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UTILITY WEEK | 20TH - 26TH MAY 2016 | 3 Leader Jane Gray This week 4 | Seven days 6 | People & Opinion 8 | Interview Philip Graham, chief executive, National Infrastructure Commission 13 Policy & Regulation 13 | News National Grid singled out for Ofgem MPR 14 | Market view Water competition will change the customer relationship 15 Finance & Investment 15 | News Tideway given largest ever loan for water 16 | Market view Stay on the right side of reporting under Remit 17 | Analysis Can EPR ever deliver? 18 Operations & Assets 18 | High viz ECS Engineering Services pump valve in Wales 20 | Analysis Grid level storage on the cusp 22 | Market view Finding your way around GIS systems 23 | Market view The data explosion and sustainability forecasting 25 Customers 25 | News Half-hourly metering boost for storage 27 | Analysis Ofgem wields the big stick over fines 28 | Market view The cost of the government's energy policy decisions 30 Community 31 | Disconnector Pull out all the stops for electricity storage It's been an incredible couple of weeks for the energy sector's pet technology: energy storage. The uptick in investment announce- ments, strategic partnership agreements and product launches has been truly remarkable and reflects a growing community, including high net worth "angels", entrepreneurs and technology behemoths who are increasingly willing to place bets on energy storage playing a significant role in our future energy system – a much bigger and more varied role than many industry experts might have predicted even a short year ago, and certainly much sooner than most would have guessed. But it's not quite plane sailing yet. Widely recognised barriers to cost-effective operation of energy storage still exist, and policymak- ers and the regulator must move swily, not only to address them, but to do so in a way that co-ordinates with other changes and demands on an increasingly complex and dynamic energy system. Failing to do so could turn today's investment and demonstration zeal into a bubble, which will either gradually deflate of burst, damaging companies and denying the energy system a tool it badly needs in order to achieve decarbonisation in a secure and sustain- able way. Progress is, happily, being made to address barriers to the deployment of energy storage. A Decc-Ofgem consultation on this is ongoing and due to come up with a list of proposed changes in the spring of 2017. Once this is done, the next and more challenging step will be enacting those proposed changes with alacrity. What is less easy to identify is the extent to which the consulta- tion is looking sideways, to make sure that its improved mechanisms for ownership and operation of storage will mesh with the evolu- tion of the aggregator market, demand-side solutions, peer-to-peer energy trading and the uptake of electric vehicles, for instance. Lack of co-ordination and clarity on how these interdependent elements fit together will only lead to market forces creating unwieldy work-arounds, which would be both inefficient and opaque – not ideal at a time when the energy market is already struggling to be more transparent. One key resource that could help Decc and Ofgem face up to this challenge is the Future Power System Architecture report, which is now awaiting publication. Jane Gray, Acting Editor JaneGray@fav-house.com GAS 8 | Interview Philip Graham, chief executive, National Infrastructure Commission 23 | Market view The data explosion and sustainability forecasting WATER 14 | Market view Water competition will change the customer relationship 15 | News Tideway given largest ever loan for water 18 | High viz ECS Engineering Services pump valve in Wales ELECTRICITY 13 | News National Grid singled out for Ofgem MPR 17 | Analysis Can EPR ever deliver? 20 | Analysis Grid level storage on the cusp 25 | News Half- hourly metering boost for storage ENERGY 15 | Stock watch EDF 16 | Market view Stay on the right side of reporting under Remit 22 | Market view Finding your way around GIS systems 27 | Market view Ofgem wields the big stick over fines 28 | Market view The cost of energy policy decisions Visit the Downloads section of the website Wipro: Digitisation and the Internet of Things http://bit.ly/1LbI3Jt Achilles: How can utility suppliers get noticed by big industry buyers? http://bit.ly/1KaByWW Aeris: Water Meters and the Internet of Things. http://bit.ly/1rEqcT0