Utility Week

Customers UTILITY WEEK | 25TH - 31ST OCTOBER 2019 | 25 Renewable energy supplier Good Energy is piloting a smart electric vehicle (EV) charging service that will offer load balancing services. The Wiltshire-based company has installed four chargers at the Watergate Bay Hotel in Cornwall as part of its One Point pilot. The devices are embedded with smart load balancing ELECTRICITY Good Energy trialling EV load balancing service at Cornish hotel technology, which means they are able to turn off or on to level out peaks and troughs in supply and demand on the local network. Good Energy says the system will make it easier for businesses to secure available network capacity. Learnings from the Watergate Bay Hotel pilot will be used by the company to expand the full offering to businesses nationwide. Juliet Davenport, founder and chief executive of Good Energy, said: "Businesses across the UK are responding to the climate emergency, and many of them have already committed to 100 per cent renewable electricity. "With the launch of One Point, Good Energy is going one step further by offering busi- This week Total Gas and Power is Rutherford SoLR Ofgem selects supplier of last resort for the customers of the seventh supplier to fail this year Total Gas and Power has been appointed as the supplier of last resort (SoLR) for the customers of failed business supplier Rutherford Energy Supply. Rutherford, which had 280 business customers, last week became the seventh supplier to fail this year. The switchover took place on 19 October. Philippa Pickford, Ofgem's director of future retail markets, said: "I am pleased to announce we have appointed Total Gas and Power for the customers of Rutherford Energy and their energy supply will continue as normal. "Total Gas and Power will honour any money owed to customers with open accounts with Rutherford, up to a total of £100,000. "Total Gas and Power will be in contact with custom- ers over the coming days with further information. Once the transfer has been completed, customers can shop around for a better deal if they wish to." Rutherford, which traded under the name Uttily Energy, joins Economy Energy, Our Power, Brilliant Energy, Cardiff Energy Supply, Solarplicity and Eversmart Energy, all of which have exited the market this year. Ofgem has announced that the parent company, Uttily plc, will also cease to trade. Uttily plc does not directly supply energy to custom- ers, but it has commercial arrangements in place with a number of partner suppliers, whereby around 360 customers are supplied under the Uttily brand. Most Uttily customers will continue to be supplied by the relevant partner supplier, therefore Ofgem has said it will not appoint a new supplier for these customers. AJ WATER Foundations laid for sector commitments Water UK has updated on pro- gress on the five Public Interest Commitments (PICs) it set six months ago. While each of the water companies has agreed to work towards all five PICs, chief execu- tives have also been assigned sponsor roles for particular areas. Pauline Walsh at Affinity, Bob Taylor at Portsmouth and Peter Simpson at Anglian oversee the commitment to tripling the rate of sector-wide leakage reduction. Initial work has involved co- ordinating with Water Resource Management Plans and PR19 submissions to establish the baseline for delivering on the pledge. Efforts by the steering group have included a leakage focus at Innovate East, which Anglian co-hosted; and an address by the three chairs at Water UK's Leakage Conference. Affordability of water bills, headed by Heidi Mottram of Northumbrian and United Utili- ties' Steve Mogford, has focused on defining a common under- standing of what water poverty really means. UK Water Industry Research will report in February on understanding water poverty, which will inform the PIC group. Mottram, with Simpson of Anglian, also leads the group to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Supported by Water UK's Net Zero Carbon Network, a baseline position has been set and projects are being assessed. Mel Karam of Bristol and Colin Skellett from Wessex lead the group to reduce single-use plastic consumption by the public and in company opera- tions. Efforts so far have focused on making it easier for people to refill water bottles. The pledge to achieve 100 per cent social mobility has been signed up to by all firms and has committed them to partner- ing with colleges and schools to offer coaching, work experience and apprenticeships. Liv Garfield of Severn Trent leads this group. Lastly, Michael Roberts of Water UK is heading the group to enshrine public interest in water firms' business purpose. Its first achievement was Anglian chang- ing its Articles of Association to make public interest central to the constitution of its business. ELECTRICITY ENW tenders flexibility services Electricity North West is tender- ing flexibility services to fulfil its requirement of 4.4MW over the next three years. The tender is the fi©h in the company's history and comes in addition to the 52MW of tenders already issued in the past year. The new requirements in the areas of Bolton by Bowland, Con- iston and Easton are all 'restore' responses, which seek customers to provide flexible services in the event of a network fault. Request for Proposals opens for submissions on 4 November and closes on 13 December. Packed up: supplier had 280 business customers nesses a simple, easy-to-use service allowing their customers and employees to go 100 per cent renewable in their electric vehicles, helping decarbonise the transport industry." Earlier this year, the company took a 12.9 per cent stake in Zap-Map, the EV digital charging platform. The stake will allow Good Energy to take a majority share within two years.

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