We take an ‘open’ innovation approach. We’ve a range of partners, as well as cross-business innovation units, technology roadmaps and research and design facilities. We encourage innovative ideas from our people, constantly developing our capabilities. We seek innovation within each of our business units and work with the energy start-up community to enable our goals: for a Net Zero future.
Innovation Strategy
Our innovation strategy supports our mission to lead the way to a net-zero future for all, using an open innovation approach and collaboration with our partners.
Our strategic objectives are:
Decarbonised Electricity
We will develop and connect renewable energy to decarbonise the electricity system by 2040. We will invest in the development of new renewable generation, including onshore and offshore wind and solar, and will significantly increase in the amount of renewable generation connected to our electricity networks.
Resilient Infrastructure
We will invest in infrastructure to maintain reliable and secure electricity supplies. This is necessary to accommodate high levels of intermittent renewable generation on the system and to support a growing dependence on electricity across all sectors of society. We will develop smarter, more resilient networks to accommodate the electrification of transport and heating. We will also invest in storage assets and zero carbon dispatchable generation that can compete to meet society’s need for non-intermittent sources of energy, and ensure continuity of supply.
Empowered Customers
We will empower, enable and support customers and communities to achieve net zero. This reflects our longstanding commitment to providing the latest and most innovative infrastructure, products and services to help our customers live more efficiently and sustainably.
Our guiding principles are:
- To ensure strong support from our leadership team in order to drive and develop an innovation culture at ESB
- To deliver on our innovation strategy outlining why innovation is important and how innovation will be managed at ESB
- To make sure our governance structures are appropriate for our stages of innovation and are constantly updated to meet our innovation objectives
- To ensure our innovation processes are structured to drive change and foster our peoples' talents, ideas and technologies
- To ensure our people are supported in every part of our business to deliver our innovation strategy as a key part of our Driven To Make A Difference: Net Zero by 2040 Strategy.
Supporting Net Zero Ambition
In achieving our innovation objectives we want to:
1.
Create new sources of revenue through developing new products and services and new business models to compensate for the decline in traditional sources of revenue.
2.
Reduce cost across all areas of operation by driving more efficient ways of working.
3.
Improve performance through developing better service offerings, customer self-service enhancement and through adoption of digital technologies.
In doing this we will make sure we follow our innovation process: to capture, prioritise, explore, experiment, evolve and grow. In everything we do we measure our performance and celebrate our successes. This involves constantly assessing:
- Our innovation strategy such as our mission and objectives, and our action plan.
- Our innovation framework, including our process and tools, our governance, structure and ecosystem, metrics, and our communications and knowledge.
- Our people and culture to support our talent and leadership and ensure we have the right climate and culture to achieve our goals, together.