Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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UTILITY WEEK | 17TH - 23RD MARCH 2017 | 5 Northern Ireland Water's travelling classroom, the Water Bus, paid a visit to St Brigid's Primary School in Downpatrick. During the visit, the children were introduced to H20, a water drop figure and mascot for the programme who teaches about water and the importance of water conservation. Children also learnt about NI Water's treatment processes and the importance of insulating water pipes in the home during winter. Top 100 A report released in conjunction with International Women's Day named 100 of the most influential female power-brokers, deal- makers and influencers in the wind industry. Ofwat to be 'less forgiving' in PR19 Ofwat has warned that it will be "less forgiving" of low-quality business plans in PR19 than it was for PR14. Chair Jonson Cox said he expects the standard of submissions that received "enhanced" status at PR14 to be the new regular standard of submission at PR19. "Clearly, we will have to think very carefully for the rest of this year about companies that don't meet that standard," Cox told delegates at Water UK's City Conference. "From my perspective, Ofwat went above and beyond to help a number of companies who didn't quite make it with their returns, and gave them more chances to get it right last time." This is not the first time the regulator has warned companies they should expect a tougher PR19. Last October, Ofwat chief executive Cathryn Ross said the regulator would not hand-hold companies through the price review period, and would be "raising the bar" on the quality of their business plans. See leader, p3 WATER "We are increasingly looking outside of the sector to bring different DNA to the gene pool of senior management" Perry Noble, partner, Hermes Infrastructure Cocker to step down as Eon chief executive Tony Cocker, who has led the UK arm of Eon since Sep- tember 2011, will leave the company to pursue a portfolio career at the end of July. He will be replaced by the cur- rent chief executive of Eon Climate and Renewables, Michael Lewis, who will become Eon UK chief executive on 10 April. Cocker worked at the German- owned energy company for more than 20 years. He said: "Having spent five years in post I decided it was time to take on new challenges and I am personally delighted that Michael is to succeed me." EXECUTIVE MOVE Warnings to the energy market that demand is near to outstripping supply have become less frequent in recent years despite the UK's capacity margin falling from 16 per cent in 2011 to just 6.6 per cent in 2016. In a new report, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit has warned ministers not to respond to "overblown" fears of blackouts by spending billions of pounds to raise the capacity to 10 per cent because the increasing flexibility of the energy system has reduced the need for surplus generation. Coal-fired capacity shows steady decline 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Historical margins and number of NISMs (notices of inadequate system margin) issued Number of NISMs issued 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Capacity margin (%) 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 NISM issues Capacity margin (%)