Energy is of critical importance to the infrastructure and maintenance of societies across the world.

The industry is made up of a collection of sectors including petroleum, natural gas, electric, coal, nuclear, renewables and traditional energy. Widespread demand continues to allow competition amongst providers and aligned ancillary service providers. The UK sector has a significant retail energy market with a number of large multinationals dominating this market. Additionally, the offshore oil and gas industry – particularly in the North Sea – is a key economic powerhouse in terms of the entire UK economy.

Recent times have seen significant falls in oil prices, impacting on energy businesses, and political scuffles and conflict around the globe continue to threaten energy security for the UK and other countries – the constant erosion of relations between Russia and the West and the rise of Islamic State in the Middle East, for example.

Such insecurity means that companies are having to continually invest in new markets and technologies to help guarantee and regulate supply globally. Additionally, the rise of renewables in an increasingly ‘green’ world is a game changer for the industry and companies operating within the sector need to adapt to and overcome the challenges posed by such changes.

The wider sector is growing in the UK owing to continued investment and subsidy in provision, so much so that by 2023, an additional 200,000 people will be required by the UK’s energy and utility workforce: the biggest challenge for the sector will be plugging the skills gap in engineering and science as it recruits further personnel.