Politics of power
Veteran left winger Jeremy Corbyn was selected as the new Labour leader last weekend, and following his overwhelming victory, reignited the debate over government intervention in the energy industry.
His first week in charge saw him name his shadow cabinet, with Kerry McCarthy appointed as shadow environment secretary, and the inexperienced Lisa Nandy taking on the shadow energy secretary brief. Party insiders have told Utility Week that despite coming from a non-energy background, Nandy was “carefully chosen” for the role.
Testing times for smart metering
On the government benches, thoughts have turned to the troubled smart meter rollout as Decc unveiled plans to scrap a £6 million network that would allow suppliers yet to go smart to update the smart meter records of customers switching to them.
Energy suppliers have also been warned they face “meter mountains” building during the mass rollout, unless processes are put in place now to return old meters.
In a bit of good news for the sector, energy secretary Amber Rudd told Utility Week she is open to the idea of an energy efficiency drive being linked to the smart meter rollout, calling it a “great opportunity”.
Water retail outlook
Utility Week was told by Defra that the final go-live decision as to whether the non-domestic water market would open as planned in April 2017 would be taken only a few months before it is scheduled to do so.
Ofwat also said that the retail margins will remain at 2.5 per cent, despite calls from the industry that it needs to be higher. However, the regulator did said it was open to reconsidering the length of the AMP periods for future price controls for parts of the industry.