We caught up with Head of Business Development for the industrial commercial markets at SSE Energy Solutions, Ross McClory, to understand his views on the key topics of Decarbonising Transport, Heat and Energy as well as some of the challenges and opportunities industrial and commercial businesses are facing to reach their net zero targets.
Tell us a bit about what you do at SSE Energy Solutions
Hi, I’m Ross McClory, and I’m Head of Business Development for the industrial commercial markets. My focus is on our high energy use target markets such as ports, airports, chemicals, pharma, etc. I’ve worked in the distributed energy part of our business for about four years, focusing on behind-the-meter, solar solutions, private network infrastructure among other areas.
What key challenges do you think businesses have when trying to decarbonise or reach net zero?
I think there is more that can be done to help them understand what distributed energy solutions are available and how they can fit into their business for best value. Everyone is looking for a cost saving, and whilst some businesses have assessed their operations through feasibility studies – and know about solar, wind and battery options - there are some that don’t fully understand the opportunities or what goes into decarbonising a business. Aside from this education aspect, there are grid accessibility challenges. So, I think developers also need to consider the long term commitment when designing and managing their projects.
How can behind-the-meter (BTM) solutions support the journey to net zero?
Nobody can deny that many businesses have a strategic ambition to use BTM technologies to remove carbon and decarbonise their operations to get to net zero. But we shouldn’t forget that there is also a commercial value in putting complimentary BTM solutions in place.
For example, BTM solar, which is a carbon neutral technology, can be combined with wind generation and battery storage to increase the amount of sustainable kilowatt hours utilised – and reduce implementation cost. Further still, some of these solutions, such as heat and battery storage, can be delivered at a geographically local level offering even greater control of costs and the amount of decarbonisation across the wider organisation.
Tell us about a project that you've worked on incorporating decarbonisation as its focus
That’s an easy one - all of our projects do this and we’re working on many that are fast advancing towards the delivery stage. Unfortunately I can’t name them yet for commercial reasons, but I can tell you we’re working with regional airports, ports, airport operators and various other businesses across the manufacturing sector.
Often we can find that we’re working with an aging infrastructure network, so we look at how we connect to that network and recognise the investments needed to upgrade and support it. Outside of that, we support with maintenance of solutions for the client, making sure that all tenants on the same network have the best support. It’s all about providing energy resilience, providing sustainable energy and suiting everyone’s net zero agenda.
How does a Whole System Thinking approach support your clients?
Whole System Thinking is at the core of all our client conversations. It sets out clearly what is possible for clients and what decarbonisation we can achieve together. Not every customer has the requirements or current business characteristics to implement all of our solutions, but we’re able to work with them to show them what they can achieve now and what a full Whole System approach could look like in future.
Fundamentally, we work as an energy partner to help businesses deliver the large net zero challenge through manageable projects. We use Whole System Thinking to holistically show how we can unlock or offset as much of the energy demand as possible for a client in each of these solutions.
We know it’s a journey but you have to start somewhere.
