Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 22ND - 28TH FEBRUARY 2019 | 3 This week 4 | Seven days 6 | Campaign Week six of our New Deal for Utilities campaign, and we look at the thorny issue of executive pay 13 Policy & Regulation 13 | News NIC consults on improving utilities regulation 15 | Opinion Steven Day, co-founder, Pure Planet 16 | Analysis Is the energy price cap working for the market? 18 | Expert view Fergal Burke, senior sales director, Oracle Utilities EMEA 19 Finance & Investment 19 | News Mitsubishi buys 20% stake in Ovo Energy 20 | Event Full report from the CFO roundtable 22 Operations & Assets 22 | High viz Record-breaking solar installation in Lithuania 23 | Market view Hydrogen is a hot technology 24 Customers 24 | News Council resurrects Victory Energy plan 25 | Chief executive's view Michael Roberts, Water UK 26 | Utility Week Live An interview with Matt Allen, founder and chief executive of Pivot Power 30 Community 31 | Disconnector GAS 23 | Market view Hydrogen is a hot technology WATER 6 | Campaign Week six of our New Deal for Utilities campaign, and we look at the thorny issue of executive pay 25 | Chief executive's view Michael Roberts, Water UK ELECTRICITY 22 | High viz Record-breaking solar installation in Lithuania ENERGY 15 | Opinion Steven Day, co-founder, Pure Planet 16 | Analysis Is the energy price cap working for the market? 18 | Expert view Fergal Burke, senior sales director EMEA, Oracle Utilities 19 | News Mitsubishi buys 20% stake in Ovo Energy 20 | Event Full report from the CFO roundtable 24 | News Council resurrects Victory Energy plan 26 | Utility Week Live An interview with Matt Allen, founder and chief executive of Pivot Power DOWNLOAD: How to beat the digital disruptors at their own game https://bit.ly/2MfKXA8 See the Community section, page 30 Leader Suzanne Heneghan Time to answer the catcalls You need to have a pretty thick skin to be a utility chief executive these days. With the public spotlight ruthlessly trained on levels of executive pay within not only the sector's monopoly companies but the competitive energy market too, it seems politicians, the media, and now customers, have become obsessed with what water and energy's top bosses – or "fat cats", as the tabloids would have them – are taking home these days. Pay disparity and economic uncertainty are fuelling calls for more salary regulation in the utilities space. And it is an argument fast gaining ground, not least with Labour's pledge to impose an "inequality cap" – setting pay ratios between the highest and lowest-paid workers at 20:1 for government- owned companies, which renationalised utilities would be. It's a theme we explore in more detail in the latest report from our New Deal for Utilities campaign on pages 6 to 10. Justifying executive pay is a thorny issue, and not just for those running our water and energy companies. High earners in busi- nesses throughout the private sector are targets for similar invective. Yet executives, within utilities at least, are accepting it's an issue that increasingly goes with the territory. Boards know public, political and regulatory expectation is now only going one way and that it will gain even greater traction in the challenging months and years ahead. As we have highlighted in our campaign so far, some utility com- panies are already making real, tangible changes to provide greater transparency for customers and deliver a fairer deal for the public – an approach which now looks the only way to respond. At the launch of our New Deal campaign in January, some industry voices from across the sector joined the debate to say they recognised customers wanted to see beneŒ ts "being shared fairly", that listening willingly to customers was "vital", and that taking clear action on things such as fair tax and wage levels will prove far more powerful tools in addressing the legitimacy challenge the sec- tor faces than being corralled into such action by a regulator. If companies can run their Œ nances in a diŽ erent way, with an overt focus on matters such as fairness and proŒ t-sharing, then the issue of executive pay will surely become less of a factor. Suzanne Heneghan, acting editor, suzannehennighan@fav-house.com If you are responsible for your company's outsourced or internal customer service centre we can deliver compelling cost savings to your business, with a typical rate for an FTE of just £10 per hour. Synergy operates an established Contact Centre in a modern and thriving part of Durban, South Africa employing experienced and highly educated staff. We already successfully work with a number of UK utilities across a range of services: If you would like to see our operation for yourself we can fly you, at our cost, to South Africa. Here we will give you a full tour of our facilities, a presentation on how we work and access to our professional teams. For further information please contact steve.cripwell@synergyoutsourcingltd.co.uk / 020 7932 4171 or toby.selves@synergyoutsourcingltd.co.uk / 020 7932 4116 Double your successful meter installation rate and halve your costs with MATS - the new Universal SMETS2 Commissioning Mobile App from Cloud KB. It works with all DCC 53 Million Smart Meters by 2020? YOU MUST BE QUACKERS! AN APPSOLUTE MUST

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