Policy uncertainty and making the commercial case for demand side response and battery storage are some of the challenges for end users.

Speaking to ELN at Energy Live Expo earlier this month, which attracted more than 550 people, including brokers, suppliers, students and experts from across the sector, an energy manager said the biggest challenge for her is finding out where the “next bit of innovation is coming from” and how that can be implemented in a retail environment.

For an energy buyer, it is uncertainty and what’s happening around policies, another delegate highlited decarbonising heat while for the NHS, it is finding the capital to make investments and dealing with the non-energy components of energy costs.

An end user said the biggest challenge is predicting non-commodity costs and “how can we prepare ourselves and protect ourselves from nasty surprises”.

On a wider view, one of the delegates said the biggest challenges for large companies is ensuring the source of their energy is “genuinely renewable” while another believes it is transparency.

Energy Live Expo will be back next year on Halloween so don’t forget to save the date – 31st October 2018.