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UTILITY WEEK | 19TH - 25TH JUNE 2015 | 3 Leader Ellen Bennett This week 4 | Seven days 6 | People & Opinion 8 | Interview Pamela Taylor OBE, Water UK 13 Policy & Regulation 13 | News GDNs poised to 'help facilitate shale gas' 14 | Market view If fracking is to succeed, the public must be brought on board 15 | Analysis What exactly does resilience mean for the water sector? 16 | Market view Salt cavern stores of hydrogen could revolutionise green energy 17 Finance & Investment 17 | News Investor fears over CMA probe diminish 19 | Analysis Gas storage projects are waiting on the right incentives 20 Operations & Assets 20 | High viz EDF Energy 21 | Pipe up Paul Davies, IET 22 | Game changer Flow Group's micro-CHP domestic boiler 24 | Market view Outsourcing is being driven by customer service imperatives 27 Customers 27 | News Peers call for revamp of smart meter rollout 28 | Market view Energy efficiency in the doldrums 30 Community 30 | Reader of the week Steve Cox, Electricity North West 31 | Disconnector A single leader would be a smart move At last, we're hearing some sense on smart meters. Baroness McDon- agh, chair of Smart Energy GB, has broken ranks this week with a public call for an Olympics-style delivery body to oversee the creak- ing rollout, complete with a chief executive to drive it forward, as David Higgins did at the Olympics Delivery Authority. You can read her exclusive article for Utility Week on page six. Given McDonagh's role chairing the body that is responsible for raising public awareness of the rollout – crucial for its success – her views should carry weight with the government. The smart meter rollout has been relatively low on the political agenda for the past couple of years, as affordability and customer service concerns have swamped all else. As McDonagh says, "politicians on all sides haven't yet grasped the scale of the programme" – but with meter installers set to visit every home in the country over the next five years, and the huge potential for multiple call-outs, delays, faults and frustrations, they will wake up to reality pretty quickly. With a new government in power and the rollout set to begin in earnest at the end of this year, the moment is ripe for the creation of an overarching body with full transparency and accountability. There are currently dozens of interested parties allied to the rollout, but no one clear leader. As McDonagh says, "we need to be able to name the chief executive with whom the buck stops". There would be other advantages to having a David Higgins-style leader. For example, a chief executive could act on such eminently sensible suggestions as that made to Utility Week by Lord Whitty, for the smart meter rollout to be used as an opportunity to carry out an energy efficiency assessment on every home in the UK. It is a pragmatic suggestion that could be relatively simple to implement, if there was a single body running the rollout, maximising the benefit of smart meters for individual customers and the overall effort to limit carbon emissions. A single leader would also have the clout and the nous to ask some fundamental questions about the structure of the rollout. Such as, why are suppliers running the show? And is it too late to put the distribution networks in charge of a geographically led rollout? Now there's a thought… Ellen Bennett, Editor ellen.bennett@fav-house.com GAS 14 | Market view If fracking is to succeed, the public must be brought on board 19 | Analysis Gas storage projects are waiting on the right incentives WATER 7 | Interview Pamela Taylor OBE, Water UK 25 | Analysis What exactly does resilience mean for the water sector? ELECTRICITY 20 | High viz EDF Energy cavity wall insulation 21 | Pipe up Paul Davies, IET 22 | Game changer Flow Energy's micro-CHP domestic boiler ENERGY 13 | News GDNs poised to 'help facilitate shale gas' 16 | Market view Salt cavern stores of hydrogen could revolutionise green energy 17 | News Investor fears over CMA probe diminish 24 | Market view Outsourcing is being driven by customer service imperatives 27 | News Peers call for revamp of smart meter rollout 28 | Market view Energy efficiency in the doldrums Knowledge worth keeping Visit the Downloads section of Utility Week's website http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/ downloads CGI: Market Ready? UK water companies in countdown for competition http://bit.ly/1EZCrbl Opower: Moments that Matter http://bit.ly/1BOm5SV