Utility Week

10 | 23RD - 29TH MARCH 2018 | UTILITY WEEK Policy & Regulation This week MP 'lobbied' Ofgem over RHI application Inquiry into NI's Renewable Heat Incentive hears evidence from the regulator's head of operations Democratic Unionist Party MP Ian Paisley Jr lobbied a senior Ofgem official to accept an application for lucrative subsi- dies under Northern Ireland's Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) even through it had missed a key deadline, a public inquiry has been informed. The inquiry into allegations of fraudulent overspending on the RHI, which triggered the collapse of the province's power-sharing administration, heard evidence last week from Teri Clion, the regula- tor's head of operations for the scheme. In a written submission, she said she took a call in November 2015 from Mark Compston of Action Renewables, who was handling an RHI application for the McNaughton family. Compston was lobbying Ofgem to have the applica- tion accepted at the higher tariff even though it had been submitted aer the rate had been cut, which he blamed on an IT problem at the regulator. Clion was aware Compston was "unhappy" that she would not accept the application for the higher rate, but expressed surprise that North Antrim MP Paisley was also participating in the call. "Without prior warning, I found myself on a speaker phone with the applicants, representatives from Action Renewables, Moy Park and Ian Paisley Jr. They all wanted me to accept the case onto the scheme prior to the tariff change date, as the appli- cants were going to lose a significant amount of money." Under cross-examination at the RHI inquiry, Clion described Paisley's involvement as "very intimidating", according to a BBC report. DB ELECTRICITY Swansea Bay lagoon faces 'challenges' Plans to build Swansea's path- finder tidal power project face "genuine challenges", according to Wales' first minister – a key champion of the project. Quizzed last week during Business, Energy and Indus- trial Strategy (BEIS) ministers' question time, departmental secretary of state Greg Clark said he did not want to "close the door" on the tidal project. He said BEIS officials had been in Cardiff the previous week to discuss the lagoon with the Welsh government, which offered direct financial support for the project in January. To underline the difficult choice for the UK government, Clark quoted from a letter from Carwyn Jones, in which the Welsh first minister acknowledged the "genuine challenges in… consid- ering a proposal involving untried technology with high capital costs and significant uncertainties". Clark said: "I do not want to close the door on something if it is possible to find a way to justify it as being affordable to consumers." WATER Anglian to pay £50k for polluting course Anglian Water has agreed to pay £50,000 to an environmental charity aer a blocked sewer caused a manhole to overflow with black sludge and grey liquid into a Bedfordshire watercourse. The Environment Agency said an enforcement undertaking has been agreed with the water company, which has donated the money to the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Anglian will "put right any damage caused by the pollution" and has paid the agency's costs. ENERGY Perry to probe green deals 'loophole' Claire Perry has told her officials to probe the green energy deals available on the market follow- ing concerns that suppliers will use them to sidestep the looming clampdown on household bills. Challenger companies had raised concerns with MPs that the government's proposal to exempt green deals from its wider clampdown on standard variable and other default tariffs would become a "loophole" in the legislation. During last week's House of Commons debate on the price cap legislation, the minister of state for energy and climate change said she would ask her team to report back to parlia- ment on the green tariffs cur- rently in the market, together with evidence to justify allowing a price premium. Paisley: participated in call to Ofgem official Political Agenda David Blackman There's no question who has been parliament's most quoted children's author recently. Philip Hammond set the ball rolling last week with a self- mocking reference to his reputa- tion for taking an Eeyore-ish approach to the economy. When presenting his Spring Statement, the chancellor of exchequer said he was feeling positively Tiggerish about the UK's growth prospects. Later, Claire Perry followed Hammond on a trip to the concern that without a wider set of ground rules, Ofgem will use insufficient progress on the rollout to justify recommending the cap should remain in place. Given the fast-moving nature of the energy sector, listing too many conditions threatened to land the regulator in a legal challenge, Perry countered. But then utilities would probably argue that the price cap proposal demonstrates that the political class as a whole has "very little brain". Hundred Acre Wood. During a debate on the government's price cap legislation, the energy minister claimed the mantle of AA Milne's exuberant character. And she labelled her opposite number Alan Whitehead an Eeyore for suggesting legislation should be based on "worst" rather than "best case" scenarios. He said the bill should explic- itly outline the conditions for an effectively functioning market, which must be in place for the cap to be lied before 2023. The only condition for liing the cap before this date currently identified is the extent of pro- gress on the smart meter rollout. Whitehead expressed the "Parliament has been on a trip to the Hundred Acre Wood"

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