Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 27TH SEPTEMBER - 3RD OCTOBER 2019 | 3 This week 4 | Seven days 6 | Inside story A tale of two deals: SSE and Innogy 8 | Utility of the Future Can the Netherlands teach the UK about tackling leakage? 10 Policy & Regulation 10 | News Call for feedback on performance of ESO 11 | Chief executive's view Michael Lewis, Eon UK, on why air quality is a matter of life and death 12 | Analysis Offshore wind: how big is too big? 14 | Analysis Anglian Water and Northumbrian Water's Innovate East 16 | Market view Boris Johnson must put net zero on his US agenda 17 Finance & Investment 17 | News Octopus and mayor set up green provider 18 | Analysis Entrants knock the big six 22 Operations & Assets 22 | High viz Meet Big Carl 23 | Expert view Amy Kemp, senior research manager, Populus 24 | Analysis Utility Week Congress 2019 26 | Market view Cyber-security is a win-win 28 Customers 28 | News Fuel poverty target 'needs more funding' 29 | View from the top Our leaky electricity networks 30 Community 31 | Disconnector 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 Could diversity be the new net zero? Rewind just 12 months, and the climate emergency was a mere speck on most people's radars, let alone a priority point on utilities' agendas. Like most things, it's o en only when a business case comes into view that the situation really starts to change. Protecting the planet may always have been a no-brainer, but that it's now central to company thinking is down to much more than net zero legislation – as ground-breaking as the 2050 target is. As the recent climate strikes attest, people are now taking this issue incredibly seriously. A company's response to climate change can impact its entire image, as well as its bottom line. So, what might be the next corporate game-changer? Well, scores of industry experts at Energy UK's inaugural conference on the sub- ject this week pointed, unequivocally, to inclusion and diversity. While it may have once been deemed a mere "nice to have", a robust I&D strategy, they predict, will become the next key resilience issue for businesses – and not least utilities. Whether ' nancially or ethically, there are compelling arguments. Gaining input from a wide range of employees, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexuality, faith, whether they have a disability, or are parents, or carers, can empower workforces. It increases productivity, pro' tability and competitiveness, and is the only way to truly re" ect the complex consumer demographic utilities serve. It can be the di" erence between retaining and attract- ing skills in a ruthless talent war. And it can impact growth and investment – e" ectively in" uencing why some businesses will win and others fail. With the sector facing huge business case challenges as it takes charge of delivering utilities of the future, a sustainable, diverse workforce will be key. And utilities are well placed to attract talent. They have never had a better pitch to make than the invitation to join them on the quest for net zero. The enemy will be procrastination. A Powerful Women annual update on diversity revealed females still hold just 6 per cent of senior management roles in energy – a ' gure broadly static for some time. And all this despite the fact that giving everyone the chance to have a say in the utilities journey, to share its rewards and be a part of its life-changing solutions, not only makes perfect business sense – it's also the right thing to do. Suzanne Heneghan, editor, suzanneheneghan@fav-house.com ANALYSIS 24 | A Congress for climate and sustainability INTERVIEW 26 | Cyber- security is a reputational win COVER STORY 12 | Analysis Can turbines keep getting bigger? ANALYSIS 14 | Great minds think together MARKET VIEW 16 | Emissions must be on the US agenda

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