Innovation

What is Innovation?

Innovation has always been central to how we respond to change, solve complex challenges and prepare our network for the future. Across RIIO-3, our role will continue to focus on helping National Gas strengthen resilience, improve efficiency and deliver lasting value for customers, consumers and the wider energy system.

Innovation is not only about developing new ideas; it is about understanding the problems that matter most, testing solutions, generating robust evidence, and ensuring successful outcomes can be embedded into the business.

Collaboration remains at the heart of our approach. By working closely with colleagues across National Gas, the energy system, supply chain, academia, industry partners, regulators and government, we can identify the right opportunities, avoid duplication and turn innovative thinking into practical outcomes.

Innovation in RIIO-3

Britain's energy system is entering a period of profound change.

As the country transitions towards clean power, policymakers and industry face the dual challenge of decarbonising energy supplies while maintaining secure, affordable and reliable energy for consumers and businesses.

Growing geopolitical uncertainty, evolving patterns of energy demand and increasing reliance on a more diverse mix of energy sources have reinforced the importance of energy security as a national priority. In this context, innovation must focus not only on enabling the transition to lower-carbon energy sources, but also on strengthening the resilience, flexibility and reliability of the wider energy system.

As a result, our NIA funding for RIIO-3 needs to be utilised for projects that focus on emission reduction, resilience, low-carbon technologies and safety of the existing network. Net zero and hydrogen activities should be funded by other means until Government policy decisions are made in the UK.

You can find out more about our direction and priorities for RIIO-3 in our strategy document.

What is Innovation?

Innovation has always been central to how we respond to change, solve complex challenges and prepare our network for the future. Across RIIO-3, our role will continue to focus on helping National Gas strengthen resilience, improve efficiency and deliver lasting value for customers, consumers and the wider energy system.

Innovation is not only about developing new ideas; it is about understanding the problems that matter most, testing solutions, generating robust evidence, and ensuring successful outcomes can be embedded into the business.

Collaboration remains at the heart of our approach. By working closely with colleagues across National Gas, the energy system, supply chain, academia, industry partners, regulators and government, we can identify the right opportunities, avoid duplication and turn innovative thinking into practical outcomes.

Innovation in RIIO-3

Britain's energy system is entering a period of profound change.

As the country transitions towards clean power, policymakers and industry face the dual challenge of decarbonising energy supplies while maintaining secure, affordable and reliable energy for consumers and businesses.

Growing geopolitical uncertainty, evolving patterns of energy demand and increasing reliance on a more diverse mix of energy sources have reinforced the importance of energy security as a national priority. In this context, innovation must focus not only on enabling the transition to lower-carbon energy sources, but also on strengthening the resilience, flexibility and reliability of the wider energy system.

As a result, our NIA funding for RIIO-3 needs to be utilised for projects that focus on emission reduction, resilience, low-carbon technologies and safety of the existing network. Net zero and hydrogen activities should be funded by other means until Government policy decisions are made in the UK.

You can find out more about our direction and priorities for RIIO-3 in our strategy document.

About National Gas Innovation

Innovation eligibility

Our Innovation Themes

Our Strategic Objectives

Our role in Innovation

Projects should clearly define the problem, deliver structured and well-managed work, produce robust and evidence-based outputs, and collaborate effectively to generate value and shared learning.

Projects must follow agreed governance, deliver to clear plans and milestones, report transparently, and take full accountability for outcomes, costs and evidence.

What makes an idea innovative?

To help focus our efforts over the next five years, we have refreshed our innovation portfolio themes. The new themes are:

Our strategic objectives will help us prioritise our innovation activity throughout RIIO-GT3, by ensuring that investment is focused on the areas that will deliver the greatest value for customers, stakeholders, and the wider energy system.

Our innovation themes help translate these objectives into targeted areas of focus, creating a clear line of sight across the business priorities, innovation challenges and project delivery.

Through a portfolio of projects aligned to the five themes, we will develop the knowledge, evidence and solutions needed to address current and future challenges, while supporting National Gas in delivering a safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable network.

We’re at the beginning of our RIIO-3 journey, so we are on the lookout for fresh, forward-thinking ideas that can make a real impact to what we do and how we do it.

We work with both internal teams and trusted partners to develop, trial and scale new solutions that improve network performance, delivers value for customers, and supports the transition to net zero.

We focus on turning ideas into practical outcomes, working closely with suppliers and stakeholders to make innovation happen.

Innovation RIIO-3 strategy

We've recently published our refreshed strategy for RIIO-3. This sets out how we will focus our innovation activity over the next five years. It has been shaped by the priorities of our business, the needs of our stakeholders and the changing external landscape in which we operate and provides a clear structure for where we will direct our effort, investment and collaboration.

Read the strategy