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UTILITY Week 3rd July 2015

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UTILITY WEEK | 3RD - 9TH JULY 2015 | 3 Leader Ellen Bennett This week 4 | Seven days 6 | The Topic Customers trust TPIs over suppliers, but for how long? 14 Policy & Regulation 14 | News Capacity market open to interconnectors 17 | Market view Distributed generation makes the life of distribution network operators much more complex 19 Finance & Investment 19 | News Cost of opening water market tops £40m 20 Operations & Assets 20 | High viz Tollgrade Communications 21 | Pipe up Tony Stiff 23 Customers 23 | News Half-hourly charging for electricity delayed 24 | Analysis National Grid readies the ground for demand-side response 27 | Market view Falling energy prices do not always mean efficiency is improving 28 Markets & Trading 28 | News Drax earnings hit by falling gas prices 30 Community 30 | Reader of the week Clive Book, Wales & West Utilities 31 | Disconnector Let's talk about Big Brother "Big Brother to switch off your fridge: Power giants to make millions, but you must pay for 'sinister' technology." As tabloid headlines go, this 2013 example from the Daily Mail is a classic. It is also a stark warning, not so much to members of the public at risk from "sinister technology", but to National Grid as it seeks to create an energy revolution. "Be careful," it says, "because demand-side response is all too easy to wilfully misunderstand." National Grid is quietly seeking a revolution that will put demand-side measures at the heart of what was once a purely one-way energy system. It has surprised even itself with its burgeon- ing enthusiasm for demand-side measures, which it expects to be relying on more than 50 per cent of the time by as early as 2030 (see analysis, p24). Its intentions are laudable. Aer all, why pay the financial and environmental cost of generating power if you can simply reduce its use? Our entire society, business and domestic, takes the untram- melled guzzling of power, 24/7, as a fundamental right. And therein lies the problem. Not since the miners' strike of the 1970s has power been rationed; it's beyond imagining for most people. They might change their minds. With the cost of energy high and rising, business customers understand the logic of demand-side response – and domestic customers may well do the same. But there will be "Big Brother" headlines aplenty, and National Grid, together with the rest of the industry, needs to get out in front of them. It has got the conversation started, with the Power Responsive campaign launched earlier this month. However, as the campaign's website states, "it is a practical platform to engage business, suppliers, policy makers, and others". If those "others" don't include politi- cians, the general media, and the public at large, there's a problem. If the plan is to roll out significant demand-side response meas- ures on the general consumer side in five to ten years' time, aer focusing on business customers in the first instance, the conversa- tion needs to start now. Let's talk about Big Brother, let's have the discussion, and with time and common sense on its side, National Grid – and hopefully, the DNOs – might just win. Ellen Bennett, Editor ellen.bennett@fav-house.com GAS 28 | News Drax earnings hit by falling gas prices WATER 19 | News Cost of opening water market tops £40m 19 | News Profits increase at Wessex and Affinity 23 | News Anglian expands meter programme ELECTRICITY 14 | News Capacity market open to interconnectors 17 | Market view Distributed generation makes the life of distribution network operators much more complex 20 | High viz Tollgrade Communications 23 | News Half- hourly charging for electricity delayed 24 | Analysis National Grid readies the ground for demand-side response ENERGY 6 | Topic Customers trust TPIs over suppliers, but for how long? 19 | News Green Investment Bank stake to be sold 27 | Market view Falling energy prices do not always mean efficiency is improving 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

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