Utility Week

4 | 14TH - 20TH FEBRUARY 2020 | UTILITY WEEK Seven days... Centrica's new boss will face debt struggle Centrica is preparing to appoint an insider as its new chief executive, as the British Gas owner struggles to tackle its debts by selling off its fossil fuel and nuclear arms. Sarwjit Sambhi, who has worked at Centrica for close to 20 years and heads its consumer business, is the frontrunner in the contest to take over from departing chief executive Iain Conn, industry sources say. Centrica's hunt for a new leader has focused on in-house candidates a er a trawl of external executives proved fruitless, insiders said. The Telegraph Gas boilers could be banned from all homes Homeowners could be forced to replace their gas boilers to ensure the UK meets its target to be carbon neutral by 2050, warned ministers. The government will publish a white paper later this year that will set out the "bigger decisions" the UK has to make to meet the target. Climate change minister Lord Duncan of Springbank said it will consider whether the government should ban gas central heating altogether from all homes. It is not clear if homeowners will have to pay or if there are enough plumbers to carry out the work. The Telegraph EDF closes in on £110m Pod Point deal French energy utility EDF is set to snap up one of the UK's largest electric vehicle (EV) operators for £110 million. Pod Point operates more than 1,700 public vehicle charging bays across the UK. The sale would give EDF a significant foothold in the UK EV market, which is tipped for explosive growth. Talks over a potential sale have been ongoing between the two parties since autumn last year. inews Press roundup Yorkshire takes its final determination to the CMA Y orkshire Water has asked Ofwat to refer its final determination to the Com- petition and Markets Authority for review because of "poorly designed penalty measures". Yorkshire said the long-term risks to the company's resilience and customers "would be at a level which it cannot accept". In Ofwat's final determina- tion for Yorkshire, a gap of £370 million remained between the two parties' estimation of what was needed to fund the company's activities, second only to Anglian's with a gap of £744 million. Yorkshire said: "The overall approach to the determination, including as it does poorly designed penalty measures over the next five years, means the company would be forced to focus on short-term performance at the expense of longer-term capital investment, vital for securing resilience of critical water and wastewater infrastruc- ture in Yorkshire." Chief executive Liz Barber said: "Everyone at Yorkshire Water shares a common purpose to provide safe and reliable services to our customers and our county, long into the future. We're naturally committed to being the most efficient com- pany we can, but have decided that accepting this determina- tion would jeopardise York- shire's resilience and our own." The final determination set a bill reduction target of 8.7 per cent, compared with 10 per cent in the dra" determination and the company's proposed 0.8 per cent cut. Wholesale totex costs were set at £4.165 billion – £142.7 million higher than in the dra" but £370 million lower than proposed by Yorkshire. The company was allocated £905 million to improve service, resilience and the environment. Allowed revenue was set at £5.14 billion, compared with a request of just under £5.4 billion from Yorkshire. RW "You promised to 'lead from the front' and asked me what was needed 'money, people, just tell us!' Sadly, these promises and offers are not close to being met" The COP26's sacked president Claire Perry O'Neill warns Boris Johnson that preparations for the upcoming UN climate change summit are "miles off track". STORY BY NUMBERS Phase-out of coal power Boris Johnson has brought forward the phase-out of coal-fired power generation. 1 year Amount by which the deadline has been brought forward. 2025 Previous target date to eliminate coal-fired power generation. 3% Amount of UK electricity generated by coal last year. 70% Percentage generated by coal in 1990. 3 Number of coal-fired power stations that will remain online by the end of 2020. See analysis, p17

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