Team of the Year Award
This award is to recognise an outstanding team which has gone above and beyond the call of duty to deliver benefits for their customers, stakeholders and the wider business. The judges noted that the high quality of the submissions for this award meant it was a close race between the very strongest entries.
Entrants were judged on how they exceeded expectations over the past year, what measurable benefits they brought about for the business, as well as the benefits they brought about more widely and how they embraced fresh ways of working and collaborating.
Companies that clearly demonstrated what they had achieved were praised by the judges, who welcomed the focus on working practices, strategy and outcomes achieved for the environment and customers.
The finalists
National Grid ESO, SP Energy Networks and TNEI Consultancy - Distributed ReStart
Ovo Energy - Industry Ops Domain Team
Power NI - PNI Team of year entry
Anglian Water, Schneider, Quartz, Xylem and Vega - SMART Water Recycling Catchments
Utilita Energy - Life with Power - Let me take you by the hand
Team of the Year Award
This award is to recognise an outstanding team which has gone above and beyond the call of duty to deliver benefits for their customers, stakeholders and the wider business. The judges noted that the high quality of the submissions for this award meant it was a close race between the very strongest entries.
Entrants were judged on how they exceeded expectations over the past year, what measurable benefits they brought about for the business, as well as the benefits they brought about more widely and how they embraced fresh ways of working and collaborating.
Companies that clearly demonstrated what they had achieved were praised by the judges, with the standout team ultimately showing in detail how they had changed working practices, their strategy and what significant outcomes were achieved for the business, environment and customers.
The finalists
National Grid ESO, SP Energy Networks and TNEI Consultancy - Distributed ReStart
Ovo Energy - Industry Ops Domain Team
Power NI - PNI Team of year entry
Anglian Water, Schneider, Quartz, Xylem and Vega - SMART Water Recycling Catchments
Utilita Energy - Life with Power - Let me take you by the hand
E.ON Next - Smart Tribe
In 2022, our organisation faced a significant challenge as we fell short by 24% of our smart installs target. While it was regrettable, this setback prompted us to take proactive steps towards transformation.
This marked the beginning of a collective evolution, resulting in the formation of a Smart Tribe that encourages open and honest communication.
By the end of June 2023, we not only closed the gap but also exceeded our installation target by 3%.
Our focus is on collaborative planning and execution, leaving behind the era of firefighting and assigning blame.
National Grid ESO, SP Energy Networks and TNEI Consultancy - Distributed ReStart
Distributed ReStart launched in 2019 as a partnership between National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO), SP Energy Networks (SPEN) and TNEI (a specialist energy consultancy). The conventional approach to electricity system restoration (black start) uses large fossil fuel power stations – achieving net zero means we need to include greener distributed energy resources (DERs) like wind/solar/hydro/battery for restoration. The project was a world-first initiative with the team successfully tackling significant technical, organisational, and commercial challenges to deliver restoration from DERs. By successfully transitioning to business-as-usual, the team created a ‘blueprint’ of technical, commercial and organisational industry recommendations for restoration from DERs.
OVO Energy - Industry Ops Domain Team
A challenge can’t always be solved with like minded thinkers and so to tackle one of our biggest problems, we set about to form a hybrid, cross functional team, complimenting each other's strengths and weaknesses.
The result is a high performance team spanning Tech, Data and Operations. Having driven a benefit of £15 million and counting while setting the pace for a new style of collaboration, this team pushes themselves and each other outside of their comfort zone and augments its skillsets to put the customer and the business first.
What they have achieved is nothing short of game changing.
Power NI - PNI Team of year entry
The Payment and Account Resolutions (PAR) Team have worked extremely hard over the past 12 months to make sure the customer is always at the heart of our operations.
We have strategically achieved this by actively increasing our customer engagement via digital platforms and promoting the additional levels of support that we can offer during the cost-of-living crisis.
We treat each customer with empathy and positivity, always keeping in mind the customers circumstances and affordability to make sure we find the best resolution suited to that individual person.
Anglian Water, Schneider, Quartz, Xylem and Vega - SMART Water Recycling Catchments
Our project was a remarkable partnership between Anglian Water's Strategic Optimisation team and numerous dedicated suppliers.
Together, we pioneered a smart solution to tackle longstanding challenges within our water recycling network.
Embracing a 'Tech not tanks' ethos, we not only conquered these issues but surpassed anticipated benefits, used low-carbon solutions, and, above all, empowered our organisation to fulfil its commitments to exceptional customer service and environmental stewardship.
This project is a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation, and unwavering dedication.
Utilita Energy - Life with Power - Let me take you by the hand
For 186,000 hard-pressed households, Utilita’s Extra Care Team has been the fourth emergency service. These are life-changing phone calls taken by life-changing people. The average day sees this extraordinary team provide comfort and care to at least 3,000 households who have lost energy supply, and have nowhere left to turn. Drastic times call for drastic measures - this team has gone the extra mile and helped 3,254 Utilita households secure over £1m in unclaimed benefits, affording households an extra 353,862 days of energy - that’s 108 days of energy per household assessed - enough energy to cover the coldest months.
Yorkshire Water - Commercial Services Team
Yorkshire Water has faced significant cost pressures since the beginning of 2020, triggering the need for a transformation of its procurement function.
Commercial Services had significant savings targets to hit, but its procurement capability was reactive, administrative, and decentralised, rather than focused on value delivery.
It has therefore introduced new processes and technologies and delivered training, which have improved speed and savings delivery.
Most significantly, Commercial Services has repositioned Procurement to be involved in wider strategic business decisions.
As a result, savings targets have been exceeded earlier than planned, and now total £100m for the current AMP7 cycle.