:30 - 16:45 (Platinum 7)
Challenge vs opportunity: Delivering the workforce of the future
The UK is not short of ambition for its electricity grid, but it is short of the people to deliver it. This session asks hard questions about the future workforce - where will the people come from, how will we deliver projects at pace whilst building the skills needed, and will the workforce be the achilles heel or the lasting legacy of the energy transition?
Cambridge Consultants
15:30 - 16:45 (Boardroom)
Financing the Future Grid: Affordability, Reform & Corporate Investment
Throughout the session, participants will be invited to test key hypotheses, challenge long-standing bottlenecks and identify practical actions that can accelerate progress.
Discussion areas:
Alternative routes to funding for value creation across the wider economy
Measuring value created by infrastructure
Maintaining affordability while accelerating investment
Unlocking private investment to accelerate deployment
DAY 2
Friday 2nd October
E.ON Energy
11:00 - 12:15 (Platinum 5)
Accelerating Development: Infrastructure, Investment and Certainty
Access to infrastructure capacity is increasingly shaping project viability, investment confidence and development outcomes. This discussion brings together senior leaders from across the development ecosystem to explore how greater certainty, earlier collaboration and better visibility can help unlock development and support sustainable growth at a pivotal moment for UK infrastructure.
BRUSH Group
11:00 - 12:15 (Platinum 6)
Turning Infrastructure Investment into Lasting Impact
The UK’s unprecedented infrastructure transformation presents a major opportunity to create lasting economic value alongside a more secure and resilient grid.
Achieving this will require more than traditional supply chain models. Long-term, bankable commitments are needed to unlock investment in skills, manufacturing capacity and innovation across the UK.
This roundtable will bring together industry leaders to explore practical approaches to strengthening the UK supply chain, unlocking investment and ensuring the benefits of this once-in-a-generation programme are felt for decades to come.
Arup
11:00 - 12:15 (Platinum 7)
Building trust with communities by embedding and communicating impactful benefits
Building trust with communities by embedding and communicating impactful benefits. While the long-term benefits are clear, public acceptance cannot be taken for granted. The question for our industry is not simply how we deliver infrastructure faster, but how we ensure people and places experience the benefits of the energy transition, both during delivery and long after projects are complete.
Cambridge Consultants
11:00 - 12:15 (Boardroom)
Securing the Future Grid: Data Security, Connectivity & Systems-Based Infrastructure Planning
Throughout the session, participants will be invited to test key hypotheses, challenge long-standing bottlenecks and identify practical actions that can accelerate progress.
Discussion areas:
Interdependencies between energy, telecommunication, water and the critical services that rely on these
Reducing systemic risk through investment
The role of resilience standards in the convergence of energy, telecommunication and digital infrastructure
Ownership of responsibilities at sector boundaries
Balfour Beatty
13:15 - 14:30 (Platinum 5)
Turbocharging Investment: The Expertise and Capacity Challenge
The UK is investing in its electricity networks at a pace never seen before, placing unprecedented demands on skills, supply chains and delivery capability. This roundtable will explore how industry, government and regulators can work together to build the expertise and capacity needed to deliver the grid at the speed required.
Cambridge Consultants
13:15 - 14:30 (Boardroom)
Building the 2030 Grid: Procurement, Innovation & Supply Chain Capacity
Throughout the session, participants will be invited to test key hypotheses, challenge long-standing bottlenecks and identify practical actions that can accelerate progress.
Discussion areas:
The value impact of siloed infrastructure systems
Systemic benefits of coordinated planning, procurement and workforce development strategies
Strategic sovereign capabilities for critical infrastructure
Innovations for increasing productivity and augmented workforce capacity