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Utility Week 8th March 2019

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6 | 8TH - 14TH MARCH 2019 | UTILITY WEEK A UtilityWeek c ampaign Analysis I f anyone doubted how the winds of change are sweeping through the cor- ridors of the UK's utility regulators, they should have snapped up one of the hotly fought over tickets for Ofgem's Future of Energy conference in January. The energy regulator's chief executive, Dermot Nolan, used his keynote speech to proclaim that updating Ofgem's consumer vulnerability strategy will be "the single most important thing" the organisation will do this year. Mary Starks, recently appointed executive director of Ofgem's consumers and markets directorate, underlined the centrality of this mission in a speech to fuel poverty cam- paigners last month (February) in Cardiff. She said: "Retail energy markets must work well for most people, including those in vulnerable circumstances, not just for a savvy few. This means increasing the num- The regulatory challenge of our times In the latest from our New Deal for Utilities campaign, David Blackman asks if a new era of regulation can help plug the utilities legitimacy gap while ensuring long-term certainty and investment. JOIN THE DEBATE Follow our campaign online: www. utilityweek.co.uk on our Twitter @Utility Week and on LinkedIn, #NewDealForUtilities. To share your thoughts or for more details, contact our acting editor: suzanneheneghan@ fav-house.com This is calling for a new social contract between the industry and its customers in which regulation will have a pivotal role. And the campaign has coincided with the launch of a review of utilities regulation by the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), the terms of reference for which were published just over a fortnight ago. At a conference on utility regulation last week held by Westminster Forum, Ofgem chief economist Joe Perkins, recalled the environment in which the existing regulation system had evolved. "The energy sector at the time of privati- sation was a small number of stable firms, both on the network and supply side, with a fairly centralised model of transmission and generation, and where technological change was seen to be incremental rather than fun- damental. All those assumptions don't really hold now." ber of people engaging in the market, and ensuring that those who cannot engage get the backstop protections they require." It is against this backdrop of heightened concern about less well-off energy and water customers that Utility Week has been run- ning its New Deal for Utilities campaign over the past two months.

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