Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 22ND - 28TH NOVEMBER 2019 | 25 Customers Welsh Water has proposed changing its constitution to embed commitments to public service and focus on customers. The proposal, which will be put to its independent members for approval next month, came as the company announced its financial results for the first six months of the year. These showed first half capital invest- ment of £218 million, with a WATER Welsh Water moots adding social purpose pledge to constitution total of £440 million expected by the end of the year. Operating profit was largely unchanged at £39 million (2018: £38 million), while regulatory gearing was steady at 58 per cent (58 per cent in March 2019 and down from 93 per cent in 2001). The company reported 99.97 per cent overall compliance with quality standards in tests at water treatment works, in the network, and customers' taps in the nine months to September 2019 (September 2018: 99.98 per cent). It said leakage levels had been reduced further, totalling 166 megalitres per day (2018: 169 megalitres per day). Customer minutes lost to supply interrup- tions were down to 5.6 minutes (2018: 8.5 minutes). Chairman Alastair Lyons said: "The first six months of the This week Community energy joint venture set up Octopus Energy and Midcounties Co-operative to support renewable community projects nationwide Octopus Energy and Midcounties Co-operative have officially launched a joint venture support- ing renewable community energy projects across the country. Co-op Community Energy is a standalone company that has already secured five new power purchase agreements (PPAs) with hydro-electric sites operated by the National Trust across Wales. The new agreements take the number of sites supply- ing renewable energy to Co-op Energy customers to 79. Speaking to Utility Week, Greg Jackson, chief execu- tive of Octopus Energy, said the new firm would allow some communities to benefit from local tariffs. This will be assessed on a scheme by scheme basis. Tom Hoines has joined the company from Noble Green Energy as its new managing director. He said: "The creation of Co-op Community Energy is a ground- breaking step in driving forward community generation in the UK. "In a subsidy-free environment, it is crucial that com- munity groups are given support in finding opportuni- ties to develop and grow projects, and that they have confidence that energy suppliers will pay a fair price for the power they generate. "Octopus Energy and the Midcounties Co-operative are showing real leadership in this area, and we have ambitions to increase our own portfolio of community energy partners. "My priority in the coming weeks will be to travel around the country, meeting with community groups to understand in even more depth the challenges they face today, and how Co-op Community Energy can best support them." AJ ELECTRICITY Ofgem removes barrier to elective HH settlement Ofgem has approved a measure to prevent the re-emergence of a problem whereby customers moving to half-hourly electri- city settlement would be double charged for use of the trans- mission network in the year in which they migrated. The issue concerns customers in profile classes 1-4, which cover all domestic customers and some smaller non-domestic customers. It arose because the transmission charges for non- half-hourly (NHH) meters are based on consumption during peak periods throughout the whole year, whereas the charges for half-hourly (HH) meters are based on consumption during the three half-hours of greatest demand over the winter season – also known as the triads. According to Ofgem, this cre- ated a barrier to voluntary migra- tion. To rectify the situation, the regulator approved in 2016 the CUSC modification CMP266, which stipulated that consumers moving to HH settlement should be charged under the NHH methodology for the year in which they migrate. They should then be charged under the HH methodology in future years. The modification also said that customers within measure- ment classes F and G should be charged under the NHH method- ology from April 2017 to April 2020, by which point Ofgem expected HH settlement to be mandatory for all customers. For context, all NHH metered customers within profile classes 1-4 fall within measurement class A. If they shi¤ to HH settle- ment then they are transferred to F and G. However, Ofgem announced in September that it was delay- ing its final decision on the introduction of mandatory HH settlement until the third quarter of 2020, meaning the problem would return temporarily. To prevent this from happening, the regulator has now approved the CUSC modification CMP318, which extends the measure until 31 March 2023. ELECTRICITY Labour vows to create solar hubs Labour has pledged to install solar panels on public facilities to create 2,000 "community solar hubs" located in public spaces such as libraries, community centres and one-stop shops. Participating facilities would receive electricity from the solar panels, saving an estimated £3,000 on annual fuel bills. Any unused electricity would be exported to the grid, providing an estimated income of £1,080 a year per hub. Labour claims the net finan- cial benefit to public facilities means the programme would pay for itself in seven years. In addition, it says a¤er 15 years the facilities would have saved £90 million on energy bills. Jackson: local tariffs for some communities year reflect good overall perfor- mance and continued record lev- els of investment in our network and customer service. Our plans for the new five-year investment period reflect what our custom- ers have said they want from us, aiming to balance maintaining vital investment in our services, protecting the environment, and keeping customer bills as affordable as possible."

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