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UTILITY WEEK | 21ST - 27TH APRIL 2017 | 3 This week 4 | Seven days 6 | Topic UK utilities and attracting international investment 13 | Generation review Living in the shadow of the nuclear renaissance 16 Policy & Regulation 16 | News Price differential cap a 'likely' intervention 17 | Market view The legal and regulatory challenges to a flexible energy system 18 Finance & Investment 18 | News Moorside deal 'hangs on public financing' 19 | Analysis What is the future for the Moorside nuclear project? 20 Operations & Assets 20 | High viz Wirsol Energy solar farms 23 | Market view How to maximise installers' time on site with smart meters 24 | Market view The inevitability of the battery storage market 26 Customers 26 | News Relaxing data rules would aid fuel poor 27 | Market view Water competition could spark disruptive change 28 Markets & Trading 28 | Market view Mergers and the importance of branding 30 Community 31 | Disconnector GAS 28 | Market view Mergers and the importance of branding WATER 27 | Market view Water competition could spark disruptive change ELECTRICITY 13 | Generation review Living in the shadow of the nuclear renaissance 17 | Market view The legal and regulatory challenges to a flexible energy system 18 | News Moorside deal 'hangs on public financing' 19 | Analysis What is the future for the Moorside nuclear project? 20 | High viz Wirsol Energy solar farms 24 | Market view The inevitability of the battery storage market 26 | News Relaxing data rules would aid fuel poor ENERGY 6 | Topic UK utilities and attracting international investment 16 | News Price differential cap a 'likely' intervention 23 | Market view How to maximise installers' time on site with smart meters Pitney Bowes: Make self service smarter and more engaging http://bit.ly/2nAa2rC A general election puts us back to square one She said it is the only way to "guarantee certainty for the years ahead", but Theresa May's decision to hold a snap election in just seven weeks' time is more likely to deliver the opposite for leaders and investors in the energy sector over the course of 2017. As parliament is dissolved and campaigning begins, purdah will stymie the delivery of key policy decisions on issues such as the future of carbon pricing, the Levy Control Framework, the emissions reduction plan, industrial strategy and more. Ofgem and independ- ent research organisations conducting government-backed reviews will once again have to put key reports on issues such as network charging reforms and future system architecture models, on ice – having already endured similar delays in 2016. Furthermore, when the election is won – dare we predict, inevi- tably by May's Conservatives – the scope for a reshuffle may whisk away energy and environmental minsters who have barely had an opportunity to get familiar with their briefs. Any hope that BEIS might be building momentum behind a refreshed and long-term energy vision for the UK must now be burning pretty low. The election campaign itself – instigated with pure political power-play front of mind – will deliver little detail on the big issues facing utilities. Cobbled together in quick time and designed for voter appeal, manifestos from all parties are likely to be light on policy and heavy on rhetoric. The one commitment we will almost certainly see slammed prominently into the melee will be energy retail intervention, hardly a comfort for energy companies trying to nurture confidence. May's good intentions for delivering greater certainty might not be entirely misplaced, however. To water industry executives, the prospect of a snap election may even seem mildly positive. By throw- ing the established electoral cycle out of kilter, May has unwittingly decoupled the water sector's price controls from the heightened sensitivity to consumer costs that attends the hustings. And although the pound jumped on receipt of the election news, there's also broader comfort for utilities investors that the prob- ability of sustained high inflation will safeguard ample returns from regulated businesses. Such silver linings must be appreciated where they can in skies that remain predominantly, and frustratingly, gloomy. Jane Gray, Deputy Editor, janegray@fav-house.com Leader Jane Gray CGI: Energy Flexibility Transforming The Power System By 2030 http://bit.ly/2bR3zXB Knowledge worth Keeping Visit the DownloaDs section of Utility week's website http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/ downloads