Government and Regulatory Liaison
Energy Connect represents our members’ interests to the communication regulator, Ofcom, government departments and regulators, supporting long-term spectrum access and policy alignment.
Speaking up for the energy sector
One of our key roles is to represent the energy sector's needs with government, providing access to evidence about the critical role of operational telecoms for a secure and resilient energy transition.
We feed into government discussions, represent our members’ views and contribute to the development of standards for the industry. We constantly raise awareness in government and with Ofcom of the need to retain and grow a resilient, secure telecoms network for the increasingly complex energy systems in the UK.
Protecting spectrum for mission-critical telecoms
We work tirelessly to protect the radio frequency spectrum reserved for energy sector operational telecoms.
When the government or Ofcom put out consultations on auctioning segments of spectrum for other use cases, we respond on behalf of the energy sector to ensure protected bandwidth is retained for critical national energy infrastructure.
Making the case for greater spectrum allocation
As well as protecting the spectrum we already hold, we advocate for a dedicated mission-critical telecoms solution for the energy sector.
We help decisionmakers to understand the role of spectrum in maintaining and growing the smart, flexible, robust operational telecoms infrastructure needed to support greater automation and digitalisation in today’s complex, low-carbon energy systems. These diversified energy systems require increasingly sophisticated telecoms infrastructure to maintain visibility and control over the millions of data exchanges associated with balancing supply and demand across the UK.
International standard monitoring
We monitor the international standards relating to telecoms, such as 3GPP, and liaise with organisations such as the EUTC (European Utilities Telecom Council) on international coordination and identifying a spectrum band exclusively for critical national infrastructure use across Europe.
We review the latest developments in these areas and help our members to understand the potential implications of any policy or regulatory changes.