Ofgem appoints new director of networks

Ofgem has appointed Rebecca Barnett as its interim director of networks, as part of a continuing reshuffle of its senior team, which has also seen the creation of a director for gas crisis, Utility Week can reveal.

Barnett has spent 10 years with the regulator, most recently as deputy director, commercial and assurance.

Akshay Kaul, who has held the role since 2020, started a new position last month as interim director of infrastructure and security of supply.

Barnett will now take on overall responsibility for network regulation, supported by Steve McMahon, as senior responsible officer for ED2.

Ofgem, which has been restructuring following a review by consultants launched last year, has also moved several other senior figures into interim positions.

This includes Simon Wilde, who was appointed as director of analysis and assurance at the end of 2020 after working for two years as senior financial adviser to the regulator. He is now interim director for markets and gas crisis.

His role has been taken on an interim basis by Peter Bingham, previously Ofgem’s chief engineer.

Barnett takes on her new role less than two months from the publication of Ofgem’s final determinations on the business plans for electricity distribution networks. In its draft determinations, published in June, Ofgem cut 17% from the proposed spending plans of distribution network operators but approved £20.9 billion of investment between 2023 and 2028.

She will also inherit the conversation on the future of network price controls, kicked off by Kaul this week in an open letter to the industry about the possible need for change. In it he admitted that the current RIIO structure “may not be the most appropriate model for the energy system we need to build”.