Companies

Bulb Energy tops FT 1000 ranking with focus on renewables. While working as a management consultant at Bain, Hayden Wood was sent to one of Britain’s top six energy suppliers. What he witnessed was “quite a shock”. “I would come back from a day at work and we would be chatting in the pub and I’d say: ‘You wouldn’t believe what I am seeing . . . some of these software packages are from the early 90s’,” recalls Wood. “I just thought the energy companies could be investing in innovation and new technology and creating better experiences for their customers.” So he co-founded Bulb Energy, a UK energy supplier, in 2015. It now tops the latest FT-Statista ranking of Europe’s 1,000 fastest-growing companies, with 2019 revenues of £1.7bn and a 2016-19 compound annual growth rate of 1,159 per cent (Statista calculates revenues according to calendar year; Bulb’s year end is March 31). Wood co-founded the company with Amit Gudka — a friend he first met at a music festival in Croatia, who had spent nearly eight years as an energy trader at Barclays. Gudka became Bulb’s chief energy officer and, although he has since left, he retains a seat on the board. Bulb has been able to use its lower overheads to undercut incumbents, luring customers with claims of simpler pricing structures and 100 per cent renewable electricity. Last year, it expanded internationally, into France, Spain and Texas. Since its foundation it has expanded to around 1.7m customers. That makes Bulb the sixth-biggest supplier in Britain, with nearly 6 per cent market share, according to data from the energy regulator Ofgem.

FT 22nd March 2021 read more »

Extinction Rebellion has found itself an unlikely sympathetic ear in the form of an ex-oilman. Steve Holliday, the former boss of National Grid and now chairman of Cityfibre, has spent the better part of his career grappling with an issue Extinction Rebellion wants to put front and centre of politics: how to cut out carbon while keeping the lights on. “I was on stage at a conference with someone from Extinction Rebellion,” he says. “My final remark was: I think we agree on about 80pc of everything we talked about. “They’ve done a lot of good. Some of their methods I would not applaud, but if you look at some of the fundamental things they want to change, I concur with an awful lot of it.” It seems like an unusual position from a man who spent more than 20 years in the oil and gas industry, and 15 in utilities. It is roughly five years since Holliday stepped back from the top job at FTSE 100 stalwart National Grid. National Grid had to lay the groundwork for a shift to renewable energy. “At first, I can still recall we concluded in a very big report that once we got to 20pc renewables we were doomed and stability would be gone,” he says. “But here we are today, we have up to 60pc some days.” When Holliday took up the top job at National Grid, just 5.5pc of electricity was generated by renewables. Last year, the UK set a record of nearly 60pc in August.

Telegraph 21st March 2021 read more »

National Grid has moved to snap up local power networks company Western Power Distribution (WPD) in a £7.8bn deal, as it today announced a wider “strategic pivot towards electricity” that includes plans to sell off shares in its gas transmission business and step up work to explore the wider use of hydrogen in the energy system.

Business Green 18th March 2021 read more »

National Grid has placed a big bet on Britain’s electric future by agreeing to pay £7.8 billion for the country’s biggest power distribution company and proposing to sell a majority stake in the national gas network. The FTSE 100 group said yesterday it would buy Western Power Distribution from PPL, its US owner, acquiring cabling networks that supply almost eight million customers in the Midlands, south Wales and the southwest.

Times 19th March 2021 read more »

No company’s better placed for a power play than National Grid. So, it’s lucky its boss John Pettigrew hasn’t disappointed. He’s spotted the future and declared it electric. The proof of that? A three-part deal that looks smart, not least for fans of 90,000km of overhead lines, 135,000km of underground cable and 188,000 transformers. They’re what’s coming with Western Power Distribution, the operator of networks that supply 8 million customers in the Midlands, south Wales and the southwest: a business he’s buying for £7.8 billion to bolt on to the Grid’s transmission activities. They “pivot” the group towards electricity, lifting its share of assets from 60 per cent to 70 per cent, while cutting the Grid’s exposure to fossil fuels — gas drops to 30 per cent of the portfolio. The upshot? The Grid’s biggest statement yet that it’s plugged into the UK’s green “energy transition”, with the geographical balance of the group also shifting to Britain — the US business will make up 40 per cent of the company. Demand for electricity is forecast to grow much faster than for gas: doubling by 2050 in the view of the Climate Change Committee. It’s being driven by three key things. First, renewable generation such as solar and onshore wind, which “will be typically connected to the electricity distribution grid”, as Bernstein analysts put it. Second, electric cars, requiring fast charging points. The Grid is already helping kit out the UK’s motorway service stations and, at a local level, Western plans to deliver enough charging points for 3 million vehicles by 2030. And, third, a shift in how we heat our homes, with a move from gas boilers to heat pumps.

Times 19th March 2021 read more »

When Western Power Distribution’s American owners PPL hoisted the “for sale” sign over Britain’s biggest power distribution network company last summer, National Grid wasn’t seen as an obvious buyer. The FTSE 100 company had been increasing investment in its US business and other ventures such as interconnector cables and renewables. In Britain, where it operates the national gas transmission networks and English and Welsh power transmission networks, National Grid was locked in a battle with the energy regulator over plans to cut the company’s regulated returns. “It’s going to create an environment in which the UK is not a positive place to invest,” John Pettigrew, National Grid’s boss, said in September.

Times 19th March 2021 read more »

National Grid has swooped on Britain’s largest electricity distribution network in a £7.8 billion deal and announced that it is looking to offload a majority stake in Britain’s gas transmission pipelines. The FTSE 100 energy group said that it had agreed to buy Western Power Distribution from its American owner, PPL, and would also sell to PPL the Narragansett Electric Company, part of its American business, for £2.7 billion. It said that what it called the “transformational” transactions would “strategically pivot National Grid’s UK portfolio towards electricity” and strengthen its long-term growth outlook as the local networks require significant investment for the energy transition.

Times 18th March 2021 read more »

Rebel Energy is looking to tackle fuel poverty and provide renewable energy access to all strata of society, the company said. It is intending to use the Blue Prism cloud to help to automate its processes, reducing overheads as fewer people will be required for routine tasks than in conventional energy companies. This will create savings it can pass onto its customers, it said. It will initially look to use renewable energy guarantee of origin certificates (REGOs), bought through a wholesaler to provide green energy. But as it scales it will move quickly into buying directly from generators through power purchase agreements (PPAs), as well as looking to generate its own electricity in the future it added.

Current 12th March 2021 read more »

Britons jumping on the green power movement spurred a spike in sales at renewable energy supplier Bulb last year, sending revenue almost doubling as it cut its losses. Bulb, which provides customers with 100pc renewable electricity and gas which is carbon neutral, said the number of people using its service in the UK was up 46pc last year, and it was now in 1.7 million properties. Revenues for the year to the end of March 2020 came in at £1.5bn compared to £823m a year earlier, helping narrow operating losses from £128m from £59m. The company said this growth meant it more than doubled its headcount over the course of the year, and by the end of last March had 510 staff, up from 203 a year earlier. Since then, its teams have grown even further, hitting more than 1,000.

Telegraph 11th March 2021 read more »

Watchdog asked to examine potential Drax conflict on climate advisory arm.

FT 5th March 2021 read more »

Energy giant Centrica has pulled forward two of its leading green pledges by five years, aiming to become a net zero business by 2045 and to operate a fully electric vehicle (EV) fleet by 2025, it announced last week. The parent company of British Gas said it planned to reduce its own emissions, as well as those from customers that use its electricity of gas, in line with the Paris Agreement’s more ambitious 1.5C warming scenario. That means becoming a “net zero business” by 2045 – five years ahead of its original 2050 target unveiled last year – while also “helping its customers be net zero by 2050”, it said.

Business Green 1st March 2021 read more »