Alison Kay - Commercial Director
Commercial encompasses four different areas; it encompasses the connections area and customer area which deals with all connections to the high voltage electricity system and the gas transmission system, so it’s very much dealing on a contractual, everyday basis with our customers. We’ve also got the regulatory frameworks team in there which keeps up-to-the date the codes for both gas and electricity which support the connections to and from the system.
We’ve got the future transmission networks team which deals with looking at our future scenarios and what might transmission look like in 10, 20, 30, 40 years time and deals with what demand might look like, what you and I might be doing from a customer perspective in 10, 20, 30, 40 years time as well.
And then lastly, we’ve got the team that deals with Europe that looks at our colleagues in Europe and how we interact with them and also deals with our interconnection to France.
Charon Balrey - Customer Account Manager
My role is to provide electricity connection agreements for generators in Scotland, so we provide all the legal, technical and financial offers to generators to connect to the national electricity transmission system. I think the best bit about commercial is having that key interface with a wide range of stakeholders, so for me it’s obviously being that main interface point for our customers, so we pay the customer advocate across the whole of National Grid.
Richard Smith - Future Transmission Networks Manager
So the products we’re involved in commercial cover from the connection of new generators to the electricity system to new gas customers to the gas system, but on top of that we’ve got all of the things around Ofgem’s projects transmit and charging review, DECC and Ofgem Smart Grid working group, the Offshore Transmission working group; we’re involved in all of these things right across the breadth of the industry activity.
Jackie Mesnard - Policy Manager
Commercial is at the forefront of a lot of what transmission are doing at the moment, the particular department I work in we’re looking at the environmental challenges the Government targets for 2020. The job I do personally is looking at a brand new regime, so it’s at the start of that and will continue on for the next 20, 30, 40 years and be the forefront of a lot of that for a long time to come I think.
Richard Smith - Future Transmission Networks Manager
The type of people we’re looking for in commercial are enthusiastic people with good influencing skills, great negotiating skills, communication skills and problem solving skills; people who will really help us drive that future vision for the UK’s energy landscape.
Alison Kay - Commercial Director
Without wishing to overstate what commercial’s role is in the future energy sector, I think it is absolutely key and pivotal as we move forward as a UK Plc in the next 40 years or so. It is there at the forefront of everything that is being done from an energy perspective at the moment. It’s there as allies to Government and with the regulator and looking how the energy scene needs to develop over the next 40 years, putting in place the frameworks that we need to have in place to ensure that we can move forwards smoothly over the next 40 years.
It’s a really exciting opportunity; it’s a really great time to join the energy industry, just simply because there is so much scope to map out the future for the UK in the next 40 years.