As entertaining as it is to watch the PM hurtle around the country sparking heated debates in the streets of Leeds or herding giant bulls in Aberdeenshire, like most in our industry I have been poring over complex road maps charting the various “what if” scenarios ahead now parliament is suspended and the Halloween Brexit deadline looms ever larger.
Fortunately, the utilities sector is used to coping with the unexpected – from extreme weather crises, to EU rulings that arrest capacity markets overnight. It’s been there and survived.
And despite the scale of this latest landmark moment, as customary, companies are preparing in the only way they can. Utilities are remaining calm, stockpiling where possible and maintaining business as usual while macro forces play out around them.
Of course, it’s not ideal, but as one industry source confided recently: “There’s very little point in our one sector kicking up a fuss. We’re not even at the front of the queue in all this.”
Nevertheless, there has been some industry disappointment after last week’s government spending review fell short of expectations at this time of climate emergency, by allocating only an extra £30 million to BEIS programmes aimed at addressing the nation’s huge and historic decarbonisation challenge.
The chair of the Committee on Climate Change, Lord Deben, says utilities have a key role to play in the journey towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
But myriad infrastructure considerations aside, the former environment secretary – a panellist on our New Deal for Utilities Debate later this month – was also quick to point to the urgency of energy and water companies strengthening customer relationships first.
He advised: “If you can’t get your connection right with your customer, not only does that do you harm, it also means you can’t do for me what I want you to do – which is to help your customer understand about climate change.”
Hopefully his other advice is equally as visionary, that we shouldn’t read too much into the “general” spending plan from government, particularly with the National Infrastructure Strategy and autumn Budget imminent.
As usual, utilities can only watch and wait.