Protected: Energy

We work with energy and water utilities to benchmark best practice performance across the industry and develop plans for change and improvement. Our clients typically engage Sia Partners for a quick 4 week assessment to compare their performance against our developed assessment of “what good looks like”.

We provide clients with this assessment based on our extensive experience working for regulators and utilities. At the end of this process we develop a plan for improvement which often involves, new initiatives/approaches, performance improvement suggestions, cost reduction and on occasions, significant organisational change.

We are experts in customer service, customer and stakeholder engagement and we have undertaken numerous performance projects for clients in this area including  UK Power Networks, Scottish Power Energy Networks, Cadent, Wales and West Utilities, Western Power Distribution, Northern Powergrid, Scottish and Southern Energy Networks and National Grid.

Our team of consultants are highly regarded for understanding what clients require to improve to match the objectives of regulators and the needs and wishes of customers.

The Sia Partners energy and utilities business transformation approach is driven by our expertise in data science and analytics. We work with our clients using data to transform the way they operate the business to improve performance an outcomes for customers.

For example, we have been working with electricity utilities to improve management of demand and load across the electricity network. Using our proprietary data science tools we are able to predict the impact of weather and other extreme events on electricity network infrastructure.  This provides the utility with enhanced information and ability to manage or enhance the network during an extreme event, reducing outages and improving service for customers.

Our data science approach extends to other areas such as developing advanced social media monitoring tools to analyse customer service performance and responding by addressing customer needs.

We also have data science tools which assess client regulatory compliance and CSR performance across the entire business. This assists with streamlining and improving the accuracy of regulatory reporting.

Our data science approach also transforms the marketing and sales activities of clients. We have been working with suppliers to assess the needs of retail business customers and tailoring offers for the sales workforce.

This is a new and exciting area of our business and one where we consider Sia Partners has a significant advantage over other consulting firms.

Expert regulatory analysis and advice has been at the heart of our GB energy practice. For the past 5 years we have been on the panel of recommended consultants that are used by the energy and water regulators, Ofgem and Ofwat.

We have undertaken numerous projects for regulators over this period including, with Ofgem; appointment as independent auditors of energy utility customer and stakeholder engagement performance, undertaking and independent review of the Fuel Poverty Network Extension Scheme, reviewing supplier environmental obligation schemes and assessment of projects under the environmental discretionary reward scheme for transmission utilities.

For Ofwat we have undertaken projects reviewing the regulatory finance guidelines, wholesale and retail market analysis, assessing the developer contribution scheme and providing general support across various projects associated with the PR19 price control.

We have also provided long term regulatory strategy support in the energy utility sector including recently for Cadent and Wales and West Utilities in RIIO-GD2, National Grid System Operator in RIIO-2 and most recently for Scottish Power Energy Networks in RIIO-ED2.

Members of our team have worked for regulators in several jurisdictions, we know what regulators expect and we help our clients develop strategies and actions to improve regulatory outcomes.     

We work with clients on growth and market entry strategies as well as M&A and due diligence support. We are able to draw on our deep expertise in GB and European markets to provide clients with the information and evidence required to make growth and development positions.

Recently we have worked with an oil and gas major examining retail energy market entry opportunities in France and Germany. We have supported Macquarie Infrastructure on several energy projects and we the main regulatory and technical advisers for a Canadian Pension Fund in the acquisition of an electricity and gas utility in Belgium.

Our clients value the Sia Partners multi country diversity. Typically our clients are based in London and are examining growth and investment opportunities in other European infrastructure markets. We provide multi country team with local and international expertise and local country language skills to deliver results for our clients. We find this is particularly important where we are dealing with complex local regulatory requirement which can have a significant impact on growth and/or value.