Utility Week

Customers UTILITY WEEK | 17TH - 23RD MAY 2019 | 25 The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is proposing to proceed with licence changes to amend Smart Energy GB's remit in the smart meter rollout campaign. Currently Smart Energy GB promotes the rollout to domes- tic customers and, where cost effective to do so, microbusi- nesses. Under the changes the company would have to develop ENERGY Smart Energy GB to promote non-domestic smart meters an engagement plan that targets non-domestic customers. The new remit removes the "cost-effective" caveat meaning the company will have a duty to target microbusinesses. The non-domestic smart meter rollout covers about three million meters in two million premises, most of which are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and microbusinesses. Research shows that although SMEs and microbusinesses are interested in saving money, they are likely to see energy as a background part of running their business and it is not something they will devote much time to unless bills form a "significant part" of their outgoings. BEIS' own cost-benefit analy- sis of the smart metering rollout indicates that by the end of This week Centrica expects a 'challenging' year Company faces warm weather, lower gas prices and a cap that it says cost it 234,000 accounts British Gas owner Centrica has said a "challenging trading envi- ronment" – the price cap, warmer weather and falling gas prices – will affect its financial perfor- mance in the first half of 2019. In a trading update issued before its annual general meet- ing the company blamed the cap for the loss of 234,000 British Gas accounts in the first four months of the year. It added that the number of customer accounts exposed to the default cap "remained broadly flat" over the period. Centrica also said the extension of nuclear power station outages at the non-operated Dungeness B and Hunterston B power stations are likely to have an impact on its financial results. The company's operational performance has been largely in line with its expectations in the first four months of the year, and Centrica said it is on track to achieve its yearly group targets. These include adjusted operating cash flow of £1.8-2 billion, in-year efficiency delivery of £250 million and up to 2,000 job cuts across the group. Last month Centrica said that about 500 jobs in the UK are at risk, with 400 likely to go in Scotland because of "growing challenges" – including the price cap. The company said it expects to invest about £1 billion in the group and £500 million in non-core divestments, and achieve net debt of £3-3.5 billion. Centrica's Distributed Energy and Power business increased its gross revenue by 54 per cent in the first four months of the year. Meanwhile, its gross revenue at the company's Con- nected Home business was up 70 per cent compared to the same period last year. AJ ENERGY Ovo and Octopus work with Monzo Challenger energy brands Ovo and Octopus Energy have part- nered with mobile-based bank Monzo to let customers switch using the banking app. Monzo says its new feature aims to address the issues that are stopping people from switch- ing to a "fairer energy tariff ". The bank's customers can switch to only Octopus or Ovo and customers can pay their energy bills through their Monzo bank accounts. The app will send customers a reminder when they are able to switch their tariff or supplier. According to Ofgem's latest State of the Energy Market report – released in October last year, more than half of customers are on poor-value default tariffs. Furthermore, the report found that the difference between the average standard variable tariff price of the six largest suppliers and the cheap- est market tariff was on average £320 between June 2017 and June 2018. WATER 250,000 homes cut their water use Thames Water says it has helped 250,000 homes save a total of 20 million litres of water every day as part of its smarter home visit project. The company estimates that the use of water-saving devices, coupled with behavioural changes like turning off the tap when brushing your teeth, can save the average family more than 50,000 litres of water a year, while fixing a toilet leak could save between 200 and 400 litres every day. Thames Water began offering the service four years ago to customers who already have or are due to receive a smart water meter. So far, it has installed nearly 750,000 water-saving devices and fixed more than 14,000 leaking toilets and taps free of charge. It has commit- ted itself to installing a further 700,000 smart meters by 2025 and to carrying out another 400,000 smarter home visits. The company estimates that over the next 25 years, an extra 2.1 million people are due to move into its region, which it predicts will result in a shortfall of 350 million litres of water per day by 2045. Andrew Tucker, water efficiency manager, said: "We're proud to be operating the larg- est and most innovative water efficiency programme in the UK. It's great to have reached this amazing milestone of helping a quarter of a million households reduce their water use and make savings on their water and energy bills with free devices and personalised advice." Thames Water has launched an online calculator for house- holds to give customers a better understanding of the water they use and to save water, energy and money. Dungeness B outage has affected results 2030, non-domestic consumers could achieve about £1.4 billion in energy savings. The depart- ment therefore wants to promote the benefits of the devices among businesses. BEIS said it intends to lay the regulations before Parlia- ment this month. Subject to parliamentary process, BEIS says it aims to bring the licence changes into force this summer.

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