1030: Coffee and registration

1100: Plenary: Roaring ahead or left behind –

Renewables in the 2020s?

Chair – Melanie Onn, Deputy Chief Executive, RenewableUK




Julie James MS: Minister for Climate Change Until she was elected as Member of the Senedd for Swansea West, Julie was a leading environmental and constitutional lawyer. Prior to this, she was assistant chief executive at Swansea Council. She spent most of her legal career in local government, working as a policy lawyer with the London Borough of Camden before returning to Swansea to work for West Glamorgan County Council and then the City and County of Swansea. Since being elected Julie sat on the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, Enterprise and Business Committee and Environment and Sustainability Committee. Julie published the ‘Influencing the Modernisation of EU Procurement Policy’ Report as Chair of the Enterprise and Business Committee’s Procurement Task and Finish Group. Julie also sat as Chair of the Environment and Sustainability Committee’s Common Fisheries Policy Task and Finish Group. Julie James was appointed Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology in September 2014. In May 2016 Julie was appointed as Minister for Skills and Science. Julie was appointed Leader of the House and Chief Whip on 3 November 2017. On 13 December 2018 Julie was appointed Minister for Housing and Local Government. Julie was appointed Minister for Climate Change on 13 May 2021.




Dr Christina Demski Centre for Climate Change & Social Transformations, Cardiff University Dr Demski is the Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST). She leads on exploring visions of desirable and feasible low-carbon futures.




Eleri Davies Head of Wales – Onshore Wind Development, RWE Renewables Eleri is currently Head of Wales – Onshore Wind Development at RWE Renewables UK Ltd (RWE) and has extensive public and private sector experience of major infrastructure projects, mainly energy. She is responsible for leading a team of Project Managers and managing the Welsh portfolio of onshore wind projects from site identification through to handover to construction. RWE is the largest power producer in Wales, and the country’s number one renewable energy generator. It is currently involved in almost 1 GW of renewable energy in Wales across 12 sites and also has an ambitious development pipeline.




Helen Westhead Associate, Arup Helen is Arup’s environmental consulting team leader across Wales and the west UK region and manages the delivery of projects, policy and strategy to drive decarbonisation in response to the climate emergency. As well as leading a portfolio of renewable energy advisory services, she supports public and private-sector clients in planning for transport decarbonisation, including roll out of electric vehicles. She provides expertise on creating alignment between the energy and transport sectors to facilitate transition to net zero, while planning for a resilient and decarbonised grid. Her passion is promoting collaboration by bringing together multi-disciplinary teams and industry stakeholders in response to the scale and urgency of need to deliver decarbonised solutions for social and environmental gains.

1240: Networking lunch

1340: Energy infrastructure for net zero

Sponsored by LUC

Chair – Ben Lewis, Barton Willmore




Rebecca Knight LUC Rebecca Knight is Director of Landscape Planning at LUC. She is a chartered landscape architect with 20+ years’ postgraduate experience in landscape architecture and planning. Her special areas of expertise include landscape, townscape and visual impact assessment; preparation of evidence for public inquiry; advice on mitigation and design; landscape evidence for development plans; and management of designated landscapes and views. A number of her projects have won awards or commendations.




Ella Moseley LUC Ella Moseley is Associate Director of Ecology at LUC. She is an experienced ecologist with a broad, multidisciplinary background in sectors such as renewables, including offshore wind, transport, port development and housing. She has undertaken ecological assessments and surveys for large-scale infrastructure projects through to small-medium scale schemes, habitat creation and rewilding projects. She has experience in implementing Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) on a range of major infrastructure projects, including the provision of reporting, design and communications through the Statement of Common Ground and Examination process for Development Consent Order.




Frankie Whitaker ITPEnergised Frankie is an engineer in the Technology Team at ITPEnergised and is currently the electrical package manager for two offshore floating wind farms in the Celtic Sea. Frankie recently led ITPEnergised’s work in advising the Welsh Government, through the ORE Catapult, on the potential for connecting future offshore wind projects to the Welsh transmission system and the potential reinforcement work required. His work focusses on design and analysis of grid solutions for renewable energy projects, with particular focus on the development of new MW to GW scale offshore wind projects around the UK, performing grid analysis, onshore routing assessments and developing offshore transmission system options, costing and Use of System charging. He has worked on projects involving HVDC links, offshore and onshore wind, battery storage and solar generation.




Professor Jianzhong Wu Professor of Multi-Vector Energy Systems and Head of Dept or Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Cardiff University He joined Cardiff University in June 2008 (Lecturer 2008; Senior Lecturer 2013; Reader 2014; Professor 2015). From 2006 to 2008, he was a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. Prof. Wu researches on Smart Grid and Multi-Vector Energy Systems (integrated energy infrastructure). He has contributed to more than 50 EU, EPSRC and industry funded projects as a Principal Investigator or a Co-Investigator. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers, including 5 ESI Highly Cited Papers(@Mar 2021). He is a co-author of books “Smart Grid: Technology and Applications” (2012, Wiley), “Smart Electricity Distribution Networks” (2017, CRC) and “The Future of Gas Networks” (2019, Springer). His professional involvements include: President of the UK Branch of China Electrotechnical Society; Co-Chair of the 9th International Conference on Applied Energy (2017); member of the Organizing Committees of International Conference on Applied Energy (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016); Vice-Chair of the Organizing Committee of 2012 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT Asia); and member of the Organizing Committee of 2010 45th International Universities’ Power Engineering Conference (UPEC). He is an Associate Editor of Applied Energy (Impact Factor: 8.848), Deputy Editor-in-Chief of IET Energy Systems Integration, and Director of International UNiLAB on Synergies between Energy Networks. He is a Fellow of Energy Institute and Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.




Ofgem Speaker name to be confirmed

1510: Coffee

1530: Visualising Wales’ success

Chair




Sarah Merrick CEO and Founder of Ripple Energy Sarah set up Ripple to bring clean energy ownership into the mainstream. She was frustrated that big companies could access low cost clean energy direct, but people couldn’t. She has worked in the wind energy industry for 18 years. Prior to setting up Ripple she was Head of Public Affairs for Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer. Alongside her day job she was also vice-chair of RenewableUK.




Steve Edwards Commercial Director, Port of Milford Haven Steve joined the Port of Milford Haven in 2020 following 28 years in the gas industry. In his role as Director of Regulation and Commercial at Wales & West Utilities, he played a major part in helping the organisation develop its own future energy strategy and become a top performing business. Steve was the Chair of the Energy Networks Steve was the Chair of the Energy Networks Association Regulation Group and has strong links with regulators, CBI Wales and Welsh Government. Steve is on the Executive Council of the Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies and a Board Member of Warm Wales.




David Jones Stakeholder Director, Simply Blue Energy, Stakeholder Manager Blue Gem Wind David is focused on stakeholder engagement for the Blue Gem Wind portfolio of floating wind projects in the Celtic Sea. This involves working with all interested parties, from supply chain companies, ports, government, and coastal communities. Before joining Simply Blue Energy, David was the CEO of Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum, a multi-award-winning company, voted the “most sustainable social enterprise” in Wales. He has worked specifically on marine energy for over 12 years, developing Marine Energy Wales from inception to a collaboration viewed as global best practice. He has also worked directly for Government Ministers and shaped supportive marine energy policy in Wales.




James Davies CEO, Industry Wales Born on the Gower and graduating from Swansea University (Mech Eng), he worked for 32 years at CalsonicKansei (a Tier 1 Automotive supplier) in UK, Europe and Japan, leading their Thermal Management Division ($2.5bn). In April 2017, he became CEO of Industry Wales, to bring voice of Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing industry to Welsh Government and UK Stakeholders including responsibility for three Industry sector forums – Electronics/Software (Technology Connected), Automotive (WAF) and Aerospace (AWF). A Member of the HEFCW Council, he sits on Regional based strategy Groups such as the Swansea Bay City Deal and CCR Skills Partnership. He has recently completed terms on the Ministerial Advisory Board (MAB) for Economy & Transport in Wales, Valleys Taskforce and the Burns Commission to progress the South East Wales Traffic concern. Recently joined as Board Member of Respiratory Innovation Wales to support business and industry engagement in Health Innovation.

1700: End of conference

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