Company strategy

DNOs plead for clarity on pandemic position

A senior figure at one of the country’s distribution network operators (DNO) has called for a clear message on how its workers will be treated if the coronavirus spread becomes a pandemic in the UK. They said Ofgem needed to confirm which licence conditions would be relaxed in such a situation and that a discussion was also necessary about social distancing rules for lifeline service providers.

EDF buys iSupply Energy customers from Vattenfall

Equitix buys smart meter portfolio for £291m

Investment management company Equitix has purchased around 187,000 smart meters for £291 million from Smart Metering Systems. The portfolio belonging to Crail Meters Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of SMS, had an average asset life of around 4.7 years and generated around £18.4 million of annual revenue last year.

Bank’s data specialist joins Ofgem board

Ofgem has appointed the chief data officer of Lloyds Banking Group as its new non-executive director. The new role for Barry Panayi, which starts on Monday, was hinted at by the regulator’s chairman Martin Cave in a speech at Utility Week’s Investor Summit last week.

Coronavirus fears to hit smart meter installations

Intelligent debt recovery

Mark Sussex, head of international, illion Digital Tech Solutions, discusses how smaller suppliers can differentiate themselves through the way they handle customers experiencing payment difficulties. Sussex argues that harnessing technology to assess affordability is key.

Castle acquires Affinity for Business

Kaluza and EDF launch smart storage heating trial

On the move: Anglian CEO joins climate action group

Several senior appointments have been announced across the sector recently. Anglian Water’s chief executive Peter Simpson and EDF Energy chairman Colin Matthews will co-chair a group of businesses working together to tackle climate change. Utility Week takes a look at these and some of the other movements from across the industry.

Cox dismisses credit rating downgrades

Ofwat chairman Jonson Cox has dismissed fears over the financeability of water companies in the wake of PR19, accusing managements of using the threat of credit rating downgrades to put pressure on the regulator. Cox's comments came as Ofwat revealed the results of its annual investor survey.

Utilities seen as ‘safe havens’ amid market turmoil

As the stock markets suffered a bloodbath, analysts have pointed to the resilience of water companies and the National Grid. They have also given their views on the 17 per cent fall recorded by Centrica.

Capacity auction sees price rebound

Water sector fights hard on customer satisfaction

Water companies beat the all-sector average on customer satisfaction, but drill down into the data and there is still work to be done with younger customers,

Delivering the networks of the future

We spoke to Steven Read, trainee programmes manager at UK Power Networks, about how apprenticeships will be crucial to developing the smart infrastructure of the future.

Share big data to meet net zero

Using the fundamentals of open, shared data to improve the accuracy of predictions will be central to effectively managing power networks as we rapidly adapt to and enable a net zero world. Patrick Erwin of Northern Powergrid dscusses.