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4 | UTILITY WEEK | 28TH APRIL - 4TH MAY 2017 | UTILITY WEEK Consumers' smart meter experience Utility Week and Harris Interactive surveyed 1,000 consumers about smart meters. They found: 41% Have been offered smart meters by their supplier. 57% Of those who had a smart meter said it was installed in the past six months. 28% Of those who had not yet been offered a smart meter said they were not interested in having one. 29% Of those who did not have a smart meter said they would need more information about them before going ahead. 60% Of all respondents were unaware that the smart meter rollout is funded via consumer bills. STORY BY NUMBERS Seven days... National media Decc Hinkley contracts under question Whitehall officials were guilty of "egregious" and unjustifiable delays before revealing details of govern- ment contracts for the Hinkley Point nuclear power project awarded to a company facing a potential conflict of interest, the Information Commis- sioner's Office has said. Management consultancy Leigh Fisher was awarded a £1.2 million contract by the Department of Energy and Climate Change for its advice on Hinkley Point, despite the British division of Jacobs Engineer- ing, an American group that also owns Leigh Fisher, working for EDF on the project. The Times, 24 April RWE 'looking at acquiring UK plant' The boss of German energy giant RWE has fuelled expectations that the company will target the UK energy market for future acquisitions. Rolf Martin Schmitz disclosed that the group is interested in owning power plants in countries where capacity margins are thin and the government is willing to award contracts to secure power supplies. Speaking to a German news- paper, he also squashed specula- tion RWE could make a play for its continental rivals. The Telegraph, 18 April UK networks not ready for electric car surge Britain is braced for a summer of hosepipe bans and speedy showers aer experts warned residents to use their "water wisely" amid fears of a shortage across southern England. Water levels across the UK have slumped to below average as fears over a drought hitting parts of southern England following unseasonably warm weather this year and a serious lack of April showers grow. Daily Express, 25 April Election battle lines drawn over energy price cap T he Conservatives have con- firmed that an energy price cap for standard variable tariffs will be a key component of their general election mani- festo, prompting warnings that it will sound the "death knell for competition". According to reports, the party's manifesto, due to be published shortly, will include a price cap saving the average family around £100 a year. Speaking on Sky News, work and pensions secretary Damian Green said: "We do think the energy market isn't working properly and we do want to change the way it operates." In an interview with Utility Week prior to the price cap com- mitment, Eon UK chief executive Tony Cocker said the prospect of intervention was a "Sword of Damocles" hanging over the sector and "really adds to inves- tor uncertainty". Green also said the Conserva- tives' price cap would go further than that proposed by former Labour leader Ed Miliband. The founder of Octopus Energy, Greg Jackson, welcomed the prospect, saying: "The big energy companies are bringing this action on themselves… with unnecessarily complex prices, and opaque bills, they make it virtually impossible to know the real price of energy." But the head of regulation at Uswitch, Richard Neudegg, said price caps "may sound like a silver bullet" but further intervention could also "have the unintended effect of leaving consumers worse off ". "A price cap would be the death knell for competition," he warned. JH "The toxic Tories are getting closer to Donald Trump every day and their record on renewables since 2015 has been pathetic." Former energy secretary and chairman of Mongoose Energy, Sir Ed Davey, following the £2.3 billion sale of the Green Investment Bank to Macquarie