Connecting regional and local planning with national strategy for a sustainable energy future.

BMA's Decisio™ Cloud for Energy Transition platform powers Navigator - demonstrating our holistic regional planning approach in partnership with Northern Gas Networks, Scottish Gas Networks, and industry partners. A whole-system AI-assisted energy software application that connects regional and local planning with national strategy.

The UK government has set an ambitious target: To deliver a clean electricity system by 2030. This is part of a larger plan to deliver a fully decarbonised energy system by 2050. To achieve this, the country will need to use all available energy vectors and technologies. The challenge is to combine these effectively while keeping energy affordable and ensuring the energy system’s resilience.

Regional energy planning confronts deep-rooted structural challenges that hinder efficient progress toward decarbonisation goals. The fundamental issue is not just technological, but systemic: traditional planning remains fragmented, with limited coordination across energy vectors, stakeholders, and governance levels - from national strategy to regional and local delivery.

Competing priorities between network operators, local authorities, and policy bodies contribute to a lack of alignment, resulting in the absence of a shared, deliverable investment pathway that connects regional decision-making with national and local goals.

The Strategic Challenge

Utilities must now coordinate investments across multiple technologies, balancing national strategies with local implementation. This requires a holistic approach that can:

• Integrate diverse energy systems
• Support rapid technological innovation
• Align with evolving regulatory frameworks
• Ensure economic and environmental sustainability

Our Solution: The Decisio™ Cloud for Energy Transition

 

BMA is building the next-gen AI-driven capability to help with this massive energy transition at pace. The Decisio™ Cloud for Energy Transition (C4ET) platform provides a comprehensive solution to these complex challenges through four key capabilities:

Whole Systems Approach

By creating a comprehensive digital representation of energy systems, we integrate policy, regulation, financial, engineering, and supply chain data to develop sophisticated, coordinated transition strategies.

Advanced Optioneering

Our AI-powered platforms automatically generate multiple investment options, enabling utilities to explore innovative pathways and test potential scenarios with unprecedented depth and flexibility.

Adaptive Pathway Planning

We deliver detailed temporal and spatial planning recommendations, supporting flexible, forward-looking decision-making that can adapt to rapidly changing technological and regulatory landscapes.

Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration

Our platform facilitates transparent, evidence-based collaboration across public and private sectors, breaking down traditional planning silos.

But how do we deliver all this?

Connecting energy infrastructure planning is more than a technological challenge - it's about creating a coordinated, intelligent approach to delivering our national energy transformation. Developed in partnership with Northern Gas Networks (NGN) and Scottish Gas Networks (SGN),  and supported by BMA’s Decisio platform, the Navigator project is a pioneering regional whole-system energy planning capability designed to transform how the UK plans for a Net Zero future. It shows the transformative potential of our approach. By exploring over 25 potential energy transition pathways and analysing 15,000 investment options, we've shown how advanced AI can revolutionise infrastructure planning.

By combining technological innovation with stakeholder collaboration, Navigator offers a step change in regional energy planning – moving from fragmented, single-vector analysis to an integrated, agile, and transparent whole-system approach. The project integrated over 100 data sets, evaluated 1,300 locations, and recommended strategic investments that align national objectives with local implementation needs.

 

For more information, contact: Jordan Russell, Cloud for Energy Product Owner, Tel: +44 (0) 7594 042 642;  E: jrussell@businessmodelling.com