Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 4Th - 10Th NovEmbEr 2016 | 13 Policy & Regulation This week Time-out urged in smart meter rollout Labour shadow minister says 2020 deadline is 'unfeasible' and calls for halt to carry out review The smart meter rollout must be paused in order to review its timescales, feasibility and imple- mentation, the shadow energy minister has insisted. Alan Whitehead told Utility Week that the current 2020 dead- line for smart meters is "not fea- sible", and that carrying on will "almost certainly cause further delays and complications", a•er the Data Communica- tions Company (DCC), the company creating the smart meter network, delayed going live with it in September. The DCC has since overrun the official contingency period for the network launch, undermining the rollout targets for smart metering in the UK. Whitehead said the causes of delay should have been anticipated and suggested a networks-led rollout may have been more successful. "I think we are either in the position where you've got to take a fairly deep breath, pause, and only fire the starting gun when you can be sure that things will proceed in reasonably good order therea•er. Or continue to doggedly plug away with a decreasing period between the start date and supposed out date, and an impossible task in between. "But if that particular pause period is merely taken up by further fiddling about and mishaps, we will be in an increasingly desperate position. I think it's necessary for a proper review of the timescales, feasibility and implementation to take place, and I also think that there needs to be a greater central pulling together of who is really dedicated to making this rollout happen." SJ WaTEr Ofwat awards WSSL number 13 to Cobalt Cobalt Water is the latest company to have been granted a water supply and sewerage licence (WSSL) to operate in the non-household water retail market when it opens next year, bringing the total number to 13. In its 2015/16 annual report, published in July, the regula- tor said it expects about 30-40 WSSL applications in the coming year. To date, 18 companies have applied for licences. Companies that have submit- ted applications which have not yet been granted are: Waterscan, Regent Water, newly rebranded Affinity for Business, and Invicta Water. New entrant Blue Busi- ness Water also told Utility Week it will apply for a licence before Ofwat's deadline. ENErgY Priority services rules change Suppliers must take all reasonable steps to identify vulnerable customers under changes to the Priority Services Register. The changes will come into effect in January 2017 and include broader eligibility cri- teria for the register, which lets customers access free services and helps them manage their energy. Suppliers will have to offer priority services to people who live with children under five. They will also need to pick up on signs of vulnerability from their day-to-day interactions with customers. Customers with tem- porary issues, such as injuries that stop them topping up their prepayment meter, can be added to the register. Ofgem also wants suppliers to provide more flexible services, tailored to individual needs – for example, establishing a picture card system for customers with learning difficulties so that rep- resentatives can enter the house. ENErgY Rush risk for embedded benefits Ofgem has been warned that "rushed changes" to so-called embedded benefits could end up reducing security of supply and pushing up costs to consumers. In a report, Cornwall Energy called on the regulator to examine network charging arrangements in an "orderly and holistic" way rather than "piecemeal". The firm's chairman Nigel Cornwall said: "We have signifi- cant concerns that the current process will result in ill-consid- ered changes that could have wide-ranging unintended con- sequences." He warned against arbitrarily cutting triad benefit payments to smaller generators. Overrun: network launch delay threatens rollout Political Agenda Mathew Beech "Brexit may allow the wiggle room to claim success" The significant, but not surpris- ing, news that the DCC has missed its latest deadlines, and overshot its contingency period, has le• business and energy sec- retary Greg Clark with a problem and a significant decision that needs to be made. The mass rollout of smart meters, the enabler technology that many pin their hopes on to revitalise a distrusted sector, depends on the DCC going live so SMETS2 meters with smart switching capability can be fitted. and ignore the Brussels-set 2020 target. This could take the form of a pause in the programme, an extension of the deadline, or just getting close enough by the end of the decade to claim a good enough job has been done. Clark, a Remainer in the Brexit debate, may be able to save face by using the very thing he was against, with the UK's freedom from the EU giving him the wiggle room to claim success – and for the bill not to land in the consumer's lap. The 2020 deadline is get- ting relentlessly closer. With the number of meter installs needed per day growing and the cost heading into unpal- atable territory. Something needs to give. Labour's shadow energy minister Alan Whitehead has called for a pause in the smart rollout and "a proper review" of the programme. Clark has two main options. The first is to continue as we are and hope for the best, despite warnings that install costs – which will ultimately be added to consumer bills – will soar. The other is to use the free- dom granted by exiting the EU

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