Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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UTILITY WEEK | 2ND - 8TH JUNE 2017 | 3 This week 4 | Seven days 7 | Utility Week Live 2017 All the news and views from the UK's premier utilities exhibition and conference 10 Policy & Regulation 10 | News RIIO jigsaw missing a stakeholder piece 12 | Lobby This year's general election sees an emphatic return to two-party politics 15 Finance & Investment 15 | News UU to put another £100m into AMP6 16 Operations & Assets 16 | High viz Severn Trent's Roundhill anaerobic digestion facility 17 | Pipe up Dr Heather Smith, lecturer in water governance, Cranfield University 18 | Opinion Cutting the benefits enjoyed by embedded generation is a damaging short-term move 19 | Market view Alliance procurement needs to be properly thought through 24 Customers 24 | News Pennon adds 1,500 business customers 25 | Market view Water companies must prepare for customers 4.0 26 | Event The Wipro Technology and Innovation Council 28 | Market view It's all about the customer experience 30 Community 31 | Disconnector GAS 7 | Utility Week Live 2017 All the news and views from the UK's premier utilities exhibition and conference 17 | Pipe up Dr Heather Smith, Cranfield University WATER 15 | News UU to put another £100m into AMP6 16 | High viz Severn Trent's Roundhill anaerobic digestion facility 19 | Market view Alliance procurement needs to be properly thought through 24 | News Pennon adds 1,500 business customers 25 | Market view Water companies must prepare for customers 4.0 ELECTRICITY 18 | Opinion Cutting the benefits enjoyed by embedded generation is a short-term move ENERGY 12 | Lobby The general election sees an emphatic return to two-party politics 26 | Event The Wipro Technology and Innovation Council CGI: Demand side flexibility in UK utilities http://bit.ly/2qOgC0R GORE: New Arc Rated Foul Weather Protection http://bit.ly/2ot3xrO Knowledge worth Keeping Visit the DownloaDs section of Utility week's website http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/ downloads The only certainty is it's an uncertain world It's going to be a nail-biting week for utilities. Odds are still on for an easy Tory victory in 8 June's general election, but aer the twists and turns in national and international affairs which the past 12 months have thrown at us, bets are being placed with caution. Assuming the Conservatives do resume power, doubts still niggle in the minds of many industry leaders as to what their administra- tion, targeted at appeasing the just about managing and focused on extracting the UK from the European Union, will bring for utilities. Business leaders have repeatedly complained that this environ- ment of uncertainty puts a stymie on innovation, unnerves investors and disrupts business planning. Yet even as speakers at Utility Week Live last week rolled out well-polished requests for stable policy and regulation, they also acknowledged that uncertainty is now the inescapable reality of a transforming world. Despite significant effort being poured into demonstration schemes and simulations, there's very little clarity yet as to what the real impact of decentralising energy, electric vehicles and energy storage may be in five to ten years' time. And then there are le-field technologies, like blockchain, which might well rocket from rela- tive obscurity to reconfigure our understanding of utility-customer interactions. Add the possible impact of radical shis in climate to the mix, and the human desire to predict the future is quickly exposed as futile. Rather than be cowed be this daunting admission, however, senior speakers offered some sage advice on how firms can respond: 1. Don't hold on to the way things were yesterday. Keep moving forward and don't waste time bemoaning changes which cause your business trouble – be agile and adapt. 2. Understand your purpose. Have a clear and concise organisa- tional strategy that plays to the expertise and skills held by employ- ees and which defines a clear view of your position in an ecosystem of organisations and individuals. 3. Get customers on board. Customers now have an unprecedented and increasing stake in the way energy and water are generated, managed, and delivered. Companies must give up, once and for all, on trying to tell customers what they need or want from their utili- ties infrastructure and services and allow consumer "pull" to guide the reinvention of their businesses It's all easier said than done. But companies that want to remain relevant must take these lessons on board or discover that Jeremy Corbyn is not the only threat to their continuity. Jane Gray, Deputy Editor, janegray@fav-house.com Leader Jane Gray