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UTILITY WEEK | 30TH SEPTEMBER - 6TH OCTOBER 2016 | 3 Leader Jane Gray This week 4 | Seven days 6 | Interview Dale Vince, chief executive, Ecotricity 9 Policy & Regulation 9 | News 'Significant shortfalls' in fuel poverty funds 10 | Lobby All the news and gossip from the Labour party conference 12 | Analysis The state of play 100 days on from the referendum 14 | Market view Applying Britain's competitive sporting success to water companies 15 Finance & Investment 15 | News China Resources Gas bids for National Grid gas distribution arm 18 Operations & Assets 18 | High viz Dong Energy's Race Bank offshore windfarm 20 | Market view The water industry needs to broaden its approach to risk 21 | Market view The Internet of Things will present cyber criminals with an opportunity to extort money from consumers 23 Customers 23 | News Rebrand for Affinity Water business arm 24 | Analysis The water sector prepares for shadow market opening 26 | Event Debt collection conference 28 | Market view Billing accuracy 30 Community 31 | Disconnector Shadow water market will test new retailers Battle lines are drawn and manoeuvres have begun. No, I'm not referring to Labour's internal machinations or any podium posturing at party conferences – although we cover those too in our Lobby feature (see p10 in this issue). For water utilities, the most important exhibitions of power and competence in coming weeks will be those displayed on the field of shadow market opera- tion, which officially opens to combatants on 3 October. This strange limbo environment before bona fide competition in April 2017 is a critical one. Although extensive testing has been carried out on all market systems, shadow market operation will put these to test in a like-live environment for the first time. Likewise, while many of the new water retail companies have spent months preparing strategies, wooing business prospects and fine-tuning their value propositions, we have only really seen glimpses of these new utilities. Shadow market operation will lure them out into the open. And although it's likely that the most ambi- tious operators may keep some tactics in reserve for full market opening next year, the shadow market will allow opponents to view one another in action for the first time. Those close to preparations for non-domestic competition do not expect shadow market manoeuvres to be painless. In a recent review of MOSL's state of readiness, Ofwat expressed strong concerns about issues still to be addressed in the market's central operating system. The regulator and the market operator also observed that many companies have a lot more to do before they are ready to start serving real customers. In the shadows, it may become clear which hopeful business suppliers have invested well and which have not – those that show weakness, through failing IT systems, data handling niggles or process crashes, may find themselves at a disadvantage in the eyes of many of the most valuable customers when the market opens for real. • The business realities of delivering market change will be front and centre of discussion at this year's Utility Week Congress (18-19 October in Birmingham). The impact of new regulatory requirements, disruptive technologies and customer trends, on both energy and water utilities, will be explored. An aernoon workshop will be dedicated to examining early signals from the shadow water market. www.uw-congress.net Jane Gray, Acting Editor janegray@fav-house.com GAS 9 | News 'Significant shortfalls' in fuel poverty funds 15 | News China Resources Gas bids for National Grid gas distribution arm WATER 14 | Market view Applying Britain's competitive sporting success to water companies 20 | Market view The water industry needs to broaden its approach to risk 23 | News Rebrand for Affinity Water business arm 24 | Analysis The water sector prepares for shadow market opening ELECTRICITY 6 | Interview Dale Vince, chief executive, Ecotricity 18 | High viz Dong Energy's Race Bank offshore windfarm ENERGY 10 | Lobby All the news and gossip from the Labour party conference 12 | Analysis The state of play 100 days on from the referendum 21 | Market view Cyber crime 26 | Event Debt collection conference Visit the Downloads section of the website TCS: Cloud Technology and UK Utilities http://bit.ly/2cSMTMt Schneider Electric: Discover Premset, the new generation of MV switchgear http://bit.ly/2cSNttw CGI: Energy Flexibility Transforming The Power System By 2030 http://bit.ly/2bR3zXB