Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/565967
Clare Gabriel, health, safety and well-being leader at Severn Trent, will speak at the Utility Week Health & Safety Confer- ence 2015 in Birmingham on 24 November. What's the most important lesson/idea people should take away from your presen- tation? That we absolutely have to ensure we are aware of what we need to do to accommodate the ageing population in our workforces and not imagine things can remain the same. What has been you most suc- cessful or challenging experi- ence in your career and what did you learn from it? The most challenging experi- ence was moving across from the HSE, where I was usually evaluating risk assessments, to work for an organisation where suddenly I had to write them. It was my steepest learning curve ever. Definitely a case of People & Opinion Utility Week community Speaker's Corner Clare Gabriel, health, safety and well-being leader at Severn Trent wishing I had done it the other way round! Successful… that's a hard one. Surviving two weeks working in Kazakhstan (a truly astonishing place) where I was delivering the NEBOSH interna- tional Diploma through an inter- preter – and all the delegates passing despite only two having English as a first language, prob- ably stands out! Identify five people you would invite to your dream dinner party and why? David Attenborough – my absolute hero from when I was a child. I have always been fascinated by the natural world and have learnt most about it from him. Lisa Tarbuck – she is just so lively and I love her Radio programme. Bill Bailey – he makes me laugh but is also hugely philo- sophical. Roald Dahl – one of my favourite authors ever and I am so enjoying rediscovering them through the eyes of my son. AP McCoy – the jockey. He is such a brave, inspirational sportsman. Name four items you keep on your desk/with you at work that reveal something about you: A pot of porridge. I'm always hungry. A picture of my son and part- ner, to remind me to get home on time each day. My iphone. Without it I am totally lost in so many ways. My work book. It is my constant companion at work, holding all my notes from meetings. The main event The Utility Week Health & Safety Conference 2015 takes place on 24 November at the Holiday Inn, Birmingham City Centre. Keynote speakers include: • Adam Gosnold, Executive Director, Morrison Utility Services • Chris Clarke, Director of Asset Management and HS&E, Wales & West Utilities • Karl Simons, Head of Safety, Health and Wellbeing, Thames Water • Nikki Kemmery, Head of Health and Safety, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water • Teresa Budworth Chief Executive, NEBOSH For more information, go to: www.uw-hs.net UTILITY WEEK | 4TH - 10TH SEPTEMBER 2015 | 7 CfD delay is the "worst of all worlds" for investors: EMR architect Jonathan Brearley wrote to raise concerns about the way in which government policy has been "chipping away" at investor confidence, but also to advise inves- tors to "get smarter at anticipating where government may go next". He gave the following rules of thumb: • If spending is too high there will be cuts to the LCF budget as it is means that government needs to act. The choice is simple, increase the budget or cut spending. Most likely, in today's political climate is cuts, so you need to work out where they are most likely to fall and what this means before and after 2020. • Taxes are not reliable. I know this is hard for investors to under- stand, but government sees tax in a different way to other incen- tives. To retrospectively cut the RO or CfD rates is to break the golden rule of grandfathering. To cut a carbon tax or to remove an exemption is not considered in the same way. Therefore, when projecting your future, you have little choice but to heavily dis- count any and all revenues that come from tax. • Politics is a fundamental part of the energy market – and will be as long as there is a transition needed between our conven- tional thermal power plants and the low carbon alternative. Therefore, work to understand political scenarios and how you should respond as a result – do not wait to get 'surprised'. "Jumbled" network reporting needs overhaul: Conrad Steel of Citizens Advice wrote following the publication of Beginning to See the Light – a report that called for fresh focus on high quality, transparent reporting within the energy networks' RIIO framework. Steel said: "The network sector will never function well or be properly accountable without proactive, comparable performance reporting. Stakeholders need to be able to find out easily whether the networks are delivering what they have said they would… this is not happening yet." BEST OF ONLINE OPINION A good month for… Kevin Greenhorn and Tom Taylor: Greenhorn was appointed director of SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions in August while Taylor was confirmed as the new chair of the Con- sumer Council for Water's Welsh committee. A bad month for… Paul Massara: The chief executive of Npower was forced to stand down aer massive losses in its domestic business were reported in the company's half year results. See analysis, p26. Since we were last in print it has been: Greenhorn Taylor " "