Page 2 - WWU Innovation Report 2019-2020

Innovating to deliver for customers now and in the future
I’m proud to welcome you to our Innovation Report for 2019-20 – a year that will certainly live long in the memory.
2019 saw an intense period of activity at Wales & West Utilities, as we worked to put together our Business Plan for 2021-2026.
Written by more than 25,000 of our customers, it sets out how we’ll deliver for the communities that rely on us. And it explains our approach to innovation in RIIO-GD2 and beyond.
We’ll continue to focus on delivering for customers today by improving the way we work; and we’ll prepare for the future through research projects and practical trials, like our HyHy project. Analysing Cardiff, HyHy has demonstrated how smart hybrid systems and hydrogen can get us to net zero quickly, in an affordable and sustainable way.
But the first half of 2020 has shook the very foundations that underpin our society.
Coronavirus has changed, irreversibly, the way many of us work and live our lives.
What has helped nations right across the globe fight against and rise to the challenge of Coronavirus has been innovation.
Online food shopping, deliveries, web chats and videoconferencing have helped maintain as much normality as possible and kept us in touch with our loved ones. And in the healthcare sector, development of new treatments, testing and vaccines continue at a pace never seen before.
Much of this technology would have been unimaginable, even at the turn of the Millennium.
So while gas engineering is certainly lower in profile, if ever there was a time that demonstrates the power and importance of innovation – this is it.
I hope you find this report of interest – and as always, if you want to talk about how we could work together in the future, get in touch: innovation@wwutilities.co.uk
Graham Edwards,
Chief Executive
2 | Wales & West Utilities Innovation Report 2019/20