Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 14TH - 20TH FEBRUARY 2020 | 5 ENERGY White paper coming 'in a matter of weeks' The publication of the long-awaited Energy White Paper is only "weeks" away, a government minister has revealed. Responding to questions about COP 26 last week in the House of Lords, junior energy minister Lord Duncan also insisted the govern- ment is sticking to plans to hold the climate change summit in Glasgow. Quizzed by Green peer Baroness Jones, Lord Duncan said: "We have the vision. This year, significant steps will have to be declared. There will be an Energy White Paper in a matter of weeks." The white paper was originally due to be published last summer but was postponed amid Greg Clark's sacking as secretary of state for business and energy in Boris Johnson's first cabinet reshuffle. Lord Duncan said following the white paper and in the run-up to COP26 in November, the govern- ment will publish a plan for decar- bonising transport, a heat policy road map, consultations on aviation and net zero, together with strate- gies for buildings and fuel poverty. He told Lord Forsyth the govern- ment's plans for decarbonisation must be "more ambitious than we have been to date" in order to hit the target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. ELECTRICITY ESO: current regulations 'difficult to handle' Ofgem's regulation of National Grid ESO as an asset-based company has been described as an "absolute nightmare" by the grid's director of operations. At a Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum policy conference, Duncan Burt was asked what one regulatory change would enable the Grid to better prepare electricity networks for net zero. He said the electricity systems operator was not an asset-based company, but Ofgem is still regulating it in what "sub- stantially is an asset-based way". Burt said: "We find that very difficult to handle. All our costs are people and IT – and trying to regu- late that as an asset base is an absolute nightmare because you lose all of the flexibility, innovation and the instinctive business." An Ofgem spokesperson said: "We are introducing a separate price control for the ESO from 2021 that is uniquely tailored to its function as a service provider." ELECTRICITY NIA calls for explicit nuclear commitment The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has been urged to be explicit about the need for nuclear power to meet the UK's net zero target. In its response to the advisory body's consultation on the sixth carbon budget, which closed last Thursday, the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) said it must contain an "unambiguous commit- ment" to new nuclear. The sixth carbon budget will set the level of greenhouse gas emissions that must be achieved between 2033 to 2037 in order to hit the net zero target by 2050. The CCC's 2019 report on the target advised that by the middle of the century the generation mix should incorporate 38 per cent low-carbon "firm" power, including nuclear and other thermal genera- tion fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS). But the NIA said it would be "prudent" that this firm power should be "proven new nuclear capacity" in case CCS can- not be delivered at the scale and in the timescales required. Cathryn Ross, the director of regulatory affairs at BT and former chief executive of Ofwat, has been appointed the first chair of governmental body the Regulatory Horizon Council. The newly formed group will examine changes to the UK's regulatory system and advise government on breaking down existing barriers to innovation. The council will be responsible for reforming regulation to encourage innovation of products, services and business models in the UK. Utility Week Investor Summit 2020 Book your place now at the only pan-utility conference to bring together key speakers and figures from government, regulation, investment and utilities, who will assess the impact of Brexit, regulation, M&A activity, infrastructure, legitimacy and climate change on future investment. It takes place on 5 March in London. For more details visit https://event.utilityweek.co.uk/investor "Arguably the biggest challenge of net zero is not technical but deciding who pays for it and when" Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley says that under his leadership Ofgem will consider consumers' immediate and future interests. UU CFO to retire Russ Houlden, chief financial officer at United Utilities, is to retire after a decade in the role. Houlden will also step down from the board follow- ing the company's AGM to pursue "non-executive opportunities". A successor is yet to be appointed. Ballance to join Cadent Tony Ballance, director of strategy and regulation for Severn Trent, will leave the water company in March after 15 years in the position. He will become chief regula- tion officer for the gas distribution network Cadent. EXECUTIVE MOVES

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