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UTILITY WEEK | 4TH - 10TH SEPTEMBER 2015 | 3 Leader Ellen Bennett This week 4 | Seven days 6 | People & Opinion 8 | Topic CMA investigations: utilities under attack on three fronts 14 Policy & Regulation 14 | News Further blow as Decc threatens to scrap FIT 14 | Political Agenda Politics this week with Mathew Beech 16 | Market view The business of renewables investment just got riskier 17 Finance & Investment 17 | News Bazalgette to deliver tunnel at lower cost 18 Operations & Assets 18 | High viz Wales & West Utilities Dyffryn Clydach offtake 19 | Pipe up Tom Grand, Achilles 21 Markets & Trading 21 | News Profits from gas-fired power could double 22 | Country profile Changing China 25 Customers 25 | News Water firms get debt collection freedoms 26 | Analysis Paul Massara quits Npower 28 Community 28 | Event Judges' tips for entering the Utility Week Awards 2015 31 | Disconnector Cryptosporidium is deadly for reputation It's not just the weather that's been terrible this summer. For United Utilities, it's been the holiday from hell, with the cryptosporidium bug set to infect the water company's reputation for a long time to come. The arguments about whether UU should have moved faster to deal with the pathogen will be played out for months – perhaps even before a Parliamentary inquiry. What's certain is that the com- pany faces a major financial hit as it compensates tens of thousands of angry customers, and an even higher reputational cost. As cafe owners and hoteliers were paraded on national news pro- grammes with their tales of losing thousands of pounds of income over the tourist high season, any chance of UU being the business retailer of choice when the market opens in 2017 were disappearing before its eyes. The company has been tight-lipped about its plans for market opening, though given its activity in the Scottish market and in the establishment of MOSL, it presumably has ambitions. But any rival incumbent or new entrant looking for growth will surely scent blood in the North West. Neither is it just United Utilities' reputation that has suffered. The problem for the wider water sector is that it only features in the news when something goes wrong – when bills go up, or in the rare instance of a public health scare such as this. Ofwat's laudable "trust and confidence" agenda took a step backwards this summer. Trust and confidence is in short supply at Npower, too, where chief executive Paul Massara finally took the rap for the company's ongoing customer service problems. A respected leader with bags of enthusiasm and some good ideas for the future of the industry, his big mistake came early in his tenure when he made a commitment on customer service he just couldn't keep. When the customer ser- vice problems hit the bottom line in this summer's results, his time was up. With Paul Coffey now in the driving seat, can we expect swingeing changes along the lines of British Gas/Eon, as Npower becomes the latest member of the big six to reinvent itself in the face of an uncertain future? Ellen Bennett, Editor ellen.bennett@fav-house.com GAS 18 | High viz Wales & West Utilities Dyffryn Clydach offtake 21 | News Profits from gas-fired power could double WATER 14 | News Incentives idea for abstraction on table 17 | News Bazalgette to deliver tunnel at lower cost 25 | News Water firms get debt collection freedoms ELECTRICITY 14 | News Further blow as Decc threatens to scrap FIT 16 | Market view The business of renewables investment just got riskier 17 | News Scottish Power confirms Longannet closure 19 | Pipe up Tom Grand, Achilles ENERGY 6 | Chief executive's view David Smith, ENA 8 | Topic CMA investigations: utilities under attack on three fronts 25 | News SSE sets four-week complaints goal 26 | Analysis Why it went wrong for Paul Massara at Npower 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