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Event UTILITY WEEK | 7TH - 13TH APRIL 2017 | 13 What is your favourite thing about work- ing in the utilities sector? What I specifically enjoy is deregulation and the changing markets – the scope to do things completely differently and to problem solve. This is very much a deregulation thing rather than a utility thing. What is the most challenging thing about working in utilities sector? The most challenging thing is having to Column Piers Clark, founder and chairman, Isle Utilities Biography Dermont Nolan Over the past 10 years we have seen a surge in technological advances that will revolutionise how water services are supplied. Just when experts declared there was no way of further enhancing desalination, a new method appeared. Just when we thought we had maximised energy production from sewage sludge, new techniques that double the recovery became commercially viable. Technology is pushing us forward in ways we could never have imagined a decade ago, and it is happening right across the sector. At Isle we work with 150 utilities from across the globe, all of whom are actively committed to adopting new technology. We have a network of over 100 investors and financial institutions who between them have invested over $500 million in new water tech. We are, without a doubt, experiencing a period of significant technological change. The commitment to driving this change is being led by a silent army of brave, bold individuals working tirelessly in water companies around the world, testing and trialling new technologies, arguing their cases with risk- adverse colleagues, fighting to drive forward the adoption of innovation. Q+A John Reynolds, chief executive, Castle Water work out with other bodies what everything means. We have a set of codes, we have a set of regulation, we have new legislation, and it is not always clear what it means – people have different views on how it should be interpreted. That is a fun part of it, but it's also a chal- lenge, because it's not an industry where as a retailer you can just go ahead and do things on your own. Although you can deal with customers, you still then have to relate back to the wholesalers and back to the regulators. How would you say the water sector is changing in the UK? If you look at Scotland, you'll see that there have been very significant changes in the way that customers are treated. Customers are now able to determine how the water industry behaves to a much larger extent than has been possible before. I think that change in England will be fairly monumen- tal in terms of the behaviour of all parts of the industry. What are you doing to help drive forward this change? We, as Castle Water, try to get very close to our customers as a retailer. We also aim to have very close relationships with wholesalers. There is a gap to bridge between retailers who are very customer-focussed and don't really engage with wholesalers, and retailers who work collaboratively with wholesalers. What we try to do is both sides of it, so we aim to work responsively to customers, but also to collaborate with wholesalers rather than having an adversarial relationship. What has been your biggest achievement in the sector? Creating Castle Water. What is your biggest ambition in the sector? I aim to make Castle Water the largest water retailer in the UK. John Reynolds will be speaking on the Keynote Stage at Utility Week Live on 24 May at 3pm. Dermot joined Ofgem as chief executive in March 2014 having previously been commissioner at the Commission for Energy Regulation in Ireland from May 2008 and its chair since May 2011. Prior to this, he was senior economic adviser at the Commission for Communications Regulation and was manager of the mergers division for the Irish Competition Authority. Some of the reasons Nolan was nominated as a top 10 transformer: "Trying to give Ofgem teeth" "Delivering on a regulatory agenda to transform the customer journey for domestic energy supply" "Delivering a transformative agenda including: principles based regulation; smart; NEXUS; and faster switching" Ofgem chairman David Gray is speaking at Utility Week Live at 11:30am on the Future of Energy on the Keynote Theatre on 24 May. I am truly honoured to be named as one of the top ten, transformative people in the utility sector. However if this accolade has any truth to it, then I stand on the shoulders of other far more deserving people. I share this great compliment with anyone who has fought for the adoption of innovation, anyone who refused to let the yesterday's processes be good enough for tomorrow. Clark is appearing at Utility Week Live in sessions entitled 'Innovation in Water' (11.15am, Water Theatre, 23 May) and 'Transformation in Action' (2.15pm, Water Theatre, 23 May).