Dr Rob Barthorpe is a Chartered Engineer and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on the development of tools for optimal decision making under uncertainty. In recent years his focus has been applications in the energy domain, and in particular the role that distributed thermal and electrical energy storage may play as part of the transition to a low-carbon energy grid. This work has included the development of hierarchical control methodologies incorporating model predictive control, and evaluation of how they may be employed for optimal decision making over differing time horizons such that the potential of novel storage technologies may be fully exploited. He currently leads the DESNZ-funded ADSorB project, which is seeking to progress two advanced domestic thermal storage technologies towards commercialisation.  

Andrés Pinto-Bello Gómez is the Head of Research and Projects at smartEn, Smart Energy Europe, European business association integrating the consumer-driven solutions of the clean energy transition. Among other market intelligence publications, he is the lead author of the smartEn Map, an industry leading publication analysing the possibilities for Demand Side Flexibility across Europe. He also represents smartEn in numerous expert groups, such as the ACER/ENTSO-E European Stakeholder Committees or the European Commission’s Smart Grids Task Force, providing expertise on regulatory and technical analysis focused on DSF.

Andy joined Flexitricity in 2018 and was appointed as CEO in 2022 to drive a new era of growth and innovation.

Andy was previously Flexitricity’s Chief Commercial Officer, where he worked across the business to ensure customers could efficiently access the full suite of market opportunities available to our Energy Partners.

He has worked in the energy industry for over 15 years, in roles covering technical consultancy, project development/investment and strategic leadership. He has been a prominent and leading figure in the growth and development of Flextricity, bringing a deep level of insight and understanding of the flexible energy market

Asif is an experienced C-Level Executive in the energy market.  Asif has been CEO of Ecotricity for over 5 years, following 4 years as COO.

Asif has previously worked for Ofgem – UK’s energy regulator – where he spent 3 years.  He then spent 10 years at Powergen/E.ON, the World’s largest investor-owned utility.

Ecotricity has been in the UK market for nearly 30 years, supplies 100% green electricity for its customers and reinvests profits to build and generate renewable energy.

As well as being CEO of Ecotricity, he was recently also appointed as CEO of Green Britain Group.  The focus of the GBG is at the forefront of the global green industrial revolution. Forward-thinking, innovative, low-carbon – our businesses are pioneers in the new green economy.

In addition to Ecotricity, companies in GBG include: Skydiamond, Ecotalk, Britwind, Devils Kitchen and Forest Green Rovers (the Worlds greenest football club).

The companies in the group are fighting the climate crisis by offering consumers and businesses another way of doing things in the industries that create the most atmospheric carbon – energy, transport and food.

Ben Richardson having a multi-disciplined engineering background has been responsible for the UK&I region for Stationary Fuel Cells at Bosch since 2021. Tasked with defining the organization setup and go-to-market strategy. 

Before that, he worked in the central German team responsible for global fieldtest coordination, service and technical support within the fuel cell division. Before this he managed the UK&I CHP project and technical teams in Bosch Thermotechnology from 2014 to mid 2019.  

Prior to Bosch, he worked at Centrica Business Solutions (at the time ENER-G Combined Power) as an applications engineer designing multi-megawatt cogeneration and trigeneration systems 

Bobby Smith is Head of Energy Storage Ireland, a representative body for the energy storage industry in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Since 2019, Bobby has worked with ESI members and policy makers to promote the development of energy storage on the island. In previous roles, Bobby worked as Grid Manager in Wind Energy Ireland and as an analyst in the Commission for Regulation of Utilities where he was involved in areas such as electricity networks policy, security of supply and the development of the DS3 ancillary services market arrangements. 

Charles is Managing Director of Eclipse Power Solutions: the expert grid consultancy business within the Eclipse Power group. The group also includes Eclipse Power Networks, a licensed IDNO with a particular focus on EHV connections; and Eclipse Power Optimise, a new business to own and operate private networks and microgrids. Eclipse Power’s mission is to simplify electricity connections.

Charles has spent 7 years in the grid connections space, initially for developers securing and developing multiple GWs of grid connections for solar PV, battery energy storage and gas to power schemes – both at distribution and transmission, including behind the meter. Charles joined Eclipse Power in November 2022, as Head of Grid Connections with a responsibility for managing the contractual and technical interface between the IDNO and upstream DNOs/TOs/NESO for Eclipse’s EHV and transmission-connected projects. Eclipse Power Solutions was launched in October 2024 to provide expert grid consultancy to customers earlier in the development cycle, including for schemes that are not suitable to be adopted by the IDNO.

During this period, the grid connections landscape has changed significantly. Charles regularly sits on relevant code working groups, to develop modifications and improvements to the existing codes, such as CUSC and DCUSA. Charles has worked with other parties to co-propose modifications and most recently has been involved in the working groups for the impending Connections Reform.”

Charlotte is the Growth Director at heat networks investor, developer and operator, Hemiko. Charlotte is responsible for finding new places to invest in heat networks and bringing on more connections to make the heat networks bigger, to deliver Hemiko’s plans to invest £1bn into heat networks by 2030. Charlotte also looks after Hemiko’s community engagement, policy and public affairs.

Prior to joining Hemiko, Charlotte was the Principal Energy Policy Advisor at the Royal Danish Embassy in London, Policy and Crisis Manager at Water UK, and Policy Manager at the Association for Decentralised Energy.

Chris is a Hydrogen Senior Development Manager at Centrica, leading on projects and partnerships to commercialise hydrogen opportunities at Centrica across the full hydrogen value chain. He has worked in various energy roles over the past 15 years across business development, policy and regulatory affairs.

Claire joined Flexitricity in 2019 as the Head of Regulation. She works to increase market opportunities for flexible energy as policy, regulations and codes change to facilitate a net zero future. She brings a deep level of understanding of the potential for non-traditional energy participants to generate revenue and accelerate decarbonisation.

Claire has worked in the energy industry for over eleven years, covering policy and regulatory developments for technologies including energy storage, onshore wind, and legacy fossil fuel assets. Before that, she worked for environmental NGOs in a range of external affairs and strategy roles. She sits on the DSO Review Panel for Northern Powergrid, providing independent assurance for customers that flexibility decision making is sound.

Deren is responsible for strategy and evaluation of DESNZ’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and Advanced Nuclear Fund, and he oversees the Department’s support for innovation projects in the nuclear, renewables, built environment and storage and flexibility sectors.

I am Dr Antonios Banos, a research fellow at the Interface Analysis Centre (IAC) specialising in materials research primarily related to uranium-based materials and hydrogen. Working as a PDRA in the IAC since 2017, I am a driven individual with a passion for energy materials and commitment to develop innovation in the energy sector, particularly nuclear energy and hydrogen storage. My research in this area has so far resulted in 22 Journal and 14 conference proceedings articles and 17 conference presentations (h index:13, i-10 index:15). Since October 2021, I have been the technical lead for the HyDUS project (University of Bristol), working under Professor Scott (IAC). This is a major translation project for the nuclear sector that seeks to redirect unwanted depleted-uranium waste to become a useful high-efficiency hydrogen storage material. This technology will be valuable for both fission and fusion energy applications, as well as other intermittent energy sources.

Carlos Nieto is the Global Product Line Manager Energy Storage within Electrification Distribution Solutions at ABB, where Carlos leads the Energy Storage organization.

Carlos has been working for ABB for more than 12 years and previously he was a researcher in the Carlos III University of Madrid where he coursed a Ph.D and M.Sc in Electrical, Electronics and Automation Engineering and a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering. He is also an active member of the IEC committee.

In his current role he focuses on the business development of energy storage where his technical field of expertise lays down on battery energy storage systems and its control techniques. He continually strives at developing open minded teams and turning problems into opportunities. He has a strong interest and special focus on staying abreast of industry changes and progress and contributing to the development of the electrification industry. He has published over 20 articles, 7 issued patents and brought to market several electrification portfolio launches.

In his role as Global Optimisation and Analytics Lead, Michael combines device scheduling optimisation, market unlocking and unique customer propositions to harness energy flexibility, at scale. He has created products which guarantee customers pay nothing to consume energy such as Zero Bill Homes (for entire homes) and Power Pack (for EV charging). Michael continues to develop a suite of smart products which includes Intelligent Octopus Go, Europe’s largest virtual power plant sized at 1.2GW and encompassing 220k electric vehicles. He holds a PhD in flexibility from distributed energy resources from Imperial College London.

Dr Mike Spence is Science and Operations Lead for the UK Geoenergy Observatory in Cheshire, which is a research facility for aquifer thermal energy storage, flow and transport science and advanced monitoring of subsurface processes. His academic background is in geology (MA Cantab) and geochemistry (MSc, PhD) and his work in industry and academia has encompassed a wide range of subsurface science including in-situ monitoring of natural attenuation and wetland processes, design and operation of in-situ bioremediation systems, spatiotemporal modelling of plume development, analysis and reporting of EU refinery water usage. Since starting at British Geological Survey in 2019 he has led the development of the subsurface design for the Cheshire Observatory and is coordinating research delivery, observatory operations and innovation activities.

Dr Nina Klein is a Flexibility Policy Expert at Ofgem, working in the Decentralised Energy Systems team. Key projects include Clean Power 2030, Flexibility Digital Infrastructure policy enabling small scale flexibility to access ESO and DSO markets, and the Smart Secure Energy Systems program licencing aggregators and standardising smart appliances.

Previously, Nina was an Energy Engineer at BEIS advising on smart energy policy, including PAS 1878/79 for Energy Smart Appliances. During a secondment to ESO Nina led various digital innovation projects, including CrowdFlex and the Virtual Energy System.

Gavin Stewart is the Flexible Solutions Manager for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Distribution and has worked for SSEN for 16 years. Involved in various roles in the networks industry, from network operational roles to project management. For the last decade Gavin has delivered smart grid systems to unlock access to our distribution networks and the wider transmission network. In addition, Gavin has been involved in the procurement, dispatch and settlement of Flexibility Services, working with our stakeholders, to help manage the network in an efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective manner. 

Genna is an experienced energy leader with a background in strategy, origination and trading in the UK and New Zealand electricity sector, with a key focus on renewable generation and battery storage. Before joining Gridcog to lead our expansion into the UK and Europe, Genna was the Head of Commercial at Battery Optimiser and PPA Trader Limejump.

Jon is a professional engineer with over 20 years experience in the power industry, management consulting and government. Jon currently oversees Hydrostor’s strategic growth as President and was previously Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Hydrostor he held senior roles at Brookfield Asset Management, including leading commercial development, regulatory policy and government relations across North America and Europe for the power and utilities business. In earlier roles he served as project manager for environmental infrastructure and held senior roles in government, where he led grid and networks policy development in Ontario as well as interjurisdictional negotiations. Jon holds an interdisciplinary master’s degree in engineering and economics from the University of Toronto.

Energy systems specialist having worked within local government for the past five years, as Energy Infrastructure Lead at the West Midlands Combined Authority. She is a chartered mechanical engineer, with a background in energy consultancy. She is passionate about energy system planning being democratically accountable and excited about the emerging tools and structures needed to achieve a just transition to net zero.

Kieran is Principal Energy Policy Adviser at the Royal Danish Embassy in London where he works in the Energy Governance Partnership (EGP) of government-to-government cooperation between the Danish, UK, and Scottish Governments. The EGP programme focuses on district energy and energy efficiency, seeking to use Danish experience in these areas to support UK and Scottish plans on the green transition.

Kieran also supports the MoU working groups between the three governments, which also cover cooperation on areas including hydrogen, CCUS, and the electricity system.

Prior to this role, Kieran has had roles as an energy policy specialist in the Association for Decentralised Energy and as Senior Researcher for MPs including the former de facto Deputy Prime Minister, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons and the Prime Minister’s Intellectual Property Adviser

Kieron leads development of propositions at Octopus making energy smarter and more flexible. He led the UK’s first battery tolling deal with Gresham House for 568MW of capacity, created Saving Sessions, a demand response service with 1.6 million customers and 2GWh energy shifted, and helped deliver Intelligent Octopus, the world’s largest smart charging virtual power plant with 1.2GW of flexible load from EVs across 220,000 customers. Kieron is a Fulbright Scholar and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Liam is the Head of Energy System Digitalisation at Ofgem, where he is responsible for developing policy for digitalising the energy sector. His work involves; incentivising the collection of new data in the energy system, approving digitalisation investments in network companies, supporting the introduction of common digital infrastructure in the energy sector, and ensuring consumers benefit from their consumption data. Liam has a background in innovative energy technologies, having previously worked on the design of energy storage products.  He is responsible for the delivery of the government’s Energy Digitalisation Strategy, including the recommendations of the Energy Data and Energy Digitalisation Taskforces.

Lucinda is a Flexibility Research Manager and a technical expert in flexibility markets. She has a deep technical understanding of European flexibility markets, acts as technical advisor on consultancy projects and was the lead author for the annual smartEN/LCP Delta Flexibility Market Monitor.
Lucinda support’s a variety of clients, from executives in multinational vertically integrated utilities, to developer teams in start-up organisations. She works across the whole delivery lifecycle including strategy, planning, delivery, change and reviews with the flexibility landscape.

Mark Meyrick is Head of Smart Grids and PPAs at Ecotricity, where his main efforts are concentrated on developing Ecotricity’s grid scale battery storage deployment, aggregated with other assets in a virtual power plant so as to enable flexible energy response to the needs of the Grid, and the market.

Alongside this Ecotricity has an active Power Purchase Agreement function which Mark started and oversees.

Previously at Ecotricity in 2003 when he started up their energy trading desk, bringing across the ABB energy desk which he began in 2001, having led the team there for 7 years.

Over the 2003 -2015 period he worked on GHG emissions abatement projects for EDF Trading, Constellation Energy, German utility EnBW and Dutch utility Eneco for EU ETS compliance.

Previously he was a foreign exchange options trader for some years, having started working life as a chartered accountant.

Matthew Lumsden is the founder and CEO of Connected Energy, a company that has designed and commercialised battery energy storage solutions using second life EV batteries.  

Matthew has worked in the renewable energy and clean tech sector since 2000 when he joined energy consultancy, TNEI. He then established an electric vehicle related consultancy in 2009 where he was responsible for delivering several major EV trails, charging infrastructure roll outs, V2G trials and strategies for major industry players.  

Connected Energy was born out of the insight and knowledge gained in the EV industry and the challenges facing OEMs around electric vehicle batteries. Combining the worlds of energy storage, electric vehicles and the circular economy, the company commercialised its innovative E-STOR system which is now in operation at businesses across the UK and in Europe. The company is now scaling up in response to the growing availability of second life EV batteries and is developing utility scale battery energy storage sites. 

Maurice Lynch holds a fellowship in engineering from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and is a chartered European engineer certified by the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI). He has over 15 years of experience working in senior roles related to policy and standards, innovation, system flexibility, and connections at electricity distribution companies Electricity North West Limited (ENWL) and Northern Powergrid (NPg). Maurice currently serves as Engineering Director at Suir Engineering, a global independent connection provider specialising in the full design and delivery of power generation projects, data centers, and infrastructure reinforcement in the UK, Ireland, and other European countries. In his spare time, he volunteers and supports the IET Energy Panel, who are a group of industry experts who provide strategic advice to the government on energy related topics and issues.

Max leads the Origination team at OVO, having joined the business in 2021. He has the responsibility of finding and looking after all of OVO’s Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) – the contracts to buy power from renewable generators right across the mainland UK.
Max has 7 years experience within the energy industry, having worked in various PPA Trading & Account Management roles across a range of different energy supply businesses. He has a passion for understanding the needs of renewable generators and helping them to deliver a net zero UK.

Nick has a BA (Hons) from the University of Leeds, holding an LCGI in Leadership and Management, and a former infantry officer in the British Army, serving with the 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment (Duke of Wellingtons). Nick has worked globally over the past 20 years bringing renewable energy to places that need it most across EMEA, LATAM, Asia & Africa. Delivering over 30 megawatts, he understands the importance of energy analysis to get the most out of your renewable energy investment.

Oliver has been with Renewable Exchange since its inception in 2017, playing an instrumental role in its growth to become the UK’s largest PPA platform, serving 6.5GW of renewable generation and executing nearly 2,500 power purchase agreements.

Oliver specialises in providing route-to-market services for both operational and in-development assets; he is passionate about supporting renewable energy projects to drive forwards the energy transition.

Paul Has worked within the renewables sector for more that ten years and he is focused on Battery Energy Storage, Solar and Wind for the UK market.

He is currently the renewables sales specialist for ABB Medium Voltage – UK.

His daily motivation is helping engineers to improve the efficiency and reliability of their plant or operations.

Paul Smith, a seasoned industry professional with over 25 years of experience, currently leads global sales for Energy Dome’s CO2 Battery technology. His career spans various roles, including VP of Business Development at Emergy, advisor to major renewables investors in EMEA, and GM, Sales & Development at METKA, where he oversaw the execution of about 10 GW of gas-fired power plants. He transitioned to renewables in 2010, leading investments in solar PV and chairing the board of METKA EGN, overseeing the development of over 1 GW of solar PV, 300 MW of BESS, and a 3 GW global project development portfolio. He holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham.

Bio coming soon…

Rebecca Beresford was appointed as NESO’s Director of Markets in September 2024.  Prior to joining NESO Rebecca spent over 20 years working for EDF, where she most recently held the position of Director of Net Zero Strategy and Policy.  She has also held several other key roles within EDF, covering retail market policy & regulation, smart metering, sustainability, and generation strategy.

Rebecca’s career has focused on implementing the right energy policies and frameworks to support a decarbonised energy system, including work on Electricity Market Reform and more recently on REMA.

At NESO, Rebecca leads a team responsible for designing and delivering energy markets that facilitate security of supply at the lowest sustainable cost for consumers, while enabling the transition to net zero.  Rebecca is passionate about ensuring a balanced and whole system approach to market design, which puts the needs of customers at the heart of the solution.

Sanjeet brings 15 years of strategic leadership in the energy sector, with a specialized focus on utility grid operations, renewable energy integration, and strategic planning for net-zero transitions. As a seasoned leader, Sanjeet has effectively guided multidisciplinary teams through complex engineering, economic, and regulatory challenges, aligning energy system capabilities with future-focused strategies. Previously, Sanjeet worked for BloombergNEF as the Head of Grids & Utilities. There he led a global team of analysts to perform energy system modelling, horizon scanning, policy development, and technological innovation for net-zero energy systems. This role capitalized on his expertise gained at BC Hydro, where, as an engineer in transmission planning and grid operations, he played a pivotal role in operational strategies and infrastructure projects that shaped one of Canada’s largest electric utilities. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Scott heads up OVO’s Zero Carbon Living team who are focused on building and scaling mass-market home decarbonisation propositions, including smart tariffs, export tariffs, solar and heat pumps. Scott has been in the energy industry for over a decade, working in some of Europe’s biggest energy companies in a variety of commercial, product and marketing roles.

Stuart has been with Lombard Asset Finance for over 17 years and ​has a successful track record of delivering ​asset finance solutions for a variety of SME and Corporate customers. Stuart now leads on Lombard’s Counterparty proposition for businesses looking to invest in renewable energy technologies and benefit directly from the long-term advantages they can provide.

Tom’s career began as a qualified chartered accountant in corporate finance and oil & gas, moved through to performing commercial analysis and project management for various SSE projects over the last 8 years, including onshore wind, energy from waste, carbon capture, and most recently, non-domestic smart metering and smart data related innovation.

At SSE he’s ensuring that customers are able to identify and capitalise on every possible energy optimising opportunity stemming from the areas of smart data management and energy optimisation platforms amongst the oncoming backdrop of mandatory market wide half-hourly settlement across our industry.

Tom’s data innovation led approach supports not just our customers and business partners, but the communities around us, to stay on track to achieve net zero and play our part to deliver solutions to navigate through the new world of digital energy optimisation directly tackling climate change head on.