Utility Week

28 | 8TH - 14TH NOVEMBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Customers A radical rethink may be needed on the way financial assistance for water customers is funded, the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) has said. The consumer group's latest Water for All report reviews the performance of water companies in England and Wales that sup- port household customers who are financially vulnerable. It found that almost 700,000 WATER Radical rethink on financial assistance in water sector low-income customers' bills were reduced through a range of assis- tance schemes in 2018/19 – up 28 per cent on the previous year. However, its own research shows that three million custom- ers in England and Wales still say their bills are unaffordable, with existing schemes only having the potential to help less than half of those struggling to pay. Furthermore, almost 420,000 people have registered for extra help through priority services, up more than a fiŒh. Despite the increase, the percentage of households on pri- ority services registers remains a "long way short" of the 7 per cent Ofwat wants to see by 2025. There are substantial regional variations in the number of customers receiving assistance and the support on offer, some- This week Public to advise on achieving net zero Parliament invites 30,000 households to take part in 'citizens' assembly' on climate change Parliament is sending invita- tions to 30,000 randomly chosen households asking them to take part in a 'citizens' assembly' on climate change. The letters started landing on doormats earlier this week. From those who respond, a representative group of 110 peo- ple reflecting the demographic makeup of the UK in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and social class will be chosen to participate in Climate Assembly UK, which was commissioned by six House of Commons select committees. The body will examine how the country should meet its recently adopted target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Its members will be asked to learn about and discuss the issue before making a series of workable recom- mendations, oŒen dealing with difficult trade-offs. These proposals will be presented to the aforementioned com- mittees and debated in the House of Commons. "Adopting the net zero target was a major milestone for the UK, reflecting the strong cross-party support for action on climate change," said Rachel Reeves, chair of the business, energy and industrial strategy committee. "We now need to set out a clear roadmap for the actions to achieve net-zero… Finding solutions which are equitable and have public support will be crucial. Parlia- ment needs to work with the people and with govern- ment to address the challenge of climate change." Highlighting the "gilet jaunes" movement in France as an example, the chair of the Committee on Climate Change, Lord Deben, warned the Treasury that the UK could face civil unrest if the costs of decarbonisation are not distributed fairly across society. TG ENERGY Ofgem modifies smart meter code… Regulator Ofgem will modify the smart meter installation code of practice to require the code's gov- ernance board and administrator to publish domestic customer survey reports on its website. In a decision letter to stake- holders, Jacqui Russel, head of metering and market operations at Ofgem, said the regulator expects the modification to improve the transparency of supplier performance and make them more accountable for their actions and decisions. "We also expect to see improvements in the quality of data through the introduction of additional scrutiny", she added. Ofgem has made several amendments to its initial pro- posals, including that: l only the results of domestic customer surveys will be published, l results before Q4 2019 will not be published and the maximum time series period will be 12 months, l the administrator will draw on information submitted to it in confidence to produce the reports for publication. The Smart Data Communica- tions Company has revealed that more than 2.5 million SMETS2 smart meters have been installed. Last month, the Department for Business, Energy and Indus- trial Strategy said the smart meter rollout deadline could be extended to 2024. Suppliers were initially given until the end of 2020 to take all reasonable steps to offer every home a smart meter, a target that has looked increas- ingly impossible over the past few years. …as smart meters near tipping point The minister overseeing the smart meter programme has predicted that bills for custom- ers using conventional devices will rise as they become more expensive to operate. The business, energy and industrial strategy committee held a hearing at the end of October to probe the faltering smart meter rollout. Coverage is expected to be 85 per cent by the new deadline of 2024. Lord Duncan, junior climate change minister, said: "Once you have 85 per cent smart meters, the network cost of maintain- ing the operation of non-smart meters is significant. The cost per customer of maintaining the old-fashioned devices, such as employing meter readers, will rise further as they are borne by a diminish- ing pool of households, he said. He hoped the savings achieved would be an incentive to switch to the more modern devices. Mary Starks, executive direc- tor of consumers and markets at Ofgem, told the committee that there could be "quite a power- ful tipping point" when smart meters become a "normal way of doing things". Reeves: 'public support will be crucial' thing CCWater says is a result of schemes being developed by individual companies. Average bill reductions through customer-subsidised social tariffs range from as much as £271 to as little as £19. This, CCWater says, is largely because the impact of these schemes is constrained by companies rely- ing on the willingness of other customers to fund them.

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