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UTILITY WEEK | 23RD - 29TH OCTOBER 2015 | 3 Leader Ellen Bennett This week 4 | Seven days 6 | People & Opinion 8 Policy & Regulation 8 | News MP calls for UU to face government inquiry 11 | Utility Week Lobby The SNP party conference 12 | Market view Real world energy scenario modelling 13 | Market view Be aware of telemarketing rules 14 | Market view The anatomy of City Deals 16 Finance & Investment 16 | News Energy infrastructure spend hits £15bn 17 | Analysis Is Hinkley doomed to fail? 18 | Analysis Winter outlook 20 Operations & Assets 20 | High viz Yorkshire Water 22 | Market view The tools and skills needed to foster innovation 23 | Market view ENA's Powering Improvement initiative 25 Customers 25 | News SIM scores 'may take priority over service' 27 | Market view Price comparison websites 28 Markets & Trading 28 | News SSE to return 735MW gas plant for winter 30 Community 31 | Disconnector Decc is skating on thin ice Hard times for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc). The unprecedented intervention of a UN grandee this week over the government's swingeing cuts to renewables subsidies is just the latest blow in a series of knocks to a department that is looking increasingly vulnerable. The UN's chief environment scientist, professor Jacquie McGlade, broke international protocol when she publicly questioned the UK's cuts in renewables subsidies, high- lighting the country's apparent shi away from clean energy just as the rest of the world moves towards it. You expect the industries affected to howl at the cuts, but this is something altogether more concerning, and suggests there could be red faces in the UK camp at the UN's summit on climate change in Paris from 30 November. Meanwhile, the department's flagship policy, Electricity Market Reform (EMR), is also looking shaky. According to exclusive analysis from PA Consulting we publish this week on page 19, the glut of power station closures next spring will leave National Grid having to produce 6GW of capacity through the supplemental balancing reserve next year to protect margins – more than twice the 2.4GW it procured this year. PA's conclusion? "EMR is failing". It's not just renewables that face death by a thousand cuts. Decc itself has fallen victim to the Treasury's knife, with budget cuts of up to 90 per cent leaving its remaining staff stretched to the limit and rumours that the department is struggling to deliver its basic workload, let alone any extras. Meanwhile, staff are having to walk the tightrope between the Treasury, the department's committed policies and stakeholder relationships, and the politics of a Con- servative government that campaigned on ending onshore wind and has the awkward squad of its own right wing to appease. This makes conversations about subsidies difficult, to say the least. It's not hard to understand why Decc ministers were so thin on the ground at the recent Conservative party conference. In their absence, the old whispers that the department itself could be for the chop resurfaced, with the idea of winding energy into the Depart- ment for Business, Innovation & Skills (Bis) and climate change into the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) touted as a sure-fire money saver. Apparently, Decc is due to clarify its policy ahead of Paris; for its own sake as well as the industry's, that clarity cannot come a moment too soon. Ellen Bennett, Editor ellen.bennett@fav-house.com GAS 13 | Market view Be aware of telemarketing rules 28 | News SSE to return 735MW gas plant for winter WATER 6 | CEO's view Simon Cocks, Affinity Water 8 | News MP calls for United Utilities to face government inquiry 20 | High viz Yorkshire Water 25 | News SIM scores 'may take priority over service' ELECTRICITY 17 | Analysis Is Hinkley doomed to fail? 18 | Analysis Winter outlook ENERGY 11 | Utility Week Lobby The SNP party conference 12 | Market view Real world energy scenario modelling 14 | Market view The anatomy of City Deals 16 | News Energy infrastructure spend hits £15bn 22 | Market view The tools and skills needed to foster innovation 23 | Market view ENA's Powering Improvement initiative 27 | Market view Price comparison websites 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