Utility Week

"It will just not be possible to deliver the remaining 40m-plus meters in three years" Bill Bullen, chief executive of Utilita, tells MPs that achieving the full rollout of smart meters by 2020 is "logistically impossible". 4 | 8TH - 14TH DECEMBER 2017 | UTILITY WEEK STORY BY NUMBERS Seven days... National media New network of water fountains for London Plans are being drawn up for new drinking water fountains in London to cut the number of plastic bottles used. The dra London Plan, which is subject to public consultation, suggests new sites for parks and town centres. The report says free fountains that can refill bottles and be used for drinking should be pro- vided in appropriate locations. London mayor Sadiq Khan also wants businesses to provide their tap water to Londoners. BBC News, 4 December US tax plan could slash clean energy support Clean-energy developers are learn- ing the hard way that every line of the US tax code is connected. While the bill passed last weekend preserves crucial credits for wind and solar farms, it also imposes a minimum tax on foreign transactions for JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and other large investors that threatens to erode the value of those credits. The issue hinges on an arcane but critical source of clean-energy financing that's expected to reach $12 billion (£9 billion) this year. Bloomberg, 4 December Calls for tamper-proof meters in Australia Modern water meters need to be rolled out as a matter of urgency in the Barwon-Darling river system and prosecutions launched against breaches, the man charged with fixing New South Wales's water administration has warned. An interim report by water expert Ken Matthews recommended establishing a natural resources regulator to police water laws and hire staff working in compliance. The government adopted both measures but, two months later, Matthews is sounding the alarm in his final report. The Guardian, 30 November Ofwat: doubts about data quality of four water firms O fwat "does not have full confidence" in the qual- ity of data provided by four water companies and has challenged them to "improve transparency". The regulator reported short- comings in the data handling at Bristol Water, Dee Valley Water, Southern Water and Thames Water. In its company monitoring framework report published on 30 November, it assessed how well companies had explained and assured their information, to judge if customers could have confidence in reported data. Having been assessed as "targeted" last year, Thames Water was demoted to the "pre- scribed" category, joining Bristol Water, Dee Valley and Southern Water, which were all listed as "prescribed" last year. Ahead of the PR19 price review, Ofwat challenged the four companies "to grab" the issue of data quality and assurance and improve how they prepare and present information. A spokesperson from Thames Water said it was disappointed at the move "in view of the extensive efforts we are making to be open and transparent… We will be work- ing hard to rebuild trust and achieve self-assured status as quickly as possible". In addition to Thames, the only other companies to move categories were Severn Trent, Northumbrian Water and Yorkshire Water. Severn Trent was demoted to "targeted" this year, having previously been assessed for "self-assurance". It swapped places with Northum- brian Water, which moved out of "targeted", while Yorkshire Water moved out of "prescribed" and into "targeted". Ofwat said it found "an overall picture of improvement" with a total of three companies in the "self-assurance" category, demonstrating "solid processes to gather, test and present information". KP Yorkshire is the savviest energy switching county Figures released by the Energy Switch Guarantee show the number of households that switched electricity supplier between September 2016 and August 2017. 23% of all households in Leeds North West switched provider during the study. 90% of the market will be covered by the Energy Switch Guarantee by the end of the year. 4.5m customers have switched energy supplier this year to date. 10% of households (5,105 in total) in Dumfries and Galloway switched supplier during the study, putting it at the bottom of the table.

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