Innovation and digitalisation: a changing skills profile

Whilst some skills are transferrable from the conventional energy business, we also need to build new skills and capabilities. For example, any venture into offshore wind will present new technical challenges for us, and will require new capabilities. Microgrid expertise is also becoming more important on the distribution side. Other challenges are presented by the remote locations of many RE assets, and the common practice of contracting out operations and maintenance activities. Consequently, developing a resourcing model for RE that is value-adding and sustainable, and applying that consistently across the Group, is a priority.

We are allocating more resources to our innovation related teams. There has been a significant expansion in resources allocated over the past two years, and this year we reviewed resource allocation to ensure it was efficient, effective, and aligned with our innovation priorities. We are also strengthening our subsidiary CLPe Solutions, formerly- named CLP Engineering, in preparation for it being the vehicle for commercialisation of our innovation business. EnergyAustralia embarked on a major restructure of the Customer Business Unit in 2018, providing the foundation for an agile and sustainable workforce where employees will operate in project-based teams to respond efficiently to the rapidly-changing customer environment.

The development of our employees to prepare them for the digital economy is important. A key aspect of this is ensuring an adequate level of executive awareness of the challenges presented by the energy transition and digitalisation to prepare them for an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment. This year we continued to work with our partners Chatham House, IMD and EPFL to deliver topical industry briefings to key executives.

We also delivered a number of targeted training programmes on digital skills. These programs included managing digital disruption with IMD, and an intensive data analytics programme that will be delivered by technology educator Decoded. We have also introduced Design Thinking training into our Hong Kong business.