Digitalisation is driving vast opportunities for new services and innovations in the energy sector. It will enable new business models, better consumer products, and support the UK government and industries in meeting their Net Zero ambitions.

Applications could include:

• Sophisticated demand side response to help support load balancing.
• Smart storage control algorithms to improve utilisation of renewable energy.
• Smart meters to reduce costs through dynamic prices or improve energy efficiency.
• Electric vehicles enabled with two-way communications to provide distributed control and reduce network strain.

Proper and optimal implementation of these products and services will require personnel with the necessary data and digital skills. In particular, it will require new roles in data science.

Energy Systems Catapult has produced one of its first reports – and of the first in industry – exploring the intersection between data science skills and the energy sector. The recency of data science within the energy sector means there is very little information and insight into the skills landscape, including the respective approaches and challenges. This report is an initial attempt to bridge this gap and better understand a number of questions including:

• How is data science being implemented with the energy sector?
• Who are the leaders of the emerging data science teams?
• What are the challenges in recruitment, and continuing development and training?

The answers to these questions have been gathered through a short survey which have targeted data scientist practitioners in the energy sector or those actively managing them.

If you’d like to discuss the findings of the survey or would like to work with the Catapult on producing the next iteration of the survey, get in touch.