Meet our Director of UK and Europe, Genna Boyle!

I'm thrilled to welcome Genna Boyle to the Gridcog Senior Leadership Team.

Our mission is to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon energy system by providing simulation and tracking software that delivers more confidence for investors, project developers and asset owners.

It’s a global transition, and a global opportunity, and so we are very happy to announce that as our new Director of UK and Europe; part of our ongoing expansion into international markets.

Based in London, she joins the Gridcog team to spearhead our growth into Europe, including building out Gridcog’s team in the region, supporting our existing clients and growing our customer base.

Read on to learn more about Genna.

Have You Met .. Genna Boyle

What were you doing before Gridcog and what got you into the energy space? 

I’ve been working in the energy space for almost ten years, and began my career in energy through trading. My reason for getting into the energy industry came from a focus on sustainability and climate change, but for anything to be enduringly sustainable/viable it has to make commercial sense as well; trading was the perfect place to understand and also seek to influence this balance. 

I worked in various prompt and curve trading roles at Contact Energy in New Zealand before relocating to London in 2018 and helping to establish the trading team at Limejump.

Power trading isn’t quite as intimidating as it sounds (and isn’t like the movies), at the end of the day it really is about providing price signals to run/turn off various generators/demand and reward flexibility/optionality for keeping the grid balanced along the way. I found it a great way to gain a deep understanding of the energy market dynamics and to build perspective on who is doing what in our industry and why. Moving from New Zealand to the UK I was surprised at how similar the energy markets are, everything might have a different name, solve differently and the fundamental market drivers are certainly a bit different (hydro storage/global gas markets etc) but it does all come back to supply, demand and physics in the end.

Most recently I led the commercial team at Limejump; Limejump is an energy tech scale up in the battery and renewable optimisation space in the UK. I was responsible for developing and executing our commercial strategy and leading an excellent team of business development managers, relationship managers and commercial analysts. Some of the highlights of my time at Limejump include being part of the team that traded the first battery storage asset in the UK balancing mechanism and enabling the first distribution connected solar farm to participate in flexibility markets via a curtailment product (ODFM), when national demand plummeted in the first covid-19 lockdown; the UK had an oversupply of distributed renewable generation, a problem the we had not encountered before. 

‍What is your role at Gridcog?

Gridcog is expanding further into the UK and Europe and I am here to help make that happen! 

What attracted you to working with Gridcog?

The Gridog product and the team. 

I think the Gridcog product fills a big void in the energy space. The energy industry is at times seriously complicated, and it can take a team of energy analysts, excel workbooks, an occasional python script and a lot of time to test different scenarios for various project designs or compare different commercial structures and even then there may be gaps in what is covered. The Gridcog software makes this sort of analysis much more accessible and robust, which I think is key as we have so many non-traditional players (i.e. not big six/four etc) entering the energy space as we decarbonise. I think the software does a great job at distilling a really complicated market and series of inputs into meaningful outputs and results for Gridcog customers, meaning that more well considered and commercially viable renewable energy and flexibility projects get developed. 

Who I work with is really important to me and I was really impressed with the enthusiasm, aptitude and passion that the team have for all things energy and the Gridcog product. 

‍What interests and excites you most about the energy industry?

I could talk about this for hours, but here are my top two: 

1. The impact that decarbonising energy can have on the environment and mitigating climate change - the shift away from centralised fossil fueled grid to a more decentralised renewable grid is a huge task and imperative that we get right. I love being part of an industry that has to make that happen and want to make a difference to this through my work.
2. The energy industry is changing so fast - I find it really neat that what is ‘normal’ today was quite possibly an abstract or utopian concept five years ago. Think about all the different markets we can now optimise battery storage in, total wind generation exceeding gas fired generation in the UK in Q1 this year or electric vehicles considering participating in power markets. I love that with the pace of market change and innovation there is always something new to learn in the energy space, and am both curious and excited to see how things continue to evolve.

What do you like to do outside of work?

Something I love about living in London is that there is always something going on, be it live music, new restaurants or exploring a new part of the city. Some of the things I am most passionate about are: 

• Food: I am a big foodie; I love cooking and having friends over to share a meal and a wine. Some of my favourite things to make are pho, curries and in the summer I love hosting a barbeque.
• Travel: Having grown up in New Zealand I still find the proximity of London to other places in Europe quite novel; I love getting to experience different cultures, cuisines and stunning places so easily. 
• Being in, on and under the sea: I love the ocean, it is definitely my happy place. I recently spent some time diving in Thailand and the Philippines and it was amazing!