Weekend press round-up: Thames narrows search for Robertson’s replacement

Thames Water narrows its search for Steve Robertson’s replacement, Ofgem slashes network revenues and cyber attacks target the UK’s nuclear industry – all in the latest round-up of the weekend papers.

Search narrows for next chief of Thames Water

Britain’s biggest water company said yesterday that it had narrowed the search for a new chief executive to “a very high-quality” shortlist of candidates as it trickled into the red in the first half of the year.

Thames Water is seeking a replacement for Steve Robertson, 61, who left in May after less than three years in the role amid criticism from Ofwat, the water regulator, for failing to reduce water leakage.

Thames Water, founded in 1989, is Britain’s biggest water and wastewater services provider, working across London, the Thames Valley and surrounding areas and serving 15 million customers. It is owned by a consortium, the two largest shareholders being Omers, a Canadian pension manager, and the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

Basil Scarsella, 64, chief executive of UK Power Networks, the electricity distributor, has been tipped as a leading candidate, but Thames is expected to wait until after the election to make an appointment, given Labour’s pledge to nationalise the water companies. Brandon Rennet, 47, its finance director, said that an announcement would be made in the very near future after “a very thorough search” had thrown up “a very high-quality shortlist”.

The new chief executive will take over on the back of an improvement in the company’s leakage record. Ian Marchant, 58, interim executive chairman, said that leakages were down by 11 per cent and that it was now fixing an average of more than 1,400 leaks a week.

The Times

Energy bills to fall after Ofgem slashes revenues of gas and electricity network firms by £1bn

Energy bills look set to fall next year after Ofgem slashed the revenues that network companies are allowed to collect by nearly £1 billion as the cost of borrowing fell.

Households will likely face a windfall after the £965 million reduction, Ofgem said, although not all of it will be passed on to customers.

The regulator said that lower interest rates had pushed down what it cost companies to borrow, meaning they needed to collect less money to pay interest. Companies had also managed to slash costs, with some of this now being passed on to customers.

Ofgem controls the price of the distribution and transmission of gas and electricity. This is separate from the regulator’s price cap on what suppliers can charge customers on their default tariffs which was introduced in January.

The amount that networks are allowed to collect has changed every year since the price controls were first introduced in 2013 to make sure they are kept up to date.

Independent

Cyber attack targets UK’s nuclear industry

GCHQ cyber experts have been called in after a digital attack on a major player in Britain’s nuclear power ­industry triggered a security crisis.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), an arm of GCHQ, has been ­secretly providing assistance to a ­nuclear power company in the UK that has struggled to recover after being hit by a cyber attack, The Telegraph can reveal.

A Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) report, obtained using freedom of information legislation, said officials are “aware that an important business in the Nuclear Power Generating Sector has been negatively impacted by a cyber attack and has had to rely on expertise from the NCSC to help them with recovery”.

The document, from a board committee meeting dated March 13 2019, is believed to be the first time evidence of a successful cyber attack on a nuclear company in the UK has come to light.

It is not known what damage the ­attack caused or whether the attack put public safety at risk. The NCSC ­declined to name the company ­involved or give details about the ­attack citing “operational sensitivities”.

The NDA, which manages the clean-up of old nuclear plants and spent fuel, said it would be “inappropriate” to provide details on grounds that “the event relates to an organisation that is not part of the NDA group”.

The disclosures are likely to fuel speculation of a security breach in Britain’s fleet of nuclear power stations. Failure to provide details has raised concerns about transparency and safety in the UK’s nuclear power sector.

Tom Pace, a vice president at the cyber security company Cylance, said: “It isn’t in their interest to publicise their weaknesses, but there is a balance that needs to be struck. If people find out about attacks on the nuclear sector that haven’t been announced through official channels, it is likely this will erode public confidence in nuclear institutions more than if they had been honest from the start.”

David Lowry, an independent ­nuclear research consultant, said that the sector will be careful about what details are revealed. “They are very aware that they only need one incident and it will destroy the reputation of the resilience of the entire system,” he said. “For reputational reasons alone, they can’t afford for there to be a lapse.”

Speculation about the target of the attack is likely to focus on EDF, the French giant that dominates nuclear power generation in Britain. It declined to comment this weekend.

Telegraph

Coal power becoming ‘uninsurable’ as firms refuse cover

The number of insurers withdrawing cover for coal projects more than doubled this year and for the first time US companies have taken action, leaving Lloyd’s of London and Asian insurers as the “last resort” for fossil fuels, according to a new report.

The report, which rates the world’s 35 biggest insurers on their actions on fossil fuels, declares that coal – the biggest single contributor to climate change – “is on the way to becoming uninsurable” as most coal projects cannot be financed, built or operated without insurance.

Ten firms moved to restrict the insurance cover they offer to companies that build or operate coal power plants in 2019, taking the global total to 17, said the Unfriend Coal campaign, which includes 13 environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Client Earth and Urgewald, a German NGO. The report will be launched at an insurance and climate risk conference in London on Monday, as the UN climate summit gets underway in Madrid.

The first insurers to exit coal policies were all European, but since March, two US insurers – Chubb and Axis Capital – and the Australian firms QBE and Suncorp have pledged to stop or restrict insurance for coal projects.

At least 35 insurers with combined assets of $8.9 trillion, equivalent to 37 per cent of the insurance industry’s global assets, have begun pulling out of coal investments. A year ago, 19 insurers holding more than $6 trillion in assets were divesting from fossil fuels.

Peter Bosshard, one of the Unfriend Coal campaign co-ordinators, said: “We hope within two to three years it will be so difficult to obtain insurance that most coal projects won’t be able to go forward.

Guardian

Centrica strikes deal to install electric car charging points on outskirts of London

Centrica has struck a deal to install electric car charging points on the outskirts of London.

The British Gas owner will add charging points to ten Volkswagen dealerships owned by Citygate. The sites are ‘the gateway to London’, said Centrica executive Carl Bayliss, spanning an arc on the edge of the proposed ultra-low emissions zone from Ruislip in West London to Reading.

Centrica plans to install electric vehicle charging points in homes too. In the summer, it announced plans to develop a home charging installation service for Ford owners, offering cheaper tariffs for overnight charging.

Smart charging means electric cars will help ‘smooth’ electricity usage from the National Grid through the day by being charged mainly at night, when demand is low.

Mail on Sunday