UTILITY WEEK | JUNE 2023 |
5
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Executive decisions
This month we feature interviews with three company bosses, all with di erent
perspectives but sharing many similar challenges.
As I write this Michael Lewis is beginning a new chapter in his career as chief
executive of Uniper, taking him back to Germany, where he has already spent a
good chunk of his career. In his interview with Adam John he is open about the
fact that the most challenging times in his 30 years with Eon UK have all come
in the last three years.
He has been one of the most vocal energy retail chiefs in lobbying for govern-
ment support for customers, continuing to do so in this last interview with his
backing of Utility Week's Action on Bills campaign and its calls for a social tari .
He has also been a principal proponent of the argument that energy e„ ciency is
ultimately the best way to bring bills down long term. Despite his impassioned
pleas, precious little progress has been made in this area over recent years.
Social tari s are also a consideration for Thames chief executive Sarah Bent-
ley, who backs another plank of our campaign in calling for government to act
to change the current postcode lottery of support for vulnerable water customers
across the country. Thames is pushing forward on this even in the face of Defra's
seeming indi erence to a single social tari . Bentley, who was among the CEOs
to waive their bonuses last month, knows that delivering on support for the
vulnerable is one of the key ways to rebuild trust in the sector.
RWE's Tom Glover is probably grateful that he is not currently exposed
to the same kind of scrutiny as Lewis and Bentley. However, the vital role of
renewables developers such as RWE is only going to become more apparent as
the years tick down to net zero. Glover's chief concerns lie around whether the
frameworks in place for net zero will hinder rather than help the pace he and
his peers would like to proceed at. As he explains to David Blackman, there is a
danger that we obsess over the Ž ner details of the energy transition as opposed
to focusing on Ž xing the parts of the system that are really standing in the way
of the proliferation of renewable energy we know we need.
Key among these is the increasingly painful pace of connections to the elec-
tricity transmission gird, which we unapologetically return to this month. As our
analysis on p18-19 points out, everyone seems to have a plan but when will we
see action?
James Wallin, editor, jameswallin@fav-house.com
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Editor
James Wallin,
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t: 01342 332015
Content director
Jane Gray,
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t: 01342 333004
Head of content
Ben Hargreaves,
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Insights editor
Tom Grimwood,
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t: 01342 332061
Features editor
Lucinda Dann,
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t: 01342 332083
News editor
Rob Horgan
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Senior reporter
Adam John
e: adamjohn@fav-house.com;
t: 01342 332069
Water correspondent
Ruth Williams,
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t: 01342 332069
Policy correspondent
David Blackman,
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Guidehouse
Strategic grid investment now is
money well spent for the future
https://bit.ly/3ZcqkJ2
Automa
Taking control of methane
emissions
https://bit.ly/402J5Q9
Letter from the Editor
James Wallin
Semtech
Standardisation across utilities
https://bit.ly/3luZNZC
