Rumours have been swirling over where popular artisan coffee and bakery chain Gail’s will be opening its newest site in Banbury.

They began after job postings for roles at the new cafe indicated it would be coming to the Oxfordshire town, though the location of the workplace was not specified.

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Now, a building control application for works to refit the new site lodged with Cherwell District Council have revealed more details.

Gail’s Ltd applied to fit out unit 17 of Banbury Gateway, in Acorn Way, Banbury, to form a ‘Gail’s Bakery Coffee Shop’, according to the application.

It will take the place of the Starbucks which previously occupied the unit, but closed last October after a decade of trading from the retail park.

Starbucks at Gateway, Banbury (Image: Google Street View)

Situated between The Works and McDonalds, the shop opened in October 2015.

Starbucks declined to give a reason for the closure but said they ‘regularly review’ their stores for their market relevance.

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The initial notice for the Gail’s Bakery building works was accepted by the council and they were set to begin on Wednesday, April 22.

No opening date for the new cafe has been announced so far.

Gail’s Bakery was approached but declined to comment on the new opening.

TenneT Netherlands has deployed ReFlow, an in-house grid analysis platform built on the open source framework PowSyBl. The system has delivered at least a tenfold improvement in performance across standard grid security processes.

The platform is used by the operator of the Dutch high-voltage grid, where control room teams run continuous security studies, congestion management analysis and capacity calculations to support round-the-clock operations.

These workloads had been growing faster than previous tools could handle, as larger datasets, higher time resolutions and stricter regulatory requirements increased pressure on existing systems. One European intraday coordinated security analysis process was taking longer than the required time resolution, limiting its value for operational decision-making.

The new system combines PowSyBl, an open source framework for grid modelling and simulation, with ReFlow, an internal orchestration layer developed by TenneT to run large numbers of calculations in parallel. ReFlow takes standardised CIM/CGMES 3.0 inputs, including domestic and foreign network models and operational forecasts, then automatically launches the necessary calculations and closes them when the work is complete.

Operational pressure

Congestion has become a central issue for the Dutch grid, which TenneT describes as a major direct cost and lost opportunity for society. The operator is addressing the problem through new congestion management products, market design changes, network expansion and better use of existing assets, including weather-based dynamic line rating and machine learning-led topology optimisation.

The value of those measures increases when they are brought into a single security assessment framework. In practice, this allows operators to assess whether an action that solves one problem, such as an oscillation, could create another constraint elsewhere on the network.

More advanced integrated assessments could also change how outages are planned. Rather than only checking whether a planned outage is safe under expected conditions, the system could help identify the best future time windows for outages, improving operational flexibility and asset use.

Open source choice

PowSyBl was originally developed by French transmission operator RTE and is hosted by LF Energy. It is already used in production by RTE and by two regional coordination centres, BalticRCC and Coreso, for functions including European merging, coordinated security analysis and capacity calculation.

That existing operational use appears to have helped TenneT avoid building a new analysis engine from scratch. Instead, it focused on creating a system around PowSyBl that could meet its own throughput and automation requirements at national transmission system operator scale.

“We consider PowSyBl the most advanced open source power-system analysis engine available,” said Hugo Pfister, manager of grid security applications at TenneT Netherlands. “We benefit directly from years of investment by RTE and the broader LF Energy community.”

Pfister said ReFlow was designed with a modular structure to avoid dependence on a single supplier or analysis engine. While PowSyBl is the main engine for static security assessment, the architecture is intended to accommodate other engines for functions such as dynamic security assessment and short-circuit analysis.

“By embedding PowSyBl within ReFlow, we can use it in a highly automated, mission-critical context,” Pfister said. “ReFlow is built on a ‘single deployment, multi-customer’ principle. We build once, deploy once, and scale on demand.”

Five-month build

ReFlow moved from project start to first production release in five months. TenneT credited that pace to two factors: the availability of a modern on-premises platform environment based on Kubernetes, Kafka and S3-compatible storage, and a development team of software engineers embedded in the business with direct knowledge of grid security processes.

The main difficulty lay in aligning data producers and consumers on common integration patterns and standardised data products across several domains. That work took time but created a stronger foundation for scaling the system further.

TenneT also argued that the open source model was central to the project rather than incidental. In Pfister’s view, using open source software reduced procurement friction while giving the operator greater freedom to adapt and extend tools for its own purposes.

“The open source model allowed us to adopt a state-of-the-art solution without a lengthy procurement process,” Pfister said. “It also gives us the flexibility to adapt and extend the tooling to our specific needs. More importantly, open source promotes knowledge sharing within the industry and makes high-quality software accessible to smaller TSOs, which strengthens the collective digital capabilities needed for the energy transition.”

Pfister said the approach has implications beyond software sourcing. “Beyond its technical benefits, the open source model acts as a catalyst, enabling engineers and specialists to move beyond technology constraints and think in terms of process opportunities.”

Employment among young workers at UK science and technology small and medium-sized businesses rose 14% year on year in March, according to Employment Hero, pointing to stronger hiring among Gen Z staff than across the sector as a whole.

The analysis drew on anonymised payroll data from almost 700 UK science and technology businesses, representing more than 9,700 employees. Across all age groups, employment in the sector rose 0.3% month on month and 6.3% year on year in March.

The data suggests smaller employers are adding staff even as attention remains focused on large technology groups expanding in London. It also indicates that younger workers are entering science and technology roles faster than the wider workforce in the sector.

Wages also increased. Across all generations, pay in the sector rose 0.7% month on month and 4% year on year in March, while Gen Z workers recorded monthly wage growth of 1.9%.

The findings come as employers continue to report shortages of specialist staff in technical fields. In that environment, rising pay may reflect tighter competition for workers, particularly those at the start of their careers.

Regional Shift

The regional breakdown shows stronger job growth in science and technology SMEs outside the capital. Employment in Greater London fell 0.3% year on year in March, while the North of England recorded growth of 11.5% and the East of England posted 19.7%.

The Midlands saw year-on-year employment growth of 2.7%, while the South of England excluding London recorded a decline of 2.3%.

These figures add to evidence that hiring in parts of the UK technology economy is spreading beyond London. While the capital remains a major centre for investment and company formation, the payroll data points to a broader geographical pattern among smaller businesses.

Science and technology has been a priority for UK economic policy, backed by public funding commitments and a broader push to support AI and research-led industries. Debate has also intensified over whether AI will reduce entry-level opportunities or create new kinds of work.

Separate research commissioned by Employment Hero found that 62% of business leaders are already creating new roles in response to the emergence of AI. The latest payroll figures suggest that investment in the sector is translating into hiring, including among younger staff.

The data comes from a subset of the broader Employment Hero Jobs Report. Science and technology accounts for 8% of the company’s total sample, or close to 10,000 employees across the UK.

Kevin Fitzgerald, UK managing director at Employment Hero, said: “Supporting the growth of the UK’s science and technology sectors has been a long-term goal of successive governments, and the UK has become home to companies that demonstrate genuine sector leadership. Our data shows that the UK’s focus on science and technology is beginning to pay off, driving growth and providing young people access to new types of jobs.

“More broadly, this reflects how technology and AI are transforming the labour market, creating new opportunities and reshaping what employers look for in candidates. Amid a backdrop of chronic skills shortages and an ageing workforce, there is understandably strong competition for talent in this sector, demonstrated by the strong wage growth recorded last month. While this is good news for employees, we must be mindful that this may create competitive pressures for smaller businesses working in these industries.”