Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 18Th - 24Th march 2016 | 3 Leader Ellen Bennett This week 4 | Seven days 6 | Special report Innovation and utilities 10 Policy & Regulation 10 | News Lack of new nuclear would leave 'big hole' 13 | Market view The EU's remit regulations are starting to bite 14 Finance & Investment 14 | News Networks to retain innovation profits 15 | Analysis Eon and rWE's disastrous decade 17 | Head to head For and against hinkley Point c 18 Operations & Assets 18 | High viz Southern Water 20 | Analysis The challenges for Northern Ireland Water 22 | Market view how to better manage outages 23 | Market view choosing the right storage 24 Customers 24 | News Wascs get ready for market opening 25 | Market view changes to the rules regarding in-home smart meter displays 26 | Analysis The cma's long-awaited proposals to reform the energy market 28 Markets & Trading 28 | News Energy traders need remit clarity 29 | Analysis UK water market developments 30 Community 31 | Disconnector CMA's provisional remedies lack bite Cast your mind back two years, when energy suppliers were calling for a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation to "clear the air", in the wake of Ed Miliband's price freeze pledge and continued rises in bills. When the CMA investigation began, everything was in play, from price controls to a forced break-up of the vertically integrated big six. The world today is a very different place. The Conservative government, without a coalition partner to appease, has returned to its free market roots – just witness its push for domestic competition in the water sector. Miliband's price freeze promise is as forgotten as he is, and bills – gas bills at least – are now falling in response to historic lows in the wholesale price. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the market has changed in response not to political forces but to economic ones. Competition has flourished with twice as many independent suppliers today as two years ago, and double the rate of switching. The once all-powerful energy behemoths, meanwhile, are on their knees, forced to radically alter their business structures as they haemorrhage money. So what's a competition watchdog to do? On the one hand, the CMA had to prove its mettle, appease the tabloids and be seen to do something. On the other, it had to recognise the changed economic and political landscape. The shonky compromise it has come up with satisfies no-one – not even its own panel, one of whom (Martin Cave) refused to sign off on the findings. There are two main headlines to the CMA's provisional remedies: the price cap for prepayment meter customers and the data sharing. The assumption that prepay and vulnerable customers are one and the same seems condescending at best, ignorant at worst. There are questions over the implementation of the price cap, the value of partial price regulation for a self-selecting group of customers, and the £50 headroom with which it will be set. The data- sharing solution, meanwhile, has already provoked widespread concern that customers (including vulnerable customers) will be bombarded with junk mail as suppliers encourage them to switch. More satisfactory is its repeated promise to end the four-tariff rule. This at least will allow suppliers to return innovative and bespoke tariffs to the market. As for the rest of the remedies, sound and fury signify little. •  Utility Week will be taking a break from print on Good Friday. We'll be back the week a"er – and as ever, go to www.utilityweek.co.uk for all the latest news and analysis. Ellen Bennett, Editor, ellen.bennett@fav-house.com GaS 24 | News Sell or lease meter assets, says Ofgem WaTEr 14 | News Welsh Water parent to be restructured 18 | High viz Southern Water 20 | Analysis Northern Ireland Water 24 | News Wascs get ready for market opening 29 | Analysis UK water market developments ELEcTrIcITY 10 | News milestones met by eight cfD projects 17 | Head to head For and against hinkley Point c ENErGY 10 | News Lack of new nuclear would leave 'big hole' 13 | Market view remit regulations are starting to bite 14 | News Networks to retain innovation profits 15 | Analysis Eon and rWE's disastrous decade 22 | Market view managing outages 23 | Market view choosing the right storage 25 | Market view In-home smart meter displays 26 | Analysis The cma's long- awaited proposals to reform the energy market 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

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