Scanning the horizon to keep communities safe through the energy transition
Objectives
A state energy safety regulator (the client) engaged Right Lane Consulting in late 2025 to work with an internal team to produce an environmental and horizon scanning process to support strategic decision-making by the Board and Executive Leadership Team. The purpose of the work was to provide a clear, evidence-based view of the external environment and the emerging forces likely to shape energy safety in its state over the next decade. It also strengthened the client’s ability to anticipate change, test the resilience of its current strategy, and consider where its regulatory role, capabilities and ways of working may need to evolve.
About the client
The client is a state energy safety regulator, responsible for electricity, gas and pipeline safety across its jurisdiction. It operates at a time of profound change: the transition to renewable energy, the electrification of homes and transport, rapid growth in distributed energy resources and the increasing digitalisation of energy infrastructure are reshaping how energy is generated, supplied and used. As the system becomes more decentralised and interconnected, safety risks are becoming more distributed and systemic, placing new demands on the regulatory architecture and on the client’s foresight, capabilities and approach.
Description of services provided
Right Lane Consulting worked in partnership with the client’s internal project team through a structured approach to identify, prioritise and analyse the forces shaping the client’s context:
- Building the evidence base. We developed a long list of 25 forces impacting the energy sector across six domains – spanning physical system change, technology and data ecosystems, institutional and regulatory architecture, workforce capability, community expectations and social licence, and market dynamics, informed by working sessions with deep subject matter experts and the client’s project team, and built out with externally sourced evidence of environmental factors and horizon signals.
- Prioritising what matters most. We invited the Executive Leadership Team, Senior Leadership Team and sector experts to identify the forces most relevant to the client, least well understood, and most likely to have significant impact. We triangulated the results to identify 11 priority forces and then facilitated a prioritisation workshop with the executive to define a deep-dive scope of seven strategic questions.
- Deep-dive analysis. We undertook detailed research to respond to each strategic question. The analysis considered the implications of a Distributed Energy Resources (DER) – dominant grid for the regulatory remit, to future workforce capabilities, emerging technologies, consumer education and the changing nature of climate-related risks. This analysis was supported by internal consultations, external interviews and an executive workshop.
- Synthesis and engagement. We synthesised the analysis into environmental and horizon scanning themes and forward-looking considerations, testing the findings with the project team and executive before supporting engagement with the Board through a dedicated workshop and pre-read materials.
Outcomes
The engagement delivered a comprehensive environmental and horizon scan that provides the client with a robust evidence base and a strategic lens to support its ongoing direction. Key outcomes included:
- A clear, evidence-based view of the 25 forces transforming the energy sector and their implications for energy safety over the next decade.
- A prioritised set of strategic questions, ensuring deep-dive effort was focused where relevance, impact and uncertainty were greatest.
- Forward-looking considerations for the client’s regulatory role, priorities and approach – including how insights align with and support its safety roadmap, legislative requirements and current corporate strategy.
- A repeatable scanning process and methodology that the client can continue to apply, strengthening the organisation’s strategic foresight and preparedness.
- Aligned leadership, with the Executive Leadership Team and Board engaged throughout, building shared understanding of the emerging patterns, pressures and uncertainties shaping the system.
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