Institution news
Matthew will be speaking at the upcoming Power Plant Operations and Flexibility 2025 event, for further details please visit the event website.
Could you briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience related to the focus of this event?
Matthew Vas (MV): Whilst I'm a Mechanical Engineer by trade, I have always had an active interest in data and the digital world. My roles in Uniper have taken me from being a mechanical project engineer, to a performance engineer via planning and then to reliability. These last three areas meant that I really touched the key parts of power station operation that benefit the most from digitalisation which resulted on me becoming the digital delivery team leader at Ratcliffe Power Station, making me responsible for everything digital at the station. This aligned with Uniper Energy Assets launching the Chief Operating Officer’s Digital Evolution Project (COODE). With a focus on site led digitalisation ideas, Ratcliffe and myself took a lead role in development and driving of digitalisation in the Energy Assets fleet.
What, in your experience, has been the biggest roadblock for the industry over the past 2-3 years?
MV: When digitising for power stations there is a fine balance to reach. Power Stations work at a fast pace which most full stack development can't keep up with. This leads to home brew solutions which deliver what stations need in the short term but are usually site specific and difficult to maintain once the creator has moved onto a new roll. From the central digital projects side, efficiencies need to be found in the projects to speed up the basics, improve understanding of the problems being solved and improve QA, and the stations need to think beyond their site boundaries and look at solutions that can be maintained and are useful to other sites.
What key topics are you excited to discuss at this year's conference?
MV: I am most looking forward to hearing the digitalisation stories from other companies and people within the industry. Innovation excites me and in the power industry in particular, we can be quite innovative digitally.
What do you consider to be the key areas of innovation in this industry, both in the UK and internationally?
MV: In the UK Power Industry there is a lot of technical expertise that is very skilled and needs to move to different technologies which might have lower standards and les money. That expertise adapting in engineering, operations, maintenance and digitally will be very exciting if it is embraced.
Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme?
MV: I am most looking forward to hearing about the impact on operations due to increasing renewable generation, alongside the opportunities, funding, and limitations of carbon capture and hydrogen economy initiatives.
Why is it important for engineers to join this conference?
MV: Sharing ideas about what we're doing in the industry and talking to each other only makes us better.
Power Plant Operations and Flexibility 2025 will be taking place as part of Decarbonise, Power, Store on 29 April 2025 in Manchester.
The latest iteration of this popular seminar will bring together engineers working across power generation to share best practice and strategies around plant efficiency, inspections, maintenance, retrofitting, and other key topics. Organisations speaking include NESO, efinium, Veolia, EDF, RWE and many more.
Attendees will also be able to access presentations at the Decarbonising the Industrial Clusters 2025 and Energy Storage 2025 events, taking place at the same day and location.
To view the full list of presentations and to book your place, visit the event website.