ESTA VIEWPOINT
For further information on ESTA visit www.estaenergy.org.uk
A year for collaboration Whether it’s trade shows, the UK’s leadership of the COP26, or energy sector organisations, the key to promoting the energy efficiency agenda this year will be working together, believes Mervyn Pilley
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wo years into the role of executive director at ESTA, and the interesting and challenging times continue. As I write this column my own vaccination beckons and discussions are taking place about what the new normal will look like for us both as individuals, as employees and indeed as businesses. The energy sector traditionally has a lot of trade shows in the latter months of the year and I suspect many people will be looking forward to a return of the physical events. The virtual world has enabled events and meetings to continue but the many attempts to replicate the physical trade shows that were put on in 2020 had mixed results. As humans we really do need that interaction with other human beings and unfortunately that is just not the same across computer screens. One discussion that is happening now is about the need for future hybrid events. These will be physical events, perhaps with smaller number of attendees, supported by live streaming and virtual aspects. This may not great for the exhibitors but certainly better potentially for events and meetings. It is important to remember that it isn’t just a discussion about venues being able to accommodate numbers of people in a safe environment, but people also need to have the confidence to travel to venues, potentially on very crowded public transport.
Autumn move for aM&T event At the moment we are looking at potentially holding our aM&T event in October/November along those lines and will keep everyone up to date as plans evolve. On the subject of events, we are hard at work planning the next ESTA Conference – Green Recovery – Action NOW! aimed at all with an interest in energy efficiency, especially end users/potential customers. Working with the Energy Institute and Energy Leeds the event will be run over three afternoons – Tuesday 20th April through to Thursday 22nd April 2021. Each day will be based around a theme as follows: • Tuesday 20th April – speakers on Government policy, COP26 as well as job
‘We will work to ensure that energy efficiency gets a hearing in Glasgow’ creation; • Wednesday 21st April – speakers on how technological solutions are driving higher levels of energy efficiency; and • Thursday 22nd April – speakers covering the various solutions on offer including training to help end users achieve Net Zero targets Full details of timings and speakers for all three days will be published on the ESTA website and EiBI readers are very welcome to join us. In my January column I mentioned COP26. I suggested then that Alok Sharma was clearly too busy doing his ‘day job’ as a minister to carry out an effective role as Chair of COP. This has now been proven to be correct with him taking on the chair role full time. The challenge for the energy sector is that those moves within BEIS has meant a new energy minister. As many other sectors have found to their cost, continuity of service from a minister is a very important aspect of policy planning for the medium to long term. We look forward to working with the new minister. We continue to work with others to make sure that the critical importance of energy efficiency – using less energy – gets a decent hearing at the event in Glasgow. The focus has continued to be on the big projects – renewables, carbon capture and storage, EVs etc. Yes, these are indeed
much needed, if very expensive, projects. But using less energy is considerably less expensive, especially if behaviour change (yes, another plug for our rapidly growing Energy Conscious Organisation programme) is fully brought into play. Unfortunately, it looks highly likely that the Green Homes Grant scheme underspend on its budget for 2020-21 will be clawed back by the Treasury. Sadly, the major challenges of the scheme were predictable and a substantial amount of advice from the installer sector was not taken on board. This is a disappointing example of where Government policy in relation to energy efficiency has not been very successful. We will continue to focus on convincing the Government of the importance of a cohesive, joined-up policy programme on energy efficiency. Critically, this needs to encompass the non-domestic, commercial markets, which up to now have been effectively sidelined.
Share knowledge and innovation
Mervyn Pilley is executive director of ESTA (Energy Services and Technology Association)
The collaboration projects that we are working on continue to develop, despite the ongoing effects of lockdown/ pandemic. The Commercial Energy Efficiency Alliance, a group of trade associations and professional bodies looking to share knowledge and innovation in relation to all areas of commercial buildings including retrofit, is building slowly but surely. Our Energy Efficiency in Buildings group jointly run with the Building Engineering Services Association is meeting again this month, and some good collaboration work is underway. I was also very pleased to see the launch of Actuate UK, a major collaboration between BESA and seven other membership organisations operating in the building services engineering space. This is another great example of how membership collaboration at scale can help to solve many of the challenges we are all facing today. On the same subject we are currently in discussion with others about how trade associations can work together to help us achieve the sustainable development goals. Watch this space for more collaboration this year. MARCH 2021 | ENERGY IN BUILDINGS & INDUSTRY | 23
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