Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | MAY 2021 | 19 Policy & Regulation Talking Points… "Green Homes Grant failure has set back energy effi ciency." Comment David Blackman Policy correspondent T o make a mistake once is forgivable, it's when it happens twice that people get really annoyed. This isn't a column about the government's faltering approach to lockdowns, though, but a subject that has attracted much less public attention: the Green Homes Grant (GHG). The troubled voucher scheme was unceremoniously axed in late March just four days before the next tranche of the pro- gramme was due to start. What will be particularly galling for those manufacturers and installers working in the energy e ciency supply chain is that this is the second time in a decade that a government scheme targeted at their indus- try has come a cropper. Many of them still bear the scars from the coalition govern- ment's equally botched Green Deal energy e ciency loan scheme, which was cancelled by the Conservatives when they won the 2015 general election. The government was pro- vided with plenty of warnings that it couldn't a‡ ord to mess up the implementation of its new energy e ciency scheme, given the fragile state of conˆ dence in the industry's supply chain. Former top BEIS o cial Tim Lord has told Utility Week that e‡ orts to promote energy e - ciency have taken a "step back" as a result of the GHG, which looks like a poor return on the nearly £600 million of vouchers likely to have been awarded by the time that the scheme closes. The timing of the announce- ment was particularly poor, quietly released on a Saturday night and only two days a– er parliament had broken up for its Easter break. Only the preceding week, energy minister Anne- Marie Trevelyan had ducked a question in the House of Com- mons from her Labour counter- part Alan Whitehead about the fate of the GHG. The shadow energy minister has also yet to receive a satisfac- tory answer from the govern- ment to his repeated questions about the contract with the GHG's administrator, American outsourcing ˆ rm ICF, which has received the bulk of the blame for the delays that have dogged the scheme. Boris Johnson has put a lot of faith in techno-ˆ xes to tackle the UK's climate change challenge. The success of the government's vaccination programme shows that scientiˆ c solutions can be, to coin one of the prime minister's favourite phrases, "world beating". However, cutting emissions will also involve the hard gra– of administering solutions, such as home insulation, which are the opposite of glamorous. Here, the botched implemen- tation of the GHG scheme o‡ ers a less rosy picture. It is deeply troubling that such a potentially important initiative has fallen at the ˆ rst hurdle. "The government and this government in particular are very good on policy, you can't blame them for that… In general, they have got the policy right but the delivery is crap." Lord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee The news in numbers: 6% Fall in the number of jobs in the low-carbon and renewable energy sectors in 2019 compared with 2018 – at 202,100. £1,972m Proposed spend by Electricity North West in its RIIO2 business plan, as it became the second distribution network to submit a draƒ plan to Ofgem. £1.5m Amount National Grid Electricity System Operator agreed to pay aƒ er an investigation by Ofgem found it had failed to provide accurate and unbiased demand forecasts in 2017. 12,092 Number of combined sewer overflows being monitored in 2020, according to the Environment Agency. The aim is to have all 14,630 overflows in England monitored by the end of 2023. The 11 winners of the ˆ rst round of Ofwat's Innovation in Water Challenge have been announced, including a Centre of Excellence for the whole water sector. Up to £250,000 will be awarded to the bids to develop solutions to major common challenges faced by the industry. Projects ranged from planting and restoring sea grass meadows and a scheme to turn ammonia in wastewater into green hydrogen gas to so– ware that can monitor the degradation of wildlife habitats. Other ideas focused on pre- venting leaks using AI, CCTV, and unex- ploited optical ˆ bre strands in telecoms networks. "We've seen a really strong round of bids for the initial funds and we were signiˆ cantly oversubscribed – by more than ˆ ve times the amount of money that was on the table for this round," John Russell, senior director at Ofwat, told Utility Week. There were 61 bids for the inaugural competition, which Russell said indi- cated the level of enthusiasm ignited by the fund. "That spark is not just in the breadth of the projects from technology, engi- neering and customer behaviour projects, but also shows the spirit of collaboration we wanted to see between companies and other partners." To see the full list of winners, go to https://utilityweek.co.uk/ofwat-names- innovation-competition-winners/ WATER Ofwat names innovation competition winners

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