Heat Seminar: driving strategic heat decarbonisation Speakers
Adam Ben-Hamo
Principal, Asper Investment Management
Adam focuses on Asper’s platform investments into sustainable power generation and heat networks, with a specific interest in greenfield project development in Scotland.
Ben Carter
Account Director, Vattenfall
As Account Director at Vattenfall Heat UK the goal of the role is to secure as much positive momentum as possible with respect to the buying and selling of low carbon heat through city-scale district heat networks. District heating is a well understood technology that represents a new opportunity to coordinate and collaborate across the private, public and social sectors to improve our health, our wellbeing, our places and make a serious dent in Scotland’s carbon footprint whilst adapting to a climate changed world. I have been involved in district heating since 2016, renewables since 2010 and have endeavoured to deliver all sorts of great projects with all sorts of great people and partners, for 25 years.
Stuart Hallett
Urban Energy North Lead, Arup
Stuart leads Arup’s Urban Energy team for NE England, Scotland & Northern Ireland, bringing together multi-disciplinary services to provide solutions which will deliver tangible decarbonisation across the heat, electricity and transport vectors at speed and scale. Stuart and his team have helped develop the LHEES methodology with the Scottish Government, supported local authorities in delivering their LHEES Strategies, delivered the first Local Area Energy Plans in Scotland (and across the UK) and are currently supporting heat network zoning in priority English cities on behalf of DESNZ.
Sheelagh MacGregor
Associate Director – Net Zero, Scottish Futures Trust
Sheelagh is a lawyer and an Associate Director in Scottish Futures Trust’s Net Zero Team, which provides Government and other public sector partners with infrastructure delivery expertise and strategic support. Sheelagh’s current focus is the decarbonisation of Scotland’s building stock, and expediting the delivery of heat networks. The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) is a partner in the Scottish Government’s Heat Network Support Unit, which provides development funding and support to proposals for new and expanding heat networks in Scotland.
Sheelagh joined SFT in 2022 after 10 years in private practice, where she specialised in public law and the consenting of major infrastructure projects across various sectors, and undertook secondments to both private and public sector organisations.
Nicola Mahmood
Head of Region (Scotland), Aira
Nicola is a seasoned operative in the energy industry, having held numerous operational and business development positions within Scottish Gas and ENGIE/Equans. With a keen interest in the electrification of heat, Nicola spent 8 years working on commercial heating and district energy. Nicola joined Aira last year to open their first hub in Scotland; the 4th hub in the UK and is now dedicating her time and energy to achieving Aira's mission to take Europe, and specifically Scotland, off gas one home at a time.
Eddie McAvinchey
Banking & Investments – Scotland, National Wealth Fund
Eddie is the Scotland representative of the National Wealth Fund and is based in Edinburgh. His role covers NWF’s activities across both the public and private sectors in Scotland. Prior to joining NWF, Eddie was an Executive Director at the Scottish National Investment Bank (where he led on Heat Decarbonisation and Natural Capital) and Head of Corporate Finance at Edinburgh-based merchant bank Noble & Co. Earlier in his career, he established Clydesdale Bank’s first renewable energy team and its project finance product offering.
Helen Melone
Head of Heat & Solar, Scottish Renewables
Helen Melone is Head of Heat and Solar at Scottish Renewables, covering all aspects of heat and solar policy. Her work involves managing and supporting the development of Scottish Renewables’ policy positions, which aim to create the conditions for the sustainable growth of Scotland’s renewable energy industry and communicating these effectively to key policy and regulatory decision makers.
Helen has worked in policy for over 7 years and was previously a policy and research officer with Energy Action Scotland, specialising in fuel poverty legislation and fuel poverty research.
Helen recently completed a Master of Research postgraduate degree at Glasgow Caledonian University, for which she was awarded a distinction for her research on gender and fuel poverty.
Kate Mulvany
Principal Consultant, Cornwall Insight
Kate is a Principal Consultant at Cornwall Insight, an independent energy consultancy firm. Working across heat topics, Cornwall Insight undertakes global research to deliver system level analysis and project specific guidance. With two decades of experience in policy, regulation, and market design, Kate advises on investment, strategy and Net Zero delivery.
Stewart Reid
Head of Future Networks, SSEN Distribution
Stewart has worked in the electricity industry since 1983 and has been involved in managing electricity networks across the UK, in a range of roles including: operations management, planning, policy, project management and asset management in the fields of IT and Power Engineering. He is a Fellow of the IET and a Chartered Engineer.
He is now the Head of Future Networks, within SSEN with the remit of adapting the business to deal with the challenges of de-carbonisation and introducing better ways of managing the electricity network, translating these new ideas into business as usual as part of the transition to Distribution System Operator (DSO) in a Digitised world.
Key elements of Stewart’s current role include the development and deployment of new technical and market based solutions utilising the principles of flexibility as an alternative to traditional asset based network development.
Other areas of involvement include network monitoring, active network management, robotics, analytics, modelling, frequency responsive demand, embedded energy storage and activities associated with preparations for the large-scale electrification of transport and heat.Within the Energy Networks Associations Stewart chairs the Energy Networks Associations Low Carbon Technologies Group.
