Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 8TH - 14TH NOVEMBER 2019 | 5 ENERGY Failed suppliers left behind £72m unpaid RO bill Failed suppliers have le behind an unpaid Renewables Obligation (RO) bill of £72 million for 2018/19, according to BFY Consulting. The figure is well above the thresholds for activating the mutualisation process, which last year was triggered for the first time aer suppliers failed to make more than £58 million of late buyout pay- ments by the annual deadline on 31 October. BFY Consulting told Utility Week there will also be a £5 million short- fall for 2019/20 because of further failures since April. The numbers do not cover the debts of suppliers that are still operating but have failed to meet their obligation in full. Ofgem has issued provisional orders against Nabuh Energy and Breeze Energy over £872,000 and £486,000 in late payments that they owe respectively, while Gnergy was slapped with a final order over its shortfall of £674,000. See news, p15 WATER Water has biggest price tag for renationalisation The water sector would be the costliest to renationalise, with a price tag of £90.4 billion, accord- ing to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). This is closely followed by the cost of taking the energy networks back under public ownership, which the business lobby group says comes in at £89.1 billion. The CBI released the "eye- watering" £196 billion estimate for Labour's renationalisation plans in October. The total also includes the rail industry, which it says will have an upfront cost of £13.9 billion to purchase rolling stock. Meanwhile Royal Mail, which was sold by the government in stages starting in 2013 and finish- ing in 2015, was estimated to cost £2.6 billion. The CBI said the total cost was equivalent to spending every penny of income tax paid by UK citizens in a single year. See election analysis, p6 Environment secretary Theresa Villiers has said she is confident there will be sufficient supplies of chemicals for treating drinking water if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement in place. The government's recently published Yellowhammer emergency planning document warned that water supplies for hundreds of thousands of people could be affected if the supply chain for these vital chemicals was disrupted. 1,200 A consortium of local authorities, Virgin Media and Vattenfall plans to install 1,200 EV charge points. 40 tonnes Thames Water last week removed a 40-tonne fatberg from a sewer pipe in Greenwich, London. Book your table Table bookings have opened for this year's Utility Week Awards. The full shortlist is available at: https://utilityweekawards.co.uk Jonson Cox tenure extended at Ofwat Jonson Cox has been reappointed to remain as chair of Ofwat until 2021, extending his tenure by one year. Cox has held the non- executive chair position since November 2012. Severn Trent appoints new chair Christine Hodgson has been appointed chair of Severn Trent with effect from April 2020 when Andrew Duff is due to retire. Her CV includes a current role as senior independent director of Standard Chartered and executive chair of Capgemini UK – from which she will step down on assuming the role at Severn Trent. Until 2017 Hodgson was independent non-executive director of Ladbrokes Coral Group. APPOINTMENTS Energy sector manifesto calls for clarity on funding models and energy efficiency Energy UK has told the political parties it is crucial to agree new funding models for large-scale, low-carbon infra- structure – such as nuclear plants – in its wide-ranging "manifesto" for the upcoming general election. In the document, the trade body also said the government should fully fund a national energy efficiency programme if the UK is to reach the target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, adopted by Parliament earlier this year.

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