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UTILITY WEEK | 30TH OCTOBER - 5TH NOVEMBER 2015 | 3 Leader Ellen Bennett This week 4 | Seven days 6 | Interview Nick Winser CBE, chair, Energy Systems Catapult 10 Policy & Regulation 10 | News RIIO must evolve, says former National Grid executive 11 | View from the top Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan sets out his agenda 12 | Lobby Party conference round-up 17 Finance & Investment 17 | News YW to spend £30m eradicating stench 18 | Analysis Will Hinkley be a white elephant? 21 | Market view Investor confidence is key 22 Operations & Assets 22 | High viz The Atkins CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 23 | Expert view Elgin 24 | Market view New model answers 25 Customers 25 | News CMA to assess future of evergreen tariffs 26 Markets & Trading 26 | News Winter supply crunch 'open to exploitation' 27 Community 27 | Event Utility Congress 2015 round-up 31 | Disconnector A cut in gas tariffs is long overdue The message from Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan is clear: gas suppliers should cut prices. Writing exclusively for Utility Week (see p11), Nolan highlights the continuing fall in wholesale gas prices – and asks where the price cuts that should logically accompany them have been. "Maybe the suppliers are trying to prove the CMA right," he says, tongue-in-cheek, referring to the CMA's conclusion that large suppliers are exploiting customers on standard variable tariffs. This is a golden opportunity. Energy suppliers, so long public enemy number one, could get out in front of the CMA's final recom- mendations, cut gas prices to reflect falling costs, and give consum- ers a few extra pounds in their pockets as Christmas approaches. Sure, there's the old argument that gas suppliers buy their wholesale gas in advance on hedged prices, but surely aer six years of falling costs, that's wearing thin? Energy suppliers could look to their cousins in the water industry for inspiration. Nearly all the water companies chose not to take their allowed price increase in the final year of the last regulatory cycle, following some sledgehammer hints from regulator Ofwat. Most have gone on to cut prices in real terms from this year. Mean- while, water companies have maintained their broadly positive public profile and the politicians have kept their hands off. Is that a coincidence? Unlikely. Ofgem is issuing its own sledgehammer hint this week – and energy companies would do well to listen. • And so Hinkley hits the front pages again, with the long-awaited confirmation of Chinese funding to get the deal off the ground. But while the blanket national coverage of the new nuclear revolution has focused almost entirely on the foreign ownership aspect, the real risks may be closer to home. As Jillian Ambrose explains on p18, the chances are the technology will be outdated by the time it finally comes online – and that's if you take the very optimistic view that it will be delivered on schedule. Meanwhile, the UK will have had to take alternative measures to mitigate the looming capac- ity crunch forecast for the mid-2020s, and as EDF and its Chinese partners count their profits, the country will be lumbered with a very expensive white elephant. Ellen Bennett, Editor ellen.bennett@fav-house.com GAS 12 | Lobby Party conference round-up 24 | Market view New model answers WATER 17 | News YW to spend £30m eradicating stench 22 | High viz The Atkins CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 23 | Expert view Elgin 27 | Event Utility Congress 2015 round-up ELECTRICITY 6 | Interview Nick Winser CBE, chair, Energy Systems Catapult 10 | News Lords defy the government in vote on the closure of RO 18 | Analysis Will Hinkley be a white elephant? 25 | News Water Mousehold closed after taste issues 26 | News Winter supply crunch 'open to exploitation' ENERGY 11 | View from the top Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan sets out his agenda 21 | Analysis Investor confidence is key 25 | News CMA to assess future of evergreen tariffs Ciena: Utility to utelco: the telecommunications opportunity. http://bit.ly/1NTZVsX Knowledge worth Keeping Visit the DownloaDs section of Utility week's website http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/ downloads opower: Eon UK rebuilt trust with cus- tomer engagement and digital transformation. http://bit.ly/1M8xxd3