In a blow to those generators awaiting the first capacity auction, energy secretary Ed Davey revealed last week that the government was expecting the auction to focus on existing capacity (that is, plants about to be mothballed or decommissioned). Those generators, including several of the big six, with consented gas plants in the pipeline are left waiting for another year to find out whether or not it’s economically viable to build them. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has failed to provide a reason for this apparent policy U-turn, or an explanation for how it will have an impact on the capacity crunch expected mid-decade. It wasn’t even announced: Davey slipped it out in a casual comment at a select committee hearing on the recent storms, and were it not for Utility Week’s sharp-eared news team, the industry might be none the wiser.