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UtILItY WEEK | 21st - 27th March 2014 | 21 Operations & Assets its energy needs, significantly cutting its annual energy bill and improving the plant's energy security. Runcorn Phase 2 is scheduled to accept RDF later this year, with takeover of the entire facility expected in late 2014. The total project represents a £452 million investment, creating 80 permanent jobs within the facility as well as having employed up to 1,100 people during peak construction. Once fully operational, the power plant will process up to 850,000 tonnes of RDF each year. If you have an asset or project you would like to see featured in this slot, email: paul.newton@fav-house.com Pipe up Ian Codling T he seemingly relentless onslaught of flooding this winter reminds us of the drivers behind the Floods Directive in 2007, which required member states to put flood risk management planning on a statutory basis. They committed to undertake a preliminary flood risk assessment by 2011 to identify the river basins and associated coastal areas at risk of flooding. Where significant flood risk was predicted, they had to draw up flood risk maps by 2013 and establish flood risk man- agement plans focused on prevention, protection and preparedness by 2015. UK administrations have produced their flood risk maps and will use these to develop Flood Risk Manage- ment Plans by 2015. The development of these plans will involve active collaboration between local authorities, water companies, drainage boards and the environmental regula- tors, who all have a part to play in flood risk management. Planning at the catchment scale is also fundamental to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Member states are currently developing so-called second cycle river basin manage- ment plans that will detail the further improvements to be made to inland and coastal waters by 2021. Utility companies are actively engaging in the development of these plans, where measures to control abstraction and discharges, in particular, are being proposed. With these two catchment-scale planning activities happening concurrently, it makes sense that there is co-ordination. This is both anticipated and expected in the requirements of the parent directives. The quest for multiple benefits from a single intervention is the Holy Grail for catchment managers. The Commission is running a programme of compli- ance assessment focusing on the WFD programmes of measures from the first cycle river basin management plans. It intends to produce an overview report in 2014 that will help member states embed good practice. For the Floods Directive, flood hazard and flood risk maps must be reported to the Commission during March 2014. A process of compliance assessment during 2014 will determine whether the maps are fit for purpose. Compliance with EU directives can come across as an overly legalistic activity. But the underlying principles of the directives involving sound co-ordinated planning at the catchment scale, understood and agreed by all stakeholders, offers a basis for water management that can help protect us from extremes of weather and sup- port sustainable economic growth. Ian Codling, senior consultant, WRc "The underlying principles of sound co-ordinating planning of water management are agreed by all stakeholders." Co-ordination is anticipated and expected in the requirements of the parent directives