National Grid Ventures –Transforming Energy

National Grid Ventures is the competitive division of National Grid, operating outside of the core regulated part of the business (such as Electricity Transmission and Electricity Distribution).

NGV develops, operates, and invests in energy projects, technologies, and partnerships to accelerate the development of a clean energy future. With a diverse portfolio of low carbon and renewable energy assets across the UK, Europe and US, NGV is pushing the boundaries of a new energy horizon.

Kristian Hollowood, NGV’s Head Of Procurement provides the details and explains why NGV is a great place if you want to have a hand in making a multigenerational difference.

Hi Kristian, please offer a snapshot of your role and responsibilities.

I lead the procurement function that support National Grid Ventures (NGV) and the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) portfolio across National Grid Group. I report into the Director of UK Procurement who then reports into our CPO.

This includes understanding the key priorities within NGV and then setting the strategic direction for our team, enabling the team to deliver the key outcomes we’ve committed to our stakeholders through implementing our category management principles. We’re working on a significant level of expenditure across a range of asset classes, business units and stakeholder groups, so plenty of opportunity to get involved in some large scale, complex stuff. In terms of the team itself, we have a team of around forty, with eight of those being my leadership team in addition to category leads who each have their own category ownership or project specific responsibilities.

We have a blend of both category management teams (who are accountable for setting the category strategy for our core category areas such as; HVDC cable, convertor stations and Liquid Natural Gas (LNG equipment))and then our project specific procurement teams, who will execute these strategies for some of our biggest project procurements, with some of the biggest HVDC projects costing in excess of a billion pounds to build and around 18 months to deliver.

Owing to the strong experience my team have in the (HVDC) category, we have recently started supporting the Electricity Transmission business on a growing HVDC offshore asset portfolio. This is great as it allows us to apply our category knowledge to a new and growing spend base.

In addition to my core responsibilities, I also sponsor our procurement people strategy within the UK and own the National Grid relationship with CIPS which is a key focus area for us to ensure our people continue to get the right opportunities to continue to progress with their development.