Speakers
Dan Micklethwaite
Director of Energy Security and Resilience, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Karl Simons OBE
Chief Futurist, FYLD AI and Advisor to the Prime Ministers Cabinet Office, UK Government, FYLD
Director of Energy Security and Resilience, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Chief Futurist, FYLD AI and Advisor to the Prime Ministers Cabinet Office, UK Government, FYLD
Government Affairs & Development Director, Grissan Renewable Energy
Nic’s role with Grissan sees him identifying routes to significantly scale-up biomethane’s role in the UK energy system.
Prior to joining Grissan, Nic was a senior civil servant with roles in a number of key Government Departments. This included time leading the Renewable Heat Incentive’s reform agenda where he developed and implemented a number of policies designed to increase biomethane deployment.
System Operation Support Manager, Wales & West Utilities
Helen is a chartered gas engineer with over 25 years of experience in the gas industry. In her role of Support Manager for System Operation at Wales & West Utilities, she plays a pivotal role in ensuring the safe and efficient management of gas distribution systems across the region. Supporting customers is a big part of Helen’s role working hard to ensure that the needs of end users are met and that new connections are in line with Net Zero goals.Head of Department for EU Energy Policy, Thüga AG
Eva has been with Thüga AG since 1989 in various positions and since 2019 as Head of the Brussels Office.
The Thüga Group constitutes the largest alliance of nearly 100 municipal utilities in Germany with activities in the gas, electricity, district heating and water sectors, and various sectors. Eva is active in all areas related to the decarbonisation of local gas and district heating systems with renewable and low-carbon gases. She also has a special interest in the reduction of methan emissions.
Since 2012 Eva has been chair on the Eurogas Distribution Committee, representing the interest of gas DSOs and Co-covenor of the Stakeholder Reference Group for the TYNDP scenarios.
Head of Net Zero & Sustainability, Wales & West Utilities
Matt is Head of Net Zero & Sustainability at Wales & West Utilities. He has previously worked for Energy Networks Association, where he drove the development of the Gas Goes Green programme, and in the biogas sector.VP Senior Principal Consultant, DNV
Mike is VP Senior Principal Consultant within DNV Spadeadam and has over 46 years’ experience in safety, risk and reliability studies, originally joining British Gas Research & Development, now part of DNV. He provides technical governance for a range of experimental projects, including studies of the hazards associated with the transition to widespread use of hydrogen. He has also delivered training on major accident hazards for over a decade. He is currently providing technical support to The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero on their hydrogen for clean heat project.
Mike has been a member of the DNV explosion investigation team since 1984, having investigated over 60 explosion incidents. He has provided expert support in relation to several major incidents including, most notably, the major explosion and fire at Buncefield in the UK in 2005.
Policy Manager, IGEM
Sayda has been working within IGEM’s Technical & Policy team for five years, supporting the development of IGEM’s policy voice and leading on the production of policy papers and consultation responses.
In that time, Sayda led on the creation of IGEM’s Hydrogen Knowledge Centre and continues to support projects that share research and communicate the important role that low carbon gases can play in the UK’s transition to net zero. More recently, Sayda is supporting efforts to more accurately reflect the current and future role of gas in the school curriculum and teacher resources.
Director of Energy Security and Resilience, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Dan Micklethwaite was appointed as Director of Energy Security and Resilience at the Department for Energy Security in September 2023. He is responsible for advising the Secretary of State on the security and resilience of the energy system now and in the future as the system transitions to net zero carbon emissions. This includes responsibility for short and long-term security of supply; the future of the onshore UK gas network; energy system resilience and emergency response across downstream electricity, gas and fuel supply; and national security as it relates to the energy system.Head of Gas and Whole Energy Network Development, NESO
Angus Paxton is Head of Gas and Whole Energy Network Development at NESO. Angus joined NESO in November 2023 after 18 years of consulting at AFRY Management Consulting. At AFRY, Angus led on gas topics and in particular global gas prices and flows, including gas pipeline and storage valuation, but also on electricity network digitalisation, hydrogen infrastructure, biomethane, energy law and gas network regulation. He has provided advice to various clients – financial, government, regulators, trade associations, networks and energy market participants - throughout the world, focussing most of his attention on assets and markets located in continental Europe. From 2020, he led the team producing hourly pan-European electricity market price projections out to 2060, which he migrated to a whole-system (hydrogen and electricity) basis during 2023. Prior to AFRY, Angus spent ten years planning the GB gas transmission network at what is now National Gas Transmission.
Chief Futurist, FYLD AI and Advisor to the Prime Ministers Cabinet Office, UK Government, FYLD
35 years experience includes:
Principal Engineer - Materials Lead, Progressive Energy Ltd
Nav is a Principal Engineer and the Materials Lead at Progressive Energy, working on the development and roll-out of blended hydrogen. He has been instrumental in developing this technology from a 1-page idea into a £23m project called HyDeploy. HyDeploy delivered two successful public trials serving almost 1,000 domestic and commercial customers over a period of 24 months, including two successful safety case exemptions to GSMR, enabling 20% hydrogen injection into the distribution network.
Nav first entered the gas industry 10 years ago as a graduate with the Future Energy Scenarios team at National Grid, developing from here into Cadent’s Future Role of Gas programme, finishing with a stint as an Operations Manager. Prior to the gas industry, Nav completed his master’s degree in aerospace with Rolls-Royce followed by a PhD with E.ON.
Head of Customer Insight, Cadent
Dr Catharine Skinner has 19 years experience working in the energy industry. She currently leads the customer insight team at Cadent, as part of the strategy and regulation directorate.
Prior to joining Cadent, Catharine held positions at British Gas, in heating, smart metering and connected homes and EON Germany, working on residential heating, solar PV and battery solutions across eight European countries. All roles have required a deep understanding of customers to develop products, digital platforms, business strategy and cultural transformation that create market impact.
Most recently she has led a deep dive into the cost of living crisis, by following key consumer trends and a study to look at net zero change across Europe.
Professor of Energy Systems, Imperial College
Goran Strbac is a Professor of Energy Systems, with extensive experience in advanced modelling and analysis of operation, planning, security and economics of energy systems. He led the development of novel advanced analysis approaches and methodologies that have been extensively used to inform industry, governments and regulatory bodies about the role and value of emerging new technologies and systems in supporting cost effective evolution to smart low carbon energy future. He is currently Director of the joint Imperial-Tsinghua Research Centre on Intelligent Power and Energy Systems, Leading Author in IPCC WG 3, Member of OFGEM RIIO-2 Challenging Group, Member of the UK Smart System Forum, Member of the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Smart Networks for the Energy Transition, and Member of the Joint EU Programme in Energy Systems Integration of the European Energy Research Alliance. He co-authored 4 books and published over 200 technical papers.Head of Marketing, Bosch Thermotechnology Ltd
Graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Marketing from the University of the West of England in 2002, Ian has over 20 years’ experience in a B2B and B2C Marketing roles within Brand, Digital, Market Research and Product Management in industries such as FMCG, Steel products, Packaging and Manufacturing. Ian also has agency side experience in the form of Business Development in the training and consultancy sector.
Now a senior leader with 14 years’ at Bosch Thermotechnology, he is the Head of Marketing and oversees the Brand, Digital, Corporate Comms and CX teams in the business focusing on Consumer Brand Awareness, Digital Marketing and Lead Generation, Customer Experience and Digital service development.
A data driven strategic marketer, he has developed award winner products, apps and customer experiences and has a particular interest in well researched targeted Marketing to maximise sales opportunities. He is known for developing the award winning Greenstar i range of boilers and an award winning digital customer experience web platform.