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In a price control, companies will always claim the regulator has made errors but the RIIO2 draft determinations do appear to contain an unprecedently high number of basic arithmetic mistakes, says Maxine Frerk.
5 years ago
In our latest review of sector coverage across the national newspapers, there is further backlash from energy networks over the regulator’s approach to the next price control. There is also a suggestion that more nuclear power plants could close early, as well as concern about the total cost of delivering a green grid. Meanwhile, Thames Water is under fire from a celebrity critic.
Local net-zero emissions targets, set by councils, are “incredibly important”, Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brealey has said. However, Greater Manchester MP Lucy Powell has warned that the conurbation’s target to hit net zero by 2038 may have to be adjusted in the wake of the economic crisis resulting from coronavirus.
SP Energy Networks (SPEN) has warned Ofgem it could appeal to the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) over the regulator’s “manifestly flawed” take on its business plan for the next price control. The electricity transmission company has demanded a revised draft determination by early October correcting what it claims are errors on Ofgem’s part and reversing a £15 million business plan penalty.
As networks submit their official responses to Ofgem’s RIIO2 draft determinations, SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies shares his view with Utility Week readers. He says that far from putting net zero at the heart of the coronavirus recovery, the regulator’s plans could jeopardise it.
The brooding row between Ofgem and networks over the draft price determinations would appear to strike at the very heart of energy companies’ ambitions to Build Back Better – no more so than at National Grid as executive director Nicola Shaw tells Denise Chevin
The draft determinations for gas and transmission networks proved Ofgem is serious about holding companies to account for their costs and investments. Ahead of official responses from the affected companies on Friday, Ted Hopcroft and Liz Parminter of PA Consulting discuss the regulator’s approach and how it compares to Ofwat’s in PR19, as well as looking at what distribution companies can learn for their business plans.
Ofgem is proposing to extend protections for customers on certain types of restricted meters to 2025, in line with the updated timeframe for the smart meter rollout. Around 4 million customers in Great Britain have a restricted, or ‘profile class two’ (PC2), meters. They allow customers to be charged for electricity at different rates, depending on the time of day they use their energy.
Effortless Energy (trading as Go Effortless Energy) has become the second supplier to fail in 2020, and the first since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Utility Week recently revealed that the Stoke-based supplier was looking to exit the market, having previously entered level two credit default with code administrators Elexon.
In our latest review of sector coverage across the national newspapers, National Grid hits back at Ofgem’s RIIO2 position, EDF eyes the potential to incorporate hydrogen production at Sizewell C and Extinction Rebellion returns with a fresh push to strengthen the UK’s net zero plans.
Northern Powergrid has launched the first stage in compiling its business plan for the RIIO ED2 price control. Utility Week speaks to the company’s policy and markets director, Patrick Erwin, about a tiered approach to engaging consumers, learnings from the gas and transmission networks and acting as a “force for good”.
Advice on sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) should be ‘prominent, clear and unequivocal’ according to a review of surface water and flooding by Defra, which calls for SuDS requirements in force in Wales to be extended into England
The Competition and Markets Authority has told Utility Week it expects to hit its deadline of mid-September to deliver its first take on the appeals by four water companies to Ofwat's final determinations on their AMP7 business plans. All eyes will be on any adjustments to WACC, what value is placed on customer input and the levels of investment permitted.
Energy regulator Ofgem has revealed how many renewables obligation certificates (ROCs) it issued in the 2019/20 year. The renewables obligation requires licenced electricity suppliers to source a proportion of the electricity they supply to customers from renewable sources.
