Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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4 | 14th - 20th February 2014 | utILIty WeeK National media Customer experience utilities have more "customer experience" bosses than the retail sector does, according to website developer Mando. Strategic director Jonathan Seal said: "Our report shows the sector is aware of the competitive advantage to be gained from getting the customer experience right." 79% banking companies surveyed that had jobs with "customer experience" in the title 28% utilities that had jobs with "customer experience" in the title 21% retail businesses that had jobs with "customer experience" in the title Floods add to worries over fracking Concerns have been raised over the risks of fracking in flood-prone areas of the UK, as parts of the country face continued flooding. Greenpeace said licences had been given to companies to drill for shale gas and oil in some areas of Somerset that had been hit by severe flooding. ITV Break-up threat keeps markets guessing Centrica's share price see-sawed on Monday as markets tried to measure the significance of the energy secretary's threat to force it to sell its subsidi- ary, British Gas, if regulators found evidence of market abuse. Financial Times Meditation to help Npower staff who survive jobs cull Npower, which is taking the axe to hundreds of jobs, has 16 meditation experts on its payroll to help the survivors "relax their minds". The power firm, which is owned by German energy giant RWE, is cutting 1,400 jobs while 700 more staff have been told they will lose their jobs if they cannot get to new offices more than 30 miles away from their current workplace. Thisismoney.co.uk story by NUMbErs A full investigation of competi- tion in the energy market looks almost certain aer an excep- tional intervention by energy secretary Ed Davey on Monday. Six weeks before Ofgem, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are due to publish their assessment, Davey wrote to suggest some areas they might want to "focus on". While saying it was "vital" the regulators' work be inde- pendent, Davey urged them to consider referring the matter to the CMA for a full market inves- tigation. That would take 18 months, reporting aer the next general election, and could lead to the break-up of companies found to have too much market power. Several industry figures, including Eon UK chief execu- tive Tony Cocker last autumn, have said they would welcome a full investigation to clear the air. Experts said Davey's move ramped up the chances of a competition referral. Stuart Cook, head of utility strategy at PwC, said: "While the decision is with Ofgem and the OFT, a full investigation by the CMA has never looked more likely." Davey singled out British Gas for attention, noting that it had the largest share of the household gas supply market and charged some of the highest prices in the past three years. British Gas managing direc- tor Chris Weston defended its profits and said Britain had "one of the most competitive energy markets in the world". Owner Centrica, the only big six energy company to have substantial upstream gas inter- ests, "does more than any other organisation to secure gas and power for British customers", Weston said. MD Seven days... "It's a little bit rich to blame the big six suppliers" UK Green Building Council's riposte to Ed Davey's call on the industry to increase the uptake of energy efficiency, following the government's cuts to the Energy Company Obligation SSE's target profit margin, according to chief executive alistair Phillips-Davies. the company made a 4.2% margin on its domestic supply business last year, he said. 5% Number of SSePD homes without power last week after storms in southern england 22,000 44,250 Davey letter ups the chance of a competition referral Number of WPD homes without power in the southwest of england