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UTILITY WEEK | 24Th - 30Th OcTObEr 2014 | 3 Leader Jillian Ambrose This week 4 | Seven days 6 | People & Opinion 8 | Interview Martin baggs, chief executive, Thames Water 12 | Beyond smart metering can the traditional utility business model survive? 17 Policy & Regulation 17 | News Decc admits need for smart 'policy view' 19 Finance & Investment 19 | News SSE rating improves with networks focus 20 | Analysis What does EU approval for hinkley c mean for EDF? 21 | Blog Nothing sure as green taxes 21 | Investor view Martin brough 22 Operations & Assets 22 | High viz South West Water 24 | Market view The energy-water nexus 25 | Market view Mapping the data universe 26 Customers 26 | News comparison sites 'hiding best deals' 27 | Market view Split data suppresses service 28 Markets & Trading 28 | Market view UK backs 2017 reform of carbon market 30 Community 30 | Reader of the week Paul Witton Dauris, Gemserv 31 | Disconnector Capacity margins get even slimmer Let's spare a thought for the number crunchers at National Grid this week. Just days before the transmission system operator was due to release its much anticipated supply-demand outlook for the coming winter, RWE's 1.4GW Didcot B gas-fired power plant dramatically took itself out of the game (see news, p4). And what a game it has become. The fire is expected to put one of Didcot's two units out of action for a long time, and it comes aer winter capacity margins have already been reduced by a summer of unprecedented outages. And all this at a time when supply was predicted to dwindle anyway as old plant was taken offline. National Grid has no doubt been checking and double checking its sums during what has proved to be a summer of very bad luck: first Heysham and Hartlepool plants were taken offline, then their return to service was delayed, and we learn that when they do it will be at reduced capacity for two years (see p28). The fact that the Didcot fire is the third at a UK power plant this year can really only add salt to the wound. Politicians have been quick to assure us that National Grid is equipped with the tools needed to balance the system and keep us all from stockpiling candles. But while this might be true, the way that National Grid has opted to use these tools shows just how this winter's capacity crunch has caught us offguard. For years, analysts have pinpointed the winter of 2015/16 as the looming crunch point. But as fate and fire would have it, margins this winter may be just as meagre. National Grid's demand-side measures, for example, were designed to be tested this winter at a modest 330MW as a prelude to next winter's crunch when 1,800MW of grid demand could be held back through contracts with major energy users (p28). Although the winter outlook will no doubt show that National Grid's supply-side measures will bring forward the necessary capa- city, once again the UK's grid will rely more heavily on securing supply than balancing demand. Surely aer the summer we've had we can agree that this is a paradigm that needs changing? Jillian Ambrose, News editor jillian.ambrose@fav-house.com GAS 27 | Market view Split data suppresses service WATEr 8 | Interview Martin baggs, chief executive, Thames Water 22 | High viz South West Water's Ivybridge tunnel 19 | Stock watch Severn Trent 24 | Market view The energy-water nexus ELEcTrIcITY 19 | News SSE rating improves with networks focus 20 | Analysis What does EU approval for hinkley c mean for EDF? 28 | News UK backs 2017 reform of carbon market ENErGY 6 | Chief executive view Dermot Nolan, Ofgem 12 | Topic beyond smart metering: will the traditional utility business model survive? 17 | News Decc admits need for smart 'policy view' 21 | Investor view Martin brough 23 | Pipe up Getting smart with consumer devices 25 | Market view Mapping the data universe 26 | News comparison sites 'hiding best deals' Knowledge worth keeping Visit the Downloads section of Utility Week's website http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/ downloads Smartest Energy: Energy Entrepreneurs Report http://bit.ly/1kzddrn IBM: Smarter Asset Management http://bit.ly/Xx7myx