Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 12TH - 18TH JULY 2019 | 3 This week 4 | Seven days 6 | Utility of the Future Campaign launch including our exclusive survey of public attitudes on tackling climate change 15 Policy & Regulation 15 | News Anglian makes public interest commitment 16 Finance & Investment 16 | News National Grid plans to allot £10.4bn to RIIO2 17 | Opinion Adrian Barrus, Slaughter and May 18 | Analysis Who can turn Thames Water around? 20 Operations & Assets 20 | High viz Digesters at Yorkshire Water's Knostrop site 21 | Market view How utilities can help people excluded from the fi nancial system 22 | Awards case study An app has transformed staff wellbeing at Lanes Group 24 | Market view Enterprise asset management – the key to profi tability? 25 Customers 25 | News Service failings cost Green Star £350k 26 | Roundtable Has the non-domestic retail water market delivered value? 30 Community 31 | Disconnector GAS 6 | Utility of the Future Why a change to regulation will be needed to deliver net zero WATER 18 | Analysis Who can turn Thames Water around? 20 | High viz Digesters at Yorkshire Water's Knostrop site 25 | News Water complaints up for second year 25 | News Severn Trent apologises after contamination incident 26 | Roundtable Has the non- domestic retail water market delivered value? ELECTRICITY 15 | News No plans to rethink onshore wind policy 16 | News Hybrid EV sales slump for fi rst time ENERGY 15 | News Tougher market entry tests in force 15 | News Gemserv sets out code reform plans 16 | News 'Put City at heart of net-zero push' 17 | Opinion Subsidy-free large- scale renewables 25 | News Vulnerable need not be costly to serve 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 Leader Suzanne Heneghan Now the work really begins The net zero target was rightly hailed as a decisive moment in the battle against climate change but as our new Utility of the Future cam- paign launched today points out, in many ways that was the easy bit. Just as pressing as the UK's pledge to cut all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is the need to take the public on the climate journey too. With this critical issue now the debate of a generation, and utilities sitting right at the heart of it, our new, year-long inves- tigation into what a utility of the future might look like focuses on climate change as the - rst key pillar in the series. And crucially, our exclusive public poll (p10 and 11) takes the temperature on what consumers really think about halting climate change, the role utilities should play and what personal changes they would be prepared to make. Those working in the energy industry know all too well that it cares about meeting its obligations to the public and the planet – and there is much evidence that it is responding. So it will be disheartening to read that more consumers we surveyed‡(47 per cent) regard industry as part of the problem than the solution (32 per cent). And, as the research by Harris Interactive also found, the climate conundrum doesn't stop there. While 78 per cent were supportive of the UK's 2050 net zero plans, and most (89 per cent) were happy to make changes to their energy or water use, only 38 per cent of those would make a signi- cant change, with just 28 per cent happy to pay higher energy bills to help achieve net zero. As one contributor points out, there is a long way to go, and the dial really needs to turn up. Referencing the relatively quiet renewa- bles revolution, he says: "We've gone from brown electricity to green without people even realising. But when they're driving an EV… they are going to know and will need to want to make the change." Communicating their message and educating the public will be vital work for utilities in the decarbonisation days ahead, as will collaboration within and without the sector too. Yet such stringent government targets must be backed up with far more support. As the latest progress report from the Committee on Climate Change reminded us all this week, the policy is yet to match up to the rhetoric. Suzanne Heneghan, editor, suzanneheneghan@fav-house.com Utility of the Future: Climate change report, p6

• Cover