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UTILITY WEEK | 15TH - 21ST SEPTEMBER 2017 | 11 Policy & Regulation This week GDNs and Ofgem clash over fuel poor Ofgem's proposed change will 'mean fewer fuel poor households being connected to the grid' Gas distribution networks (GDNs) have reiterated their fears about Ofgem's proposed changes to the rules governing who gets subsidised gas connec- tions. The networks claim the pro- posed change will result in fewer fuel poor households being connected to the gas grid, while Ofgem claims it is up to gas grids to find better ways of identifying fuel poor households. Ofgem has opened a consultation on altering the criteria for assessing who is eligible for subsidised gas grid connections. Currently, a household must be in an area designated among the 25 per cent of most deprived areas in the UK, as measured by the government's Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), in order to qualify. Ofgem said making the change would allow the Fuel Poor Network Extension Scheme to be more closely aligned with other mechanisms, such as the Energy Company Obligation, for delivering support to fuel poor consumers. Ofgem also said it was not convinced the IMD was an effective predictor of fuel poverty. This is not the first time Ofgem has moved to remove the IMD criterion. It raised the prospect in March this year, but met resistance from GDNs who said scrapping the use of the IMD would result in fewer total connec- tions, because it would make the process more complex. Ofgem has now rejected this concern, saying: "We consider that the GDNs should work to find new and innovative approaches to identifying households that would qualify." JG ELECTRICITY Scots government plans for public power company The Scottish government will unveil plans for a new publicly- owned power company as part of a wider drive to decarbon- ise the country's economy, according to its new legislative programme. Holyrood's governmental programme for 2017/18 includes plans for a new government- owned energy company. The detail will be outlined in the final version of Scotland's Energy Strategy, due to be pub- lished by the end of this year. The Scottish government has also included a Climate Change Bill in its programme, which will raise Scotland's statutory carbon reduction 2050 target. The bill will be underpinned by a Climate Change Plan, due to be published in early 2018. ELECTRICITY Mini-nuclear reactor review completed The government has completed a long-delayed assessment of mini-nuclear reactors, energy minister Richard Harrington has revealed. The techno-economic assess- ment of small modular reactors, originally commissioned in September 2015, was to provide the evidence base needed to inform the government's deci- sion on whether to support the technology. In a response to a written question, energy minister Rich- ard Harrington said the assess- ment was complete and that the government intended to publish it in the autumn. ELECTRICITY Corbyn demands tougher price curbs Jeremy Corbyn has accused the big six energy companies of short-changing customers and said that Ofgem's mooted plans to tackle rising prices are not tough enough. In the first prime minister's questions since parliament returned from its summer recess, the Labour leader stepped into the ongoing debate over energy price rises. Pointing to figures published last week by Ofgem showing increased big six profit margins, Corbyn said the regulator's mooted plans to curb bills did not go far enough. "Ofgem's plans will only benefit 2.6 million customers; 17 million customers are short-changed by the big six energy companies," he said. Corbyn called on prime min- ister Theresa May, who he said had been "briefly converted" on the importance of tackling energy bills, to intervene in the issue. Fuel poverty: many homes off the grid Political Agenda David Blackman "Falling offshore wind prices are a game-changer" The steep fall in the cost of offshore wind power caught even the renewable energy lobby on the hop when the results of the latest contracts for difference auctions appeared this week. It changes the politics of energy too. Lord Adonis, the Labour chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, is not the only figure to see Mon- day's announcement as a "game changer". It means the clean growth strategy, which has taken so climate change sceptics to hide behind value-for-money argu- ments. And in a sign that the green energy bug is catching across Whitehall, Nick Hancock was loudly banging the drum at the international trade depart- ment for solar power this week. Next month's Conservative conference is likely to offer a warmer reception for Perry's cru- sade to tackle emissions. Aer this week, the political debate on energy generation will never quite look the same again. long to produce, will finally emerge in a very different politi- cal context that it would have done six months ago. The proof that renewable energy can be generated more cheaply than gas and nuclear can be expected to further embolden climate change minister Claire Perry to publish the kind of "ambitious" plan she has previously promised. The Tory grassroots back- woodsmen, whose hostility to windfarms has driven policy for the past couple of years, had already lost influence follow- ing their party's failure to win a parliamentary majority. It will be harder now for