Utility Week

Utility Week 21st June 2019

Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government

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UTILITY WEEK | 21ST - 27TH JUNE 2019 | 3 This week 4 | Seven days 6 Policy & Regulation 6 | News Charging hubs spark London EV revolution 7 | Event All the news from Utility Week's Energy Summit 8 | Analysis What net zero by 2050 means in practice 10 | Analysis RIIO2 is a tough ask for network companies 13 | View from the top Matt Hinldle, ENA 15 Finance & Investment 15 | News Treasury to review decarbonisation costs 16 | Event CFO roundtable report 20 Operations & Assets 20 | High viz Wessex Water's Thornford Water Recycling Centre 21 | Pipe up The workforce crisis 22 | Roundtable What's happened to totex? 25 | View from the top Jon Butterworth, National Grid Ventures 26 | Market view Data analytics and operational excellence 27 Customers 27 | News Shell Energy pays for price cap delays 28 | Market view Improving customer satisfaction 29 | Market view Off-site manufacturing 30 Community 31 | Disconnector GAS 16 | Event CFO roundtable 28 | Market view Improving customer satisfaction WATER 6 | News Light to chair water watchdog 20 | High viz Wessex Water's Thornford Water Recycling Centre 27 | News Thames sorry for Hampton burst pipe ELECTRICITY 6 | News Charging hubs spark London EV revolution 15 | News Government 'foolish' not to exploit wind 15 | News Engie buys EV network operator 25 | View from the top Jon Butterworth, National Grid Ventures ENERGY 6 | News Ofgem should act before fi rms go bust 7 | Event Utility Week's Energy Summit 8 | Analysis What net zero by 2050 means in practice 10 | Analysis RIIO2 is a tough ask for network companies 15 | News Renewables a better bet than incumbents Leader Jane Gray DOWNLOAD: Reducing bad debt, generating effi ciency and improving the customer journey https://bit.ly/2EbKRH5 See the Community section, page 30 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 Who will foot the bill for net zero? Amid fractious and interminable Brexit debates and the turmoil of a Conservative leadership contest it was unutterably refreshing to see broad-based support for the decision to adopt a legally binding tar- get to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by 2050. Of course, making that commitment is the easy bit and now utilities are in the hot seat to deliver it. It's a challenge the industry should seize and relish. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also provides an unmissable opportunity for utilities to move the dial on public perceptions of the industry and be seen as pioneers in creating solutions to the biggest single issue facing our society and way of life. It won't be easy. At Utility Week's Energy Summit last week, industry leaders repeated their plea for an energy white paper to deliver clarity on key policy frameworks for decarbonisation. Par- ticularly urgently needed are policy structures for tackling energy e† ciency, the decarbonisation of heat, and rationalising the "free for all" development of electric vehicle infrastructure. Behind even these critical requirements, however, sits the ques- tion of how to pay for the energy transition. Notwithstanding recent Treasury comments about the gross price tag (the Committee on Climate Change's overall cost estimate of 1-2 per cent of GDP remains unchanged from the 80 per cent emissions reduction scenario), it is clear the cost conversation has moved on from incredulous "how much?" exchanges to pondering the most complicated bill- splitting exercise in history. Already a key industry debate, the net zero commitment has made all the more urgent the need for de• nitive decisions about how to socialise the costs of a decentralised and dynamic energy system. It has also brought into sharp focus growing unease among energy players about whether Ofgem's focus on regulating for least cost to the consumer is still • t for purpose. Ofgem chair Martin Cave promised Energy Summit delegates that the regulator will be "more explicit" about changes it is consider- ing to its approach in light of the net zero challenge in six to nine months. It's not long to wait by normal standards, but with industry lead- ers keen to "bloody well get on with it" (as one CEO put it), there will be impatience nonetheless. And it seems unlikely the regulator will go as far as many would like in reviewing its role. Jane Gray, content director, janegray@fav-house.com

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