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4 | 21ST - 27TH OCTOBER 2016 | UTILITY WEEK SMEs complacent about power losses A "worryingly small number" of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are complacent about power losses, according to a survey of more than 500 owners and senior manag- ers by British Gas Business. 17% Proportion of SMEs that believe gas and power losses are a threat to their business. 15% Percentage that think they are a greater threat than data security issues. 2 Average number of working days lost over the past five years due to electricity and gas losses. 4/5 Proportion of businesses without testing procedures to reduce the risk of outages. STORY BY NUMBERS Wastewater resilience is the 'ugly sister' of supply Seven days... T he resilience of the waste- water sector in the UK is treated as the "ugly sister" of the water supply part of the industry. Speaking at Utility Week Congress in Birmingham, Sarah Hendry, director for water and flood risk management at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said most of the focus from the sector was on water supply resilience. She said: "It does feel a lit- tle bit like the ugly sister, and actually we need to make sure there is just as much focus [on wastewater] as there is on the water supply business." Hendry told delegates more information needs to be gath- ered before work can be done to boost the long-term resilience of the wastewater sector. "We don't yet have a firm evidence base on which to plant the types of investment and gal- vanise the right people around the table," she said. "Compared to water supply, there is quite a gap that needs to be made up." Hendry praised the work being done by the sector on developing and improving the resilience of the UK's water supply for the long term by partnership working. She said that a similar approach should be adopted for wastewater and that the sector needed to show "leadership". "We expect companies to take a long-term perspective and have plans in place even though this is not specifically man- dated. Plus, Ofwat is looking at how to encourage this in PR19. "Understanding future needs is complex as so many actions contribute to problems and to solutions, and it is a very local- ised issue." MB "Transitions are hard because there are winners and losers" Tempus Energy chief executive Sara Bell tells the Energy and Climate Change Committee why the spread of new technologies is progressing so slowly. National media BP to decide on first green energy invest- ment for five years BP is considering its first signifi- cant new investment in renewable energy for five years, as it prepares to make a decision on expanding its US wind power business by the end of this year. The US production tax credit for wind power will be reduced at the end of the year, and BP is looking at making a commit- ment before then to benefit from the higher rate. The investment could mean expanding its US wind- farms or upgrading its turbines to higher-capacity equipment. Financial Times, 16 October Power stations to get early warning against jellyfish invasions Invasions of jellyfish have proved adept at shutting down power plants in recent years. But an early warning tool is now in develop- ment to alert power stations to incoming swarms, which block the cooling water intakes of coastal plants. EDF's Torness nuclear power plant in Scotland was closed for a week in 2011 aer a mass of moon jellyfish invaded and the company is now working with researchers from the University of Bristol to tackle the problem. The Guardian, 13 October Iran aims for oil and gas fields tender in November Iran next month will launch its first new-style tender to develop oil and gas fields since the liing of international sanctions, a leading oil official has said, aer months of internal discussions over the terms, intended to be more alluring to foreign companies. Opec's third-largest oil pro- ducer hopes to revive its energy sector aer the liing of the sanctions in January. Reuters, 17 October