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UTILITY WEEK | 13TH - 19TH FEBRUARY 2015 | 3 Leader Ellen Bennett This week 4 | Seven days 6 | Interview Jacob Tompkins, managing director, Waterwise 10 Policy & Regulation 10 | News Thames 'pushing' for water planning policy 12 | Analysis Bristol Water's chances of success at the CMA 14 | Executive view An MEUC user group will focus on the politics of energy and water 16 | Market view Suds should be for retrofit as well as new developments 17 Finance & Investment 17 | News UK's first tidal project gets £200 million in funding 18 | Analysis Utility dividends and yields 20 Operations & Assets 20 | High viz Turbogen 23 | Market view 3D modelling 25 Customers 25 | News Complaints fuelled by social media 26 | Market view The business energy market 27 | Market view Build trust by cutting waste 28 Markets & Trading 28 | News UK LNG imports soar as Asian price crashes 30 Community 30 | Reader of the week Carmen Snowdon, WRc 31 | Disconnector Ofwat hangs tough in brawl with Bristol Chances are the Ofwat top brass won't be shedding too many tears at the news, not wholly unexpected, that Bristol Water has rejected its price determination, forcing a referral to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). While this delays the conclusion of the long drawn out PR14 process, and creates extra work and risk, it also paints the regulator as a tough watchdog, doing battle to bring down bills for customers in Bristol by nearly a quarter, in the face of opposition from the water company. That's a handy image to have months before the election when its fellow regulator Ofgem is on the ropes. The regulator will also have its day in court; its chance to prove beyond doubt the robustness of its new approach to the price review, which it will no doubt relish. For Bristol, it's a "courageous" move – in the Sir Humphrey sense of the word. Water companies have seldom been to the competition authorities and when they have, they haven't come away with much (see analysis, p12). Bristol went to the Competition Commission last time round and, while it got more than Ofwat had been willing to give, it was still less than half the price rise it originally wanted, plus a lower cost of capital. It is not out of the question that the same could happen again, given the wider economic conditions. This week's move smacks of a company running out of options, having already been through one price cycle with considerably less than it wanted, and now facing a yawning £132 million gap between its sums and the regulator's. Bristol is confident in its argument that the regulator's modelling is flawed, although it is undermined some- what by the fact that other companies, including United Utilities and Thames, which also faced big gaps at the start of the negotiat- ing process, haves since fallen into line. The experts at the CMA will decide – but Bristol should be wary of ending up, like appellants before it, with "a bloody nose", to borrow a phrase from former Ofwat director general Sir Ian Byatt. Ellen Bennett, Editor ellen.bennett@fav-house.com GAS 28 | News UK LNG imports soar as Asian price crashes WATER 6 | Interview Jacob Tompkins, MD, Waterwise 10 | News Thames 'pushing' for water planning policy 12 | Analysis Bristol Water's chances of success at the CMA 16 | Market view Suds should be for retrofit as well as new developments 17 | News UK's first tidal project gets £200m ELECTRICITY 20 | High viz Turbogen 23 | Market view 3D modelling ENERGY 14 | Executive view New MEUC user group will focus on the politics of energy and water 18 | Market view The prospects for utility stock dividends and yields 19 | Investor view Peter Bachmann 21 | Pipe up Nicola Guest 25 | News Complaints fuelled by rise of social media 26 | Market view The business energy market 27 | Market view Build trust by cutting waste Knowledge worth keeping Visit the Downloads section of Utility Week's website http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/ downloads Salesforce: How the cloud can help meet business objectives http://bit.ly/1EFZjlj Rolta: White Paper: IT and OT: In Tune and On Time http://bit.ly/1qPuBgR