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UTILITY WEEK | 12TH - 18TH FEBRUARY 2016 | 3 Leader Ellen Bennett This week 4 | Seven days 6 | People & Opinion 9 | Topic A special report looking at the increasing importance of resilience to every facet of a utility's operations 17 Policy & Regulation 17 | News Competition nod for onshore transmission 18 | Analysis Which water companies are likely to follow Portsmouth Water and exit the retail market? 21 | Analysis Improving the Network Innovation Competition to increase take-up 23 Finance & Investment 23 | News Lack of CCS strategy risks climate targets 24 Operations & Assets 24 | High viz United Utilities 25 | Pipe up Singing the praises of Trailblazer Apprenticeships 26 Customers 26 | News Southern Water bills to fall by 2 per cent 26 | I am the customer Jo Causon 29 Markets & Trading 29 | Market view Energy suppliers must share wholesale gas price savings 30 Community 31 | Disconnector All change at British Gas – except prices It's been an interesting few weeks at Centrica/British Gas. The company, long the sleeping giant of the energy market, has been fairly quiet since chief executive Iain Conn announced a £1 billion strategy shi towards retail last summer. Presumably, grand vision announced, it's been getting its operations in order so that it can deliver – but jam tomorrow means little to the stock market, and the company's share price has suffered accordingly (news, p23). That said, there have been some interesting developments. First, the announcement of a restructure at British Gas, with three business units streamlined into two; hotshot Sarwjit Sambhi given the top job at the all-important home division; and an audacious raid on BG Group and BP for the new heads of E&P and technology and engineering respectively. With the company tight-lipped on the future of former senior staff at the three divisions, and what the restructure means for those 6,000 looming job losses, what wasn't said was perhaps more interesting than what was. Since then, the company has announced the sale of three wind- farms. It has also set out an initial 500 jobs to go – 90 of them at British Gas Business and the rest in its lo and cavity wall insulation business, which is being closed. On a smaller but perhaps signifi- cant scale, it has announced the handout of 20,000 free new boilers. All these moves are in line with the strategy Conn set out, as the company moves away from generation and focuses on building a market-leading retail business that capitalises on its unrivalled British Gas brand to become the public's energy partner of choice. Funny, then, that the company was one of just two members of the big six still holding out on price cuts as Utility Week went to press. Sure, the supplier was the only one to cut its gas prices last year, but public and political memories are short and with the Com- petition and Markets Authority's provisional remedies set to be laid out next month, the more competitive the market can prove itself, the better its chances of escaping radical intervention. Chances are, Centrica has a few more cards up its sleeve. We'll find out next week, when it reports its 2015 results and looks to the year ahead. • Do energy companies "suffer enough" for consistently poor customer satisfaction results? Ofgem partner Rob Salter-Church doesn't think so. You can see his comments, and the companies' own views on their performance, in Utility Week's exclusive video report. Visit: bit.ly/1V0p4Sm. Ellen Bennett, Editor ellen.bennett@fav-house.com GAS 29 | Market view Energy suppliers must share wholesale gas price savings WATER 18 | Analysis Which water companies are likely to follow Portsmouth Water and exit the retail market? 23 | News Mitsubishi to buy stake in South Staffordshire Group 24 | High viz United Utilities' Mancunian Way tunnel 26 | News Southern Water bills to fall by 2 per cent ELECTRICITY 17 | News Competition nod for onshore transmission 17 | News Wales stymied on new renewables 21 | Analysis Improving the Network Innovation Competition to increase take-up 23 | News Lack of CCS strategy risks climate targets ENERGY 25 | Pipe up Singing the praises of Trailblazer Apprenticeships 26 | News Apps to be included in smart meter trials Knowledge worth Keeping Visit the DownloaDs section of Utility week's website http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/ downloads Arcadis: Water sector innovation and perceptions of totex. http://bit.ly/1SaTP9F Achilles: How can utility suppliers get noticed by big industry buyers http://bit.ly/1KaByWW