The scope of this NIA project is to test, review and exploit an OI model.
A staged approached is to be initialised in testing and reviewing the OI concept to make sure that it is fit for purpose and can suit the nature of the utilities sector such that innovation can be carried out in a reliable, coordinated, efficient and cost effective manner.
Stage 1 – Planning and Approving (2-4 months)
Develop an appropriate business model through appropriate internal and external stakeholder engagement.
Internal – Consider the asset supply chain for deeper company innovation engagement. This will include engaging with various departments such as System Planning, Transmission operations, System Analysis and Regulations.
External - Look outside the business and sector for a wider innovation approach and locate potential businesses/universities…etc. that show capabilities in providing promising innovation solutions.
Stage 2 – Delivery (18 months)
This will involve delivering the programme, to meet internal and external stakeholder requirements. We will measure the success of the program based on the number of challenges faced.
External resources such as contractors and/or equipment will be required in the development of the programme. The individuals will be required to assure the plan is followed with weekly updates informing the external/internal teams of the progress. SPEN will initially targeted two to three business challenges per year that will benefit from the Open Innovation programme and look to increase the use of SME’s in the process.
One of the initial projects will address the business challenge of transmission tower foundation condition monitoring where every year a large sum of money is invested inspecting the foundations of our circuit towers. The costs include the hiring contractors to assess these foundations manually. Consequently, we are looking for a non-intrusive and more efficient method.
Stage 3 – Review and further improvement(12 months)
This will involve looking over the programme. The programme will have to be thoroughly checked and analysed to assure key considerations such as IPR (Intellectual Property) arrangements and UK innovation governance are consistent so that Electricity licensees can benefit from this model. Furthermore, the programme will have to be built in a sustainable manner to deliver long term benefits which are not just applicable to ScottishPower but relevant to other stakeholders.
Stage 4 – Follow up and sustainable operation (12 months)
This is the final stage and will involve maintaining the programme at a high level. Measures will be put in place to ensure that the programme is continually improved and remains relevant. Along with this, a regular review within the company and with external stakeholders will be carried out to fine tune the mechanism as well as the scope. We will start with a test case within the six months of launching the programme and get operational experience from this model.
Benefits
- Developing an OI model and project programme that is fit for purpose and suits the nature of the utilities sector
- Ensure that collaborative innovation is undertaken in a reliable, coordinated, efficient and cost effective manner
- Identification of two or three business challenges a year, that will benefit from the Open Innovation programme, and innovative products, processes or services well suited to addressing these challenges
Learnings
Outcomes
SP Energy Networks has worked with Scottish Enterprise and 13 businesses and public sector organisations to create a series of innovation challenges which are open for a wide range of businesses and other organisations, including many outside of the energy sector, to respond to. Through the Scottish Enterprise, seven innovation projects have been developed which have been progressed. Furthermore, a company-wide initiative to change the culture towards open innovation has also been developed.
The culture of innovation initiative, DRIVE, launched as a result of the success of the Open Innovation initiative and incorporated the outputs of the project to strengthen the innovation culture. Furthermore, this enabled further opportunities for collaboration, enable staff to develop and contribute to ideas and to share successes with colleagues and external stakeholders. As part of this initiative, a new digital platform was launched - iHub - which allowed challenges to be issued, responses to be gathered from colleagues and evaluated.
Through iHub, over 300 ideas were generated over 12 challenges, over 50 were taken forward, with 15 delivered to date.
Lessons Learnt
The lessons learned from the project included:
- Defining specific topic areas to run campaigns on helps to ensure a focus for ideas, while defining specific challenges and ensuring they are met.
- Communication throughout campaign to build on initial idea proposals and keep engagement high both during and after each campaign
- Feedback & Recognition helps ensure consistent submissions and involvement, reducing drop off in number of submissions between challenges.
- Identifying project sponsors and resources at earlier stages to ensure successful ideas can be driven into the business.
- Define Key metrics for success, including leading & lagging indicators such as number of ideas, ideas within the pipeline and percentage of ideas taken from ideation to BAU.
