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4 | 6TH - 12TH NOVEMBER 2015 | UTILITY WEEK National media Developer services league table revealed Water UK has published its developer services report, measuring to what extent each WASC and WOC met its targets for Q2 (July to September). 100% Dee Valley Water and Portsmouth Water topped the list for water services. 100% Welsh Water and Yorkshire Water ranked highest for sewerage. 66% Affinity Water scored lowest for water services. 24% Affinity showed the biggest improvement since Q1. 90% Wessex Water was the worst performer for sewerage. Beverly Hills fined for wasting water Beverly Hills is among four cities whose water utilities have been fined for not forcing residents to conserve enough water during California's unrelenting four-year drought. The wealthy Los Angeles area municipality was fined $61,000, making it the only com- munity not located in a desert to be given penalties, the California State Water Resources Board said. The Independent, 1 November Australian clean energy investment fell 31% under Tony Abbott Uncertainty over the future of Australia's renewable energy target under the Abbott government pre- cipitated a 31 per cent drop in clean energy investment in Australia, according to the annual report of the Clean Energy Finance Corpora- tion. The CEFC's chair, banker Jillian Broadbent, noted in a foreword to the report that the 2014/15 financial year "saw an all-time record of around US$320 billion of global investment in clean energy". By contrast, "Australian clean energy investment fell by 31 per cent". The Guardian, 2 November Ithaca Energy becomes first UK oil group to have credit lines cut Ithaca Energy has become the first UK oil company to have its available credit cut following the devaluation of its assets by its banks. The North Sea oil explorer announced on Monday that its lending banks had cut the amount it can borrow from £625 million to £515 million aer deciding its assets were no longer worth as much as they used to be. Ithaca, like many companies in the North Sea, has borrowed heavily in recent years and has about $690 million of net debt, with a market value of about $280 million. Financial Times, 2 November STORY BY NUMBERS National Grid names new chief executive Seven days... "Poorly informed and fundamentally wrong" Anti-Corbyn MP Jamie Reed is set to join the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee after resigning his front bench role in a letter that criticised the Labour leader's anti-nuclear views. £500m Cost to consumers of proposals to abandon onshore wind, according to Citizens Advice report. N ational Grid confirmed on 3 November that current chief executive Steve Holliday will step down, to be replaced by executive director of UK operations, John Pettigrew. Pettigrew will take the top spot aer joining National Grid almost 25 years ago and holding senior positions across various business units in the UK and the US. The transmission operator said Holliday would remain as chief executive until the end of March next year and on the board until July 2016, "to sup- port John with the transition". Pettigrew was tipped in the national press as one of two likely candidates to take the lead role in the company and his long-standing experience is expected to assure investors of some "continuity" for the £35 billion firm. National Grid chairman Peter Gershon said the nominations committee was "unanimous in its support" for Pettigrew, given his experience covering the company's UK and US opera- tions. "He was the architect of National Grid's strategy for ensuring the delivery and outperformance under the UK regulatory regime, RIIO. He also played a pivotal role in introducing improvements and demonstrating strong leadership within both the US electricity transmission and distribution businesses," Gershon said. But Jefferies utilities analyst Peter Atherton said in a note fol- lowing the announcement that "challenges remain". "First, to structurally resolve the long-term underperformance of the US regulated businesses. Second, to navigate the dif- ficult and highly politicised UK energy market. Third, resist all temptations to revert to the expansionary capital-destroying strategies of the mid-2000s," said Atherton. JA