The general public is uninterested in the privatisation of the electricity supply industry and 80% say they will not buy shares in the privatised companies, the business community is keener on the idea but is not bothered about foreign investment in the industry, while the privatisation of electricity supply is to lead to a dramatic increase in investment in computer systems. Such are some of the key findings in the Power Ahead report published yesterday by ICL. The company believes that the first finding may well change when the government advertising campaign is launched; the second finding is, in the light of parliamentary discussion yesterday, not too alarming since investing bodies will not be able to own more than 15% of any one board. The last of these three findings is, of course, most pertinent to ICL which currently holds 40% of the market share in the provision of information technology to the electricity industry. The company expects the industry’s annual expenditure on information technology to grow by 55% to UKP192m in 1994. The finance sector within the industry will be making new demands on finance systems as the influence of new management personnel from outside the industry begins to be felt. Changes will have to be made to conform to the new regulatory requirements, to meet the demands of changed financial reporting times, and to reflect the move from the cost centre to the profit centre approach. The customer service and marketing sector will, according to the Report, divide into two businesses: the core business of supplying energy from the two main generators, the National Power Company and PowerGen; and diversified business in retailing, (where the industry at present is behind only Currys and Dixons in the sale of electrical goods) and contractual consultancy work. ICL believes that the 12 new distribution companies will retain their competitive edge in the fireside market by varying tariff rates at different times of the day and night (popular with 86% of those polled), by giving advice on home improvement (58% were in favour of this), and by putting an end to the irritation faced in homes where nobody is in during the day to answer the door to the meter reader, by installing intelligent meters to provide automatic readings (56% required such a service). The business community is more strongly in favour of privatisation but to keep a competitive edge here the new companies must, believe 96% of industrialists, adhere to a set of regulated standards; while 92% wanted to see financial penalties imposed on companies that fail to carry out repairs in a set time. Moreover, 26% are prepared to seek alternative sources of energy should electricity prices exceed planned budgets. Interestingly, both industrialists and the general public were prepared to pay companies more money if they could guarantee that the extra revenue would be spent on cleaning up the electricity industry. Within the industry’s engineering sector which has UKP3,700m of assets above and below ground, investment in such things as geographic information and engineering workstations can be expected. Finally, it is in the management support sector that ICL projects the greatest growth of information technology, predicting a rise of 66%. For this sector ICL promises to offer fast, inexpensive hardware, is researching the new optical disk technology, will introduce the X400 mail standard, and is active in the areas of geographic information and knowledge-based systems. The company is keen to point out, however, that in this age of open systems it is the business solutions supplier who has the edge. With publication of the Power Ahead report based on research by Gallup, ICL feels that it can lay claim to this description by offering the electricity supply industry a forum for discussion of its needs. The report can be had from ICL Public Services Business Unit at UKP35. – Katy Ring