News Categories
Other stories in Water
- Sewage powered car hits streets of Bristol
- Competition Commission allows Bristol Water to increase bills by 15 per cent over five years
- Scottish regulator seeks views on customer participation
- Competition Commission ruling on Bristol 'will encourage companies to gear up'
- Ofwat considers bulk water sales at unregulated prices
Tagcloud
abstraction, AEP, anaerobic digestion, Anglian Water, Australasia, Benelux, BG Group, bil, billing, bills, biomass, Bristol Water, British Energy, British Gas, budget, Business Stream, call centres, carbon, carbon capture, CCWater, Centrica, CHP, climate change, coal, competition, complaints, connections, Conservatives, Consumer Focus, consumer research, cost of capital, credit crunch, customers, Cyprus, Czech Republic, debt, Decc, Defra, defra, Denmark, Department of Energy and Climate Change, distributed generation, Dong, drainage, Drax, Drinking Water Inspectorate, drought, e, Eastern Europe, eco-towns, economy, Ed Miliband, EDF, EDF Energy, effic, Efficiency, efficiency, electricity, electricity distribution, electricity generation, electricity retail, electricity transmission, Eligible households should automatically get £80 refund on energy bill, emergencies, emissions, emissions trading, ENA, Enel, energy, Energy, energy distribution, energy efficiency, energy generation, energy policy, energy retail, Energy retail, energy security, energy services, energy storage, energy suppliers, energy supply, energy transmission, engineering, Eni, environment, Environment Agency, Eon, ERA, ESB, Essent, Eurelectric, Europe, European Commission, European Union, finance, Finland, flooding, France, fuel poverty, gas, gas distribution, gas retail, gas storage, gas supply, gas transmission, gas transport, Gazprom, GDF Suez, geothermal, Germany, health and safety, heat, Heat, hom, hometop, Iberdrola, ice, industrial relations, infrastructure, Infrastructure Planning Commission, innovation, interruptions, IP, Ireland, Italy, jobs, leakage, legal, LNG, maintenance, metering, Morrison, MPs, National Grid, NEA, Netherlands, NI Water, NIAUR, NIE, NIE Energy, Nordic, Northern Gas Networks, Northern Ireland, Northumbrian Water, Npower, nuclear, offshore, offshore wind, Ofgem, ofwat, Ofwat, Ombudsman Service, operations, ownership, pan-utility, Parliament, people, planning, po, policy, politcs, politics, pollution, poverty, pri, price review, pricing, protest, quality, re, regulation, renewables, research, Russia, RWE, Scotia Gas Networks, scotland, Scotland, Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Power, Scottish renewables, Scottish Water, security of supply, selling, Severn Barrage, Severn Trent, Severn Trent Water, sewerage, skills, smart grids, smart metering, smart meters, solar, South West Water, Southern Water, Spain, st, storage, streetworks, sustainability, Switzerland, tariffs, Thames, thames water, Thames Water, trading, unbundling, Unison, United Utilities, utility engineering, Vattenfall, vehicles, Veolia, w, waste management, wastewater, wastewater treatment, Water, water, water @homefeatured, water abstraction, water and energy policy, water distribution, water efficiency, water neutrality, water resources, water retail, water supply, water treatment, Water UK, water uk, weather, Welsh Power, Welsh Water, Wessex Water, Wics, wind, WWU, Yorkshire Water, zero-carbon development
< Ministers tell energy suppliers to double the cash they put into social tariffs | Market integration is increasing, says RWE study >
Water companies ask MPs to let them build big
Work in progress: water companies want changes to Floods Bill
The water industry last week urged government to clarify a clause in the Floods and Water Bill to allow water companies to bid for major infrastructure projects.
As the Bill currently stands, water companies are required to competitively tender projects and procure the services of a third-party infrastructure service provider for major infrastructure.
"The new proposals seem to exclude water companies from bidding for certain types of infrastructure, which have not been specified," Water UK deputy chief executive Phillip Mills told the Bill's Public Accounts Committee hearing.
He said the government needed to define, subject to consultation, what infrastructure would be covered and that water companies would be allowed to bid. "There should be a level playing field, otherwise we are denying potential benefits to customers and to the environment by excluding water companies."
Ofwat's director of finance and networks, Keith Mason, countered that the clause only affected "a very small number of very large projects", and that the intention was to "get the lowest possible and most advantageous price".
He said that if companies were allowed to bid "they might skew the market, because an infrastructure project will be providing services to the incumbents" and this would disadvantage other bidders.
Tony Smith, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, said that if the requirement led to a higher cost of capital, and therefore a higher price for customers, best value was unlikely to be achieved.
Comment on this story
Sign up to our free email newsletters