How do you use AI to deliver a future-ready energy network?

The UK faces an unprecedented energy transformation challenge. With the government’s ambitious target to deliver a clean electricity system by 2030, the nation must fundamentally reimagine its energy infrastructure. Current planning approaches are struggling to cope with the complexity of integrating multiple energy vectors – electricity, hydrogen, biomethane, and heat – while maintaining affordability, reliability, and sustainability.

Clean electricity 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

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
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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.

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 and Scottish Gas Networks, and supported by BMA’s Decisio™ software platform, the Navigator solution 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, (with potential to grow as increments are recommended), 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. Our solution provides ongoing, adaptive planning capabilities. We have so far integrated over 100 datasets, evaluated 1,300 locations, and developed strategic investments that align national objectives with local implementation needs. We continue to expand these capabilities as more customers join and new planning cases emerge.

The collaborative Ofwat-funded TORCH Project illustrates the power of our approach in practice. By connecting sewer network data with energy demand information, we uncover innovative opportunities for heat energy recovery. TORCH demonstrates how AI-assisted decision-making and planning can identify hidden infrastructure potential, transforming seemingly unrelated data sources into strategic insights that support the broader energy transition.

Supporting the journey to net zero

By leveraging advanced digital capabilities, we can develop more resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy systems that support our journey to net zero.

Our AI-assisted planning and delivery approach provides a framework for future-ready networks, enabling utilities to navigate complex energy transition challenges with unprecedented insight and adaptability. We’re not just planning for tomorrow; we’re actively shaping a more intelligent, responsive energy infrastructure.