Energy Markets
Ofgem has sparked what is likely to be the largest ever investigation into the UK energy market by referring the sector to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The investigation will run into next year and could spell the end of the Big Six energy companies that control 95 per cent of the market if the CMA recommends they be broken up into smaller fragments, to separate their generation businesses from the units that sell power to households and businesses.
Business Green 26th June 2014 read more »
BBC 26th June 2014 read more »
Ofgem is today referring the energy market to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for a full investigation. This follows on from Ofgem’s proposal in March and the following consultation. An investigation should ensure, once and for all, that competition works effectively for consumers, by bearing down on prices while driving improvements in customer service and innovation. It will also help provide the confidence that is needed for investment in the energy sector and complement Ofgem’s recent reforms to make the market simpler, clearer and fairer for consumers.
Ogem 26th June 2014 read more »
Britain’s Big Six energy companies face the threat of being broken up for ripping off customers after regulator Ofgem asked the top competition watchdog to investigate their profits and prices. The Competition and Markets Authority will begin its “once and for all” investigation “immediately”, Ofgem said, and is likely to conclude by the end of next year. The referral, which Ofgem first proposed in March, came as the regulator published new data suggesting that energy suppliers’ profit margins had increased further this month.
Telegraph 27th June 2014 read more »
Energy companies’ profit margins have hit a record high as Ofgem formally referred the industry for a marathon competition investigation into evidence of consumers being ripped off. The investigation, by the new markets regulator, will take 18 months to complete and could result in the big energy companies being broken up. The referral comes as it emerged that suppliers are making a £101-a-year profit from each household on a dual-fuel — electricity and gas — tariff, up £5 from last month.
Times 26th June 2014 read more »
Energy Costs – Scotland
Talking on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland Ed Davey commented: ‘the problem that the SNP have is that the amount of these subsidies are going to have to come, to continue, within an independent Scotland. The question is will that happen?’ Well, what will happen? Let’s flash forward to September 19th, or soon after when a worried bevy of Big Six electricity companies talk to Ed Davey about what to do after the ‘Yes’ vote in the Referendum.
Dave Toke’s Green Energy Blog 26th June 2014 read more »
Energy Costs – renewables
A parliamentary spending watchdog warns today that the government may have handed benefits to corporate power providers at the expense of consumers by awarding £16.6bn of renewable energy contracts without putting them out to competitive tender. The criticism from the National Audit Office came as statistics released by the Department of Energy and Climate change showed that a fifth of all electricity was generated in Britain by solar, wind and other green technologies in the first three months of the year to 18.1 terrawatt hours, enough for 15m homes and up 43% on the same period of 2013. The audit office said that it understood the department gave the early green light to five offshore wind farms and three biomass projects to keep up the pace of “green” investments to meet EU energy targets before the introduction of a new “contracts for difference” subsidy regime next spring. “The [£16.6bn] investments support should contribute to the UK’s achieving its energy target in 2020, but it is not clear that awarding fewer early contracts would have put the achievement of that target at risk,” said Amyas Morse, head of the audit office. “As the contracts-for-difference regime has the potential to secure better value for consumers through price competition, committing so much of the available funding through early contracts, without competition, has limited the department’s opportunity to secure better value for money,” she added.
Guardian 27th June 2014 read more »
Independent 27th June 2014 read more »
Times 27th June 2014 read more »
BBC 27th June 2014 read more »
FT 27th June 2014 read more »
Tom Greatrex, Labour’s shadow energy minister, said: “This report raises serious questions about whether the Government’s mismanagement of contracts for clean energy projects will add a totally unnecessary cost to consumers’ energy bills. Consumers will be rightly outraged if they are left to foot the bill for this Tory-led Government’s incompetence.” Total green energy subsidies are capped at £7.6bn in 2020-21, of which much is already used up by existing wind farms and solar panels. The NAO calculated there would be £1.8bn remaining for projects through the new subsidy system – but that £1.2bn or 65 per cent of that had been used up by the eight contracts already awarded.
Telegraph 27th June 2014 read more »
Politics
The Energy Minister has hit back at claims that the coalition Government has failed to deliver on its promise to be ‘the greenest ever’, insisting that David Cameron’s administration is actually ‘delivering like no other’ on climate change. Giving his keynote speech at the Eco Technology Show in Brighton earlier today (26 June), Greg Barker hailed the ‘extraordinary progress’ that the Government has made over the past four years, singling out the Green Investment Bank and the Feed-In Tariff scheme as two significant success stories.
Edie 26th June 2014 read more »
Sizewell
The construction of a Sizewell C power station could be partly financed by Chinese companies – two of which are already set to invest in the first of the UK’s new nuclear plants, at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
East Anglian Daily Times 26th June 2014 read more »
EDF Energy has refused to be drawn on who will finance the new Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk, which could be modelled on the new Hinkley Point site in Somerset. It comes after reports that Chinese companies could be keen to invest after letters of intent were signed on funding for Hinkley Point. A second public consultation on Sizewell C is expected in the autumn. EDF has worked with Chinese partners on projects for 30 years.
ITV 27th June 2014 read more »
Moorside
THE team behind the proposed multi-billion-pound nuclear new-build near Sellafield will be back on site by August, it has been confirmed. A team from NuGen will begin to carry out geographical surveys at Moorside that, it is hoped, will pave the way for a new power station with three reactors being built. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) says the project would bring at least £10billion of investment and create up to 21,000 jobs over the construction, including peak on-site employment of more than 6,000. Once operational, the reactors would employ 1,000. Promoting the benefits of new nuclear build was the aim of a successful industry day, organised by the Sellafield Workers’ Campaign (SWC), The event heard from John McNamara, NuGen’s head of corporate communications, who accepted that recent progress on site has been slow, but “momentum will build” starting with the surveys that begin in August.
Whitehaven News 26th June 2014 read more »
Wylfa
Senior Plaid Cymru figures have attacked a party assembly member for taking an expenses-paid trip to Japan organised by a nuclear power company, when their own policy appears to be opposition to atomic energy, Wales Eye can reveal. One senior member of Plaid Cymru accused his own party of double-standards. The delegation to Japan was arranged by the firm behind Wylfa Newydd (formerly known as Wylfa B) on Anglesey, Horizon Nuclear Power who are paying for the Plaid Cymru AM for Ynys Mon, Rhun ap Iorwerth. The trip is designed to build relations with Horizon who plan to install Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR) next to the existing, ageing, Magnox power station on the island.
Wales Eye 27th June 2014 read more »
Sellafield
SELLAFIELD Ltd’s management was paid a combined £6.9 million from the taxpayer’s purse during the last year. The firm’s end-of-year accounts reveal a total of £6,927,000 paid to its parent body Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) for the use of the directors and senior managers it is borrowing. This figure includes just under £3.3m paid for its team of nine directors. The highest fee was for managing director Tony Price, who cost Sellafield Ltd £857,000. As NMP is a private company, how much the firm subsequently paid to its employees is not made public.
Whitehaven News 26th June 2014 read more »
An email yesterday from the Marine Conservation Society to RaFL points out that the Marine Conservation Society are aware of the problem of increasing radioactive particles on Cumbrian Beaches but that “Our Good Beach Guide criteria is based on water quality alone (i.e. radioactive pollution is not criteria for a ‘Good Beach’) , and as a small charity, we unfortunately are unable to undertake any tests of our own. Because the statutory body advises us that no special precautionary actions are required, we cannot justify putting a precautionary notice on our website without additional independent evidence”. We don’t like to ask for funds but with a little money we could set up an independent community radiation monitoring facility.
Radiation Free Lakeland 26th June 2014 read more »
Utilities
Good Energy is offering 20 per cent cheaper tariffs to residents near its proposed Big Field wind farm site in Cornwall and could extend the initiative across the whole of the county. The company has confirmed that if the site gets the go-ahead all households within five kilometres will be eligible to apply for the cheaper tariff, which Good Energy says will be the lowest cost deal available in the UK.
Business Green 26th June 2014 read more »
The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant wants to start operations in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, a report said Thursday, as it looks for ways to offset the huge costs of the disaster. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) will set up a joint venture in Britain by March 2016 with another Japanese company to make large-scale power storage facilities, the Nikkei said, as part of its entry into the wholesale electricity market.
Economic Times 26th June 2014 read more »
Energy Security
With Russia threatening to limit the flow of gas through Ukraine’s pipelines, energy security has been pushed to the top of the European agenda. But between fracking East Sussex to insulating homes in Riga, policymakers can’t seem to agree on the best course of action to secure Europe’s energy supply. We take a look at some proposals and assess if – and how – they contribute to Europe’s energy security. When it comes to Europe’s climate security there are a couple of clear winners, however – ramping up renewables and implementing energy efficiency policies. But whether or not that remains a priority depends on policymakers commitment to their domestic and regional climate goals. So when a politician next appears on television saying Europe must do something for security reasons, it may be worth asking what it is they’re trying to secure.
Carbon Brief 26th June 2014 read more »
Submarines
After 20 years at sea, traversing more than 685,000 nautical miles, the ballistic missile submarine Le Redoutable now rests in a drydock in Cherbourg, France. It is the largest tourable submarine, and one of the only ballistic missile subs accessible to the general public. Here’s a full tour.
CNET 26th June 2014 read more »
Germany – Renewable Subsidies
Brussels and Berlin traded barbs on Thursday amid a bitter row over EU competition rules allegedly scuppering reforms to Germany’s prized renewable energy programme. In an unusually pointed public statement, Brussels hit back at Sigmar Gabriel, the German vice-chancellor, for accusing the competition watchdog of trying to hold Germany “hostage” with unjustified and arbitrary demands. The dispute relates to the billions of euros of German public subsidies deployed to promote the energiewende shift to renewables while at the same time shielding heavy industry from the costs. Brussels raised questions over the system being discriminatory and penalising consumers in order to help big industry. Germany plans to generate up to 60 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035, as part of a radical shift in energy supply which involves a complete exit from nuclear power.
FT 26th June 2014 read more »
Japan – reactor restarts
Tokyo Electric Power Co. pledged to restart reactors at the world’s largest atomic plant, rejecting a bid by anti-nuclear shareholders to scrap the units over safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The company’s annual general meeting voted down motions advanced by Greenpeace and other activist groups holding Tokyo Electric shares to decommission the reactors and to revise the company’s recovery plan to exclude nuclear power. The vote comes as Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, pursues a turnaround strategy that hinges on cutting fossil fuel costs by resuming two units at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in northwest Japan. Nuclear restarts anywhere in Japan are opposed by 59 percent of those who responded to a poll in March by the Asahi newspaper.
Bloomberg 26th June 2014 read more »
France
The French government is capping its nuclear energy use at current levels and cutting its reliance on the technology over the coming decade. Draft energy policy has been announced that would keep the country – historically one of the world’s leading proponents of atomic energy – from installing any nuclear plants that would raise its output above its current 63.2 GW. This would essentially force the state-backed EdF to close some of its existing capacity before connecting its under-construction Flamanville plant to the grid. The plans would also restrict nuclear technology to supplying just 50% of French power from 2025, down from the roughly 75% it supplies at the moment. Both moves are in line with campaign pledges made by president François Hollande during his campaign for office two years ago.
Chemical Engineer 25th June 2014 read more »
Iran
Senior diplomats from six world powers met in Brussels on Thursday to search for ways to resuscitate negotiations with Iran over its contested nuclear programme, with less than four weeks left until a late-July deadline to strike an accord.
Reuters 26th June 2014 read more »
EU Business 26th June 2014 read more »
Renewables
Green electricity generation rose 43 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2014 to reach a record 19.4 per cent share of the total mix, government figures show. This performance marked a 1.5 percentage point increase on the previous record of 17.9 per cent recorded in the last quarter of 2013 and took renewable electricity generation to a record 18.1 TWh. Meanwhile, generation from gas dropped almost 20 per cent, while coal fell just under 17 per cent and nuclear almost 10 per cent as total electricity generation declined 8.2 per cent on the same time a year ago.
Business Green 26th June 2014 read more »
One fifth of all electricity was generated in Britain by windfarms or other green technologies in the first three months of the year, according to new statistics released by the Department of Energy and Climate change (DECC). New windfarms coming online, strong winds and a good winter for hydropower plants sent renewable energy generation surging to 19.4% of all electricity from January to March 2014, up from about 12% for the same period last year. The power produced was enough for about 15m homes during the quarter. It was hailed as a breakthrough by the wind industry, which alone provided 12% of the overall power produced, and a rebuff to critics who have said that renewables would never account for such a large proportion of the energy mix.
Guardian 26th June 2014 read more »
Independent 26th June 2014 read more »
Wind, wave, and tidal power could contribute 25 per cent of UK electricity by the end of the decade – and 44 per cent 10 years later – industry body RenewableUK has said. But it adds in a new Manifesto for the 2015 election that a 2030 decarbonisation target will be needed to support industry cost cutting and reach the sector’s full potential. The Manifesto, released last night, claims onshore wind will be cheaper than new nuclear, gas, and all other renewables by 2020, with a new task force established to identify the steps needed to achieve this goal.
Business Green 26th June 2014 read more »
Renewable UK has renewed its call for the government to introduce a 2030 decarbonisation target. The trade association for the wind, wave, and tidal industries has restated its call as part of its policy wish list ahead of next year’s general election. Maria McCaffery, chief executive at Renewable UK, said: “Without a clear long term objective, it will be very difficult to build the generating capacity that the UK’s homes, businesses and factories will require.
Utility Week 25th June 2014 read more »
Renewables – Cumbria
RESIDENTS around Bigrigg have had a chance to learn more about plans for a 30,000-panel solar park. Just over 24 hectares of land have been earmarked for the development in the fields by Woodend Farm and Hollins Farm. If plans go ahead the site would be a first for West Cumbria and the land would be leased from farmers for 30 years. Paul Neary, from Neo Environmental, said: “This site has all the elements to make a solar park work; it is near a sub station so we can feed in the energy produced and the land is low quality so we aren’t using fields that could grow crops.”
Whitehaven News 26th June 2014 read more »
Renewables – Scottish Islands
Government ministers and energy industry leaders have been discussing timescales for links between island renewables projects and the mainland. It has been proposed to connect wind and marine renewable schemes on the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland with the UK mainland transmission grid. They include a delay-hit subsea cable from Gravir on Lewis to Ullapool. The connections were among topics for discussion at the Scottish Island Renewables Delivery Forum in Glasgow. Scotland’s Energy Minister Fergus Ewing and the UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey are the event’s joint chairmen. Mr Davey said the Scottish and UK governments were working together in trying to realise the islands’ renewable energy potential. Ahead of the meeting, Mr Ewing said: “Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles can make a very substantial and cost-effective contribution to meeting the UK’s legally-b inding renewable energy targets, and help safeguard our energy security.
BBC 26th June 2014 read more »
Energy Efficiency
Around £8.5m has been handed out in the first two weeks of a scheme offering households money back when they make energy efficiency improvements, according to industry estimates. A total of 2,821 applications have been made for the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF) since it launched at the beginning of the month.
Business Green 26th June 2014 read more »
Environment Agency
Outgoing chair of the Environment Agency Lord Chris Smith, who steps down in July after a sometimes stormy six-year stint, says the government has failed to fulfil David Cameron’s pledge to be the “greenest ever”; the current resources available to regulate fracking safely could not cope with the government’s hoped-for shale gas boom.
Guardian 26th June 2014 read more »
Fossil Fuels
Francis Gugen has been described as “measured”, “intense”, “capable” and “determined”. For years he led the UK and north-west Europe operations of Amerada Hess, today simply known as Hess Corporation and a gas station giant that is in the Fortune 100 list of biggest US companies. Mr Gugen, then, is no fool, so it would be wise to take his comments this week extremely seriously: “During the course of the year there has been meaningful progress made in developing the regulatory and associated framework to support shale gas development. “The Government has now put its full support behind shale gas and there is a broad cross-party consensus in favour of its development in Britain.” It is, then, only natural that people would want to know just what meetings that executives from iGas and Dart – as well as those from rivals Tamboran Resources and Viking Energy – have had with ministers and senior officials. Specifically, a recent Freedom of Information (FoI) request asked for emails and letters between the Department of Energy & Climate Change and these companies, as well as internal ministerial briefing papers and agendas of face-to-face conversations.
Independent 27th June 2014 read more »
