To coincide with her announcement as an award judge, Dr Sara Walker has been interviewed for Network Magazine.  In the interview, Sara discusses her hopes for award entries taking a collaborative, whole systems approach.

As an example of such a cross-network collaboration, Sara highlights the demonstrator project at InTEGReL (Integrated Transport Electricity Gas Research Laboratory), where Newcastle University is working with Northern Gas Networks and Northern Powergrid.  This demonstrator allows the two networks to be operated and controlled in tandem.  The Control Rooms of the Future mini project is using the site to look at questions such as how the two networks talk to each other about their control decisions and whether the control room can work across more than one sector.

In the interview, Sara also talks about how important such cross-network collaborations and increased local renewables are for the UK to meet its 2050 net-zero targets.

See the interview in full in Network Magazine’s 15 November issue.  The closing date for entries to the Network Awards is 16 December 2019.