UTILITY WEEK | 27TH OCTOBER - 2ND NOVEMBER 2017 |
13
Event
Peter Haigh, managing director,
Bristol Energy
"Customers are savvy
and expect more.
Trust has to be earned
and it's hard. As a
start-up we had some
problems with cus-
tomer service at first
and it wasn't as good
as we knew it was
capable of being."
Patrick Erwin, policy and markets
director, Northern Powergrid
"No one expected
solar to get delivered
as quickly as it has."
Steve Mogford, chief executive,
United Utilities
"What strikes me is
that utilities tend to
live in a state of fear-
ful anticipation more
than any other sector,
questioning what will
happen next."
Frank Mitchell, chief executive, SP
Energy Networks
"The biggest chal-
lenges lie ahead of us
in the next 10 years
and are not behind
us."
Stephen Bird, managing director,
South West Water
"If you can engage
with customers in the
slickest and most effi-
cient way, the better it
will be."
Duncan Burt, head of system
operations, National Grid
"The hardest chal-
lenge will not be
systems or processes
but the people."
1. Digital technolo-
gies are reshaping
customer relation-
ships and challeng-
ing the way markets
are regulated.
2. Communications
between utilities and
regulators must be
more transparent.
3. There is no static
definition of what
"good" competition
looks like in energy
supply – constant
changes in the
market's commercial
dynamics gener-
ate new sources of
potential consumer
detriment.
4. Localism will
dominate utility
business models in
the future.
5. Climate change
will define future
approaches to infra-
structure resilience
and resource man-
agement.
6. Utilities and their
regulators need to do
more than talk about
creating innovation
cultures, and dem-
onstrate real belief
in "fast failure" as a
positive organisa-
tional attribute.
Key points
Jonson Cox, chairman, Ofwat
"I'm not hearing
issues about the
price of water, service
levels, or operational
performance. I've
not heard anything
on that. What I hear
about is distrust of
offshore structures,
distrust of high lever-
age, distrust of very
high dividend payout
ratios, and inevitably
distrust of manage-
ment pay."
