Seminar: Increasing renewables deployment through market mechanisms Speakers
David Acres
Head of Policy, EDF Renewables UK and Ireland
David Acres has over 20 years’ experience of energy, climate and environmental policy in the electricity sector, spanning renewable, nuclear and fossil technologies. At EDF Renewables, David is responsible for managing policy and regulation for onshore & offshore wind, solar, storage and hydrogen projects. David is an active member of working groups in Scottish Renewables, Renewable UK and Energy UK on policy and market issues.
Mike Blanch
Associate Director, BVG Associates
Mike advises the UK Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on renewables innovation and led the Technical Advisory for the BEIS EU DemoWind programme. Mike is currently leading the technical advisory to The Crown Estate for the Celtic Sea Floating Leasing Round that aims to enable the world’s first 4GW of large scale commercial floating wind farms. Recent work has included advising on the design and implementation of a UK-Indian offshore wind innovation accelerator, being the lead author on GWEC’s ‘Capturing Green Recovery Opportunities from Wind Power in Developing Economies’ and the ‘Building North Carolina’s Offshore Wind Supply Chain’ wind roadmap.
Rachel Cary
Head of Policy - REMA, BEIS
Rachel is joint head of policy of the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) at BEIS. She oversees long-term policy on wholesale electricity market reform, low carbon investment, capacity adequacy, flexibility and system operability. Rachel previously led work at BEIS to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol to maintain the Single Electricity Market across the Island of Ireland after EU Exit. She joined BEIS from the Greater London Authority where she managed the zero carbon policy team there, developing a 1.5C compatible decarbonisation plan for London and introducing ambitious new net zero planning policies. Prior to that she led on policy and external engagement at Orsted and was Head of Energy at Green Alliance where she led its work on Electricity Market Reform. She has a background in energy and climate consultancy, a Masters in Environmental Technology (Energy Option) from Imperial College London and a BSc in Physics from Manchester University.
Anne-Marie Coyle
Sales Director UK – Offshore Wind, GE Renewable Energy
Anne-marie has more than 20 years’ experience in all aspects of on and offshore wind (development, construction, operations, turbine sales and account management) and recently led the UK launch of the Haliade-X offshore wind turbine platform. Her renewable energy career began with e.on in 1998 and Anne-marie now leads UK market activity for GE Vernova Offshore Wind and is an active Board member of R-UK. She is a keen sailor and lives in Dartmouth, Devon.
Bob Hull
Managing Director, Riverswan Energy Advisory
Bob Hull is an independent consultant who has previously held senior leadership roles with UK energy regulator Ofgem, National Grid, the UK Government, and consultancy firm KPMG. For over 30 years he has led or advised on many energy, telecoms and utility business investments, in the UK and worldwide. He has wide commercial and regulatory expertise and is currently focused on energy transition issues including power system flexibility. He recently authored a report on the policy options to enable long duration storage. He is an independent member of Ofgem’s RIIO-2 Challenge Group and ESO Performance Panel.
Sulaiman Ilyas-Jarrett
Head of Policy and Strategy - Renewable Delivery, BEIS
Sulaiman is Head of Policy and Strategy for the government’s flagship Contracts for Difference scheme, having previously led on flexibility and aspects of GB market reform at BEIS. He is a former Isaac Newton Scholar in Environmental Policy at the University of Cambridge and holds a BA in History from the University of Oxford. He began his career as a Graduate Energy Specialist at a top UK supplier.
Kate Mulvany
Senior Consultant, Cornwall Insight
A policy specialist, Kate has 17 years experience across the energy value chain. Past roles include supporting supplier and network operations, electricity and gas strategic programmes, process transformation, and engagement with regulatory and policy workstreams. Kate is currently working with a range of stakeholders involved in the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA)
Isabel Sunnucks
Market Strategy Manager, National Grid ESO
Izzie Sunnucks is Market Strategy Manager at National Grid ESO, where she leads the wholesale market and dispatch mechanism aspects of the Net Zero Market Reform programme. She previously worked on distributed flexibility markets at Electron and on regulatory reform at Centrica.
Morag Watson
Director of Policy, Scottish Renewables
Morag is Scottish Renewables’ Director of Policy. Her work involves overseeing Scottish Renewables’ policy function and key projects within Scotland’s leading renewables trade body, working on behalf of 260+ organisations to grow Scotland’s renewable energy sector and sustain its position at the forefront of the global clean energy industry.
Morag has worked in policy for over 17 years and was previously a Senior Policy Officer with WWF Scotland, specialising in climate change, sustainable development and behaviour change.
