The Calco Power Presidium

2010-02-23T10:18:00.002Z

Five of Britain’s biggest energy companies were facing mounting pressure to cut prices last night after figures from Ofgem, the industry regulator, showed the average profits they earned per household leapt 40 per cent this winter to the highest level in five years.

Ofgem said that net profit margins earned by the so-called Big Six companies — British Gas, ScottishPower, EDF Energy, N-Power, Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) and E.ON — widened from £75 per average dual fuel customer last November to £105 at the start of this month.
The figure represents the highest average margin enjoyed by the industry since 2004, although Ofgem said that the increase was likely to be short-lived after the decision by British Gas to trim its gas prices by 7 per cent. Its move is expected to open the floodgates to further cuts from rivals.
Nevertheless, the report triggered fresh criticism of the industry for failing to pass on wholesale price cuts sooner as Centrica, the owner of British Gas, prepares to report an estimated 50 per cent increase in 2009 profits to £550 million on Thursday.
Mike O’Connor, chief executive of Consumer Focus, the industry watchdog said: “Householders will no doubt wonder why margins have increased for the fifth quarter in a row, while wholesale costs continue to fall.”
Ed Miliband, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, also called for the remaining companies to reduce prices. “Householders facing high winter fuel bills deserve to see the benefits as soon as possible,” he said. “British Gas’s cut was a welcome first move, but we need to see all suppliers passing on the benefits of lower wholesale prices.”
Between 2007 and 2010, the average UK energy bill for a dual fuel customer soared from £912 to £1,223, according to www.MoneySupermarket.com.
Andrew Wright, Ofgem’s senior partner for markets, acknowledged that the companies need to be profitable to afford huge infrastructure investments — estimated at £200 billion by 2020 — to secure supplies and reduce carbon emissions. But he added that Ofgem “would also expect recent falls in wholesale energy costs to be passed on to consumers”.
Britain’s energy companies reaped huge profits this winter because they left the prices they charge consumers largely unchanged from last year while wholesale prices they paid for gas and power plummeted in the recession. By the end of 2009, the wholesale price of gas had fallen to below 40p per therm, down from more than 100p per therm during mid-2008.
Demand for gas and electricity was also high because of unusually cold weather.
Christine McGourty, director of Energy UK, which represents the leading gas and electricity companies, said the Ofgem figures omitted many of the basic costs faced by energy companies.
MPs call for reform of "flawed" electricity market
Britain’s electricity markets are “inherently flawed” and anti-competitive practices may be forcing up the costs paid by consumers, MPs have said.
The study from the Energy and Climate Change Committee on the future of Britain’s electricity networks also called for the introduction of a more efficient “smart grid” capable of intelligently managing demand and supply.
Paddy Tipping MP, a committee member said: “Our existing regulatory and policy frameworks, along with the grid infrastructure we rely on, were developed to serve the fossil fuel economy of the 20th century. The future looks very different.”
Mr Tipping called for a review of the British Electricity Trading and Transmission Arrangements, which have formed the foundation for UK power activity since 2005. He also said that by 2020 the UK network would need to accommodate a more diverse energy mix.

Source: The Times

Drax power plant suspends plan to replace coal with greener fuel

2010-02-19T11:09:00.002Z

Britain’s biggest power station has suspended its plan to replace coal with greener fuel, leaving the Government little chance of meeting its target for renewable energy.
Drax, in North Yorkshire, which produces enough electricity for six million homes, is withdrawing a pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 3.5 million tonnes a year, or 17.5%.
The power station, which is the country’s largest single source of CO2, has invested £80 million in a processing unit for wood, straw and other plant-based fuels, known as biomass. The unit is designed to produce more renewable electricity than 600 wind turbines, but will operate at only a fraction of its capacity because Drax says it is cheaper to continue to burn coal.
Drax is also one of dozens of companies delaying investments in new biomass power stations because of uncertainty over the Government’s policy on long-term subsidies. Hundreds of farmers growing biomass crops may now struggle to sell their produce.
Drax’s decision will make it almost impossible for the Government to meet its commitment to increase the proportion of electricity from renewable sources from 5.5% to 30% by 2020. Renewable energy is a key component of Britain’s legally binding targets to cut overall emissions by 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
In an interview with The Times, Dorothy Thompson, Drax’s chief executive, blamed the Government for failing to give sufficient subsidy to biomass to make it competitive with coal.
Drax has bought two million tonnes of biomass, but Ms Thompson said that it was considering selling it overseas because it no longer made economic sense to burn it in its six boilers.
Ms Thompson said: “We are not confident that the [subsidy] regime for what is one of the cheapest forms of renewable energy will support operating the biomass unit at full load. The UK is missing out massively on the potential for renewable energy from biomass. We want to run in a low carbon way but policy is against us.”
She accused the Department of Energy and Climate Change of lacking the skills to develop a successful biomass policy and focusing too heavily on expensive and unreliable wind turbines. “I think they simply have not put enough expertise into biomass. Wind is not a silver bullet; its benefits have been overstated.”
Ms Thompson said that the Government was holding back biomass by offering it only a quarter of the subsidy given to offshore wind farms and capping the amount of crops that can be burnt in coal-fired power stations.
She said that it was cheaper for Drax to pay for emissions permits to burn coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, than to switch to biomass.
Each megawatt hour of electricity costs Drax £31 to produce from coal and £40 from biomass.
Ms Thompson said that Drax would also be unable to proceed with its £2 billion plan for three new biomass power plants unless the Government offered longer-term support. “We do not believe we can create a credible investment case for our shareholders if there is complete regulatory uncertainty. This is a very serious issue because renewable energy through biomass is a key component for delivering the 2020 target.”
The Renewable Energy Association said that plans for more than 50 biomass projects, totalling £13 billion of investment, had been suspended because of uncertainty over policy. Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, the Energy Minister, said this month that the subsidy regime for biomass needed to be reviewed. Wind farm developers are guaranteed fixed subsidies for 20 years, but biomass investors could have the subsidy cut after four years.

Source: The Times

Oil shortages by 2020 due to Western 'profligacy', says energy boss

2010-02-11T10:04:00.001Z

Drivers need to start treating oil as a scarce commodity and switch to green transport to avoid shortages by 2020, according to the chief executive of Scottish & Southern.

Ian Marchant, who heads the £10bn FTSE-100 company, is among a group of corporate leaders warning that the world's demand for oil is on the brink of outstripping industry's ability to produce.
"The West has been far too profligate in its use of oil and the price is going to say: stop it now and start using your oil as a scarce commodity," Mr Marchant said.
The energy boss is a member of the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, along with Sir Richard Branson, the aviation and media billionaire, Brian Sout, the chief executive of Stagecoach, and Philip Dilley, chairman of engineering group Arup.
They believe that it will be very difficult for the world to produce more than 100m barrels per day of oil.
Current output is around 87m barrels per day, but demand for petrol products is likely to surge as the standard of living increases in China and India.
"It's GCSE economics that if production is constrained and demand increases from emerging countries, the price will go up and up and up," Mr Marchant said.
He urged the Government to start dealing with the problem of limited oil supply by encouraging consumers to limit their energy usage.
"We can have a debate about which year this problem will hit us, but I would rather have a debate about how we avoid it becoming a problem," he added.
The electrification of the UK's transport system is likely to prove both a huge challenge and expansion opportunity for electricity companies and network operators in the UK.
Mr Marchant believes that most consumers will probably be driving hybrid or electric cars by the middle of the next decade.
"Driving two miles is a pretty low value use of oil," he said. "One car in China adds far more value than a second car sitting in the driveway of some house in the UK."
The industry group wants the government to explore electrification of the railways and overhaul the transmission and distribution network.
Chris Barton, a member of the Department for Energy and Climate Change's energy security team, insisted that the Government is already doing enough to encourage efficiency and green transportation under plans published last year.
However, Mr Souter, the transport boss, has proposed more radical solutions than incentives to buy green vehicles. He called for the abolition of the lowest bands of tax that hit those with problems paying their energy bills and the establishment of a tax on carbon emissions.
"This would help redistribute wealth and the people using carbon would be paying for it," he added.
Last week, Ofgem, the energy watchdog, warned that lack of power plants, insecure supplies of gas and underinvestment in the grid would all contribute to "unaffordable" energy bills without more government intervention.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

BP faces protest over oil sands development

2010-02-08T10:01:00.001Z

BP has become the latest oil company to face a shareholder revolt over its investments in Canada’s controversial oil sands. A coalition of shareholders has tabled a resolution for the oil giant’s annual meeting on April 15 highlighting what they describe as the environmental and social risks of tar sands development.

The resolution, which follows a similar action taken by investors in Royal Dutch Shell, follows BP’s announcement last week that it is set to press ahead with a $10 billion investment in the industry.
Vast reserves of oil lie locked in the bitumen-rich sands of Northern Alberta but processing them into a heavy form of synthetic crude oil is an expensive and environmentally fraught activity which critics say is unsustainable and should be stopped.
Shareholders sponsoring the resolution, led by FairPension, include the Co-operative Asset Management, the Unison Staff Pension Scheme, Rathbone Greenbank, CCLA Asset Management and other fund managers, foundations and faith groups.
Niall O'Shea, head of responsible investing at the Co-operative Asset Management said: "BP, which previously made a virtue of its lack of exposure to oil sands, is now gearing up to exploit them. We believe that environmental costs may make an expensive business prohibitively so - without fundamentally addressing the issue of a large net rise in emissions. BP should reassure shareholders that what they're embarking on is fully costed, prudent and can withstand a more carbon-constrained world."
The resolution raises questions about the high costs of producing oil sands, and the risks to BP’s future profits presented by rising costs for emitting carbon dioxide as well as the legal and reputational risks stemming from environmental damage.
Andy Inglis, BP’s head of exploration and production, said the oil giant would make a final investment decision on its Sunrise oil sands project - a joint venture with Canada’s Husky Energy - later this year.
A spokesman for BP said: “We believe that this development is needed to meet the world’s growing demand for energy and we believe BP can do it in an environmentally sustainable way.”
At its results on Tuesday, chief executive Tony Hayward pointed out that BP was adopting a different technology from many other companies involved in the tar sands business which he said was preferable in terms of its environmental impact.
The technique, so-called “steam assisted gravity drainage”, is used to extract the oil in situ and avoids the mining of large tracts of land that have been adopted by some producers.
BP acquired a 50 per cent in Husky’s Sunrise project near Fort McMurray, Alberta in 2007 and at the same time sold Husky a 50 per cent share in its Toledo refinery in Ohio.
The announcement represented a clear break with the past for Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, whose predecessor Lord Browne of Madingley was an outspoken critic of costly oil sands developments.
He had sold off BP’s interests in Alberta in 1999, opting instead to focus on higher-risk but higher-return investments in countries such as Russia. Colin Butfield of the WWF said extracting oil from tar sands caused three times the carbon emissions of conventional production and had a “devastating” impact on land andf wildlife.
"Unconventional fuel sources may seem attractive in the short term but ultimately the economic and environmental costs are unthinkable,” he said.
BP estimates that 193 billion barrels of oil are contained in the oil sands - placing Canada second only to Saudi Arabia in a ranking of countries with the biggest proven reserves.

Source: The Times

Tullow nearing $2.5bn windfall

2010-02-08T10:00:00.000Z

TULLOW OIL will this week sell half its $5 billion (£3.2 billion) stake in one of the biggest oil finds in Africa to a Chinese state company.

The landmark deal with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) will bring Tullow, the FTSE 100 exploration group, a windfall of up to $2.5 billion.
It will also end wrangling over the rights to develop the giant fields in west Uganda. They helped Tullow, founded in 1985 by Aidan Heavey, a former accountant, to double its stock market value to £10.2 billion in the past year.
Final details were being worked out this weekend with Total, the French oil group, which could become an equal partner in the fields with the Chinese and participate in their development. Tullow is expected to announce the deal after Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, gives it his blessing, which is expected this week. The sale of the three blocks — worth between $4.5 billion and $5 billion — in the Lake Albert basin will be part of a larger development plan.
Eni, the Italian giant, had offered to invest $13 billion to bring them into production but cancelled the offer last week after Uganda switched its support to the rival Tullow/CNOOC plan. The deal is likely to include a secondary listing of Tullow’s shares on the Ugandan stock exchange.
The tussle for control began in November when Heritage Oil, Tullow’s 50% partner in two of the fields, sold them to Eni for $1.5 billion. Tullow matched the bid and gained key government backing.

Source: The Times

France's GDF to sweeten UK generator offer

2010-02-08T09:59:00.001Z

GDF Suez, the French power giant, is considering a revamped bid for International Power (IP), a £5bn independent power generator.

Talks collapsed last month after GDF offered to transfer assets into IP in return for a majority stake. But IP, led by chief executive Philip Cox, believed that the bid undervalued the British company, which has stakes in more than 45 power stations around the world.
A source close to GDF said that it is thinking of returning with a sweetened offer, likely to include cash for shareholders. "The situation is being actively monitored and all options are being pursued, including a cash element," he said.
A market source close to IP said that shareholders might be "cajoled" into accepting an offer should they be offered some cash, but added that it would have to be "full and fair" and would have to include a premium on the company's current market value, which is just shy of £5bn.
There was speculation this week that GDF had decided against a bid, instead turning its attentions tobuilding a stake in Suez Environnement, which supplies drinking water to 76 million people worldwide.
However, a GDF source claimed that doing one of the deals did not necessarily preclude the pursuit of the other. Advisers Goldman Sachs, Rothschild and BNP Paribas are understood to still be calculating how best to structure the IP offer.
The deal remains important to GDF as it would help it expand into the UK, where it has limited operations, but is bound to raise security concerns over so much of the UK's energy supplies being foreign owned. The move would also mean that GDF kept pace with domestic rival EdF, which last year bought a stake in nuclear generation group British Energy for £12.5bn.
The move would also buttress GDF's position as the world's biggest independent power producer; it has annual sales of €83bn (£73bn), 200,000 employees and listings on the Brussels, Luxembourg and Paris stock exchanges.
Mr Cox was reported to have spoken directly to his GDF counterpart, Gérard Mestrallet, before Christmas. IP was believed to have brought in investment bank Nomura to work on defence tactics.
As well as European locations like Italy, Portugal and Spain, IP has operations in distant territories including Pakistan, Australia and Indonesia. The company announced last month that it had completed finance for a 110mW gas-fired plant in Thailand.
In its last full year results to 31 December 2008, IP's pre-tax profit was £915m, nearly double the previous 12 months. Its shares closed at 313.9p on Friday, down 3p from the start of the day's trading. A GDF spokesman declined to comment.

Source: The Independent

Hunt for dozens feared buried in rubble of power plant blast

2010-02-08T09:53:00.002Z

Dozens were feared dead or injured last night after a huge explosion at a newly built power plant in Connecticut that shook nearby towns like an earthquake.

The Kleen Energy Plant being built in the college town of Middletown apparently blew up during the first test of its natural gas-fired generating system. Flames were seen shooting from a pipeline as a fireball lit up the sky and a huge plume of smoke hung over the scene.
Officials said that five people were known to have died in the accident and 12 injured, but they cautioned that many more could be trapped. Victims were feared to have been buried in the rubble when the rear of the largest building on the site collapsed.
“What I have been told by the owners of the project is that there could be 100 to 200 people working on the site on any given day. That is the starting point. That is the number they cannot nail down: how many were there,” Sebastian Giuliano, the Middletown mayor, told a press conference.
“They were purging gas lines all weekend,” Mr Giuliano added. “When they run the test most of the people who were there are evacuated from the building. So it is not like there were 100 people in the building when the explosion occured.”
“It is just horrible,” one worker told local WFSB-TV. “All I know is, I lost some union brothers. They are some close, close, personal friends. It is horrible. They were working. They were testing. They got little kids that are at home, and we lost them.”
Residents of towns up to 30 miles away reported feeling a blast. Ron Klattenberg, deputy majority leader for the Democrats in the local administration, said that the explosion could be heard 50 miles away. “I visited the site,” he said. “The walls, which they say were built to withstand tornados, were all blown away. The girders were still there but the walls were all gone.
“There was complete devastation. I was in my boatshed three miles away at the time. There was one huge blast. I thought it was an earthquake or that a tree had fallen on the shed.”
Lieutenant Paul Vance, of the Connecticut state police, said that a search-and-rescue team with dogs and thermal imaging cameras had been sent to the scene to look for survivors. “We have deployed an immense amount of resources,” he said.
The 620-megawatt power plant, on the bank of the Connecticut river about two miles from Middletown city centre, was expected to go online in the summer.
Kleen Energy Systems received approval to generate 520 megawatts, enough electricity for between 364,000 and 520,000 households, in November 2002. In 2006 the company sought approval from the Connecticut Siting Council to be able to produce 620 megawatts, enough for up to 620,000 homes.
Al Santostefano, the deputy fire marshal, said that the explosion was related in some way to natural gas, but that the precise cause remained under investigation. The blast appeared to have happened when operators attempted a “blow down” of natural gas pipelines to clear the gas. “It was a massive explosion,” he said. “It is possible that there might be people trapped in the rubble. There was a lot of steel, from what I could see.”
Bernadette Nyland, who was outside when she heard the explosion, told WTNH: “They were doing the firing of the engines this morning and so something went wrong and it blew up and flames came shooting up almost as tall as that stack.”
With temperatures hovering near freezing, the Department of Public Health was providing tents for medical treatment and shelter. The Red Cross said that it was setting up a counselling centre for victims’ families.

Source: The Times

Industry set for £27bn green energy bonanza

2010-02-08T09:34:00.002Z

Government renewable energy plans announced this week could create a multibillion-pound surge in demand for construction work

Under plans to reward homeowners who sell energy to power utilities, the Department of Energy and Climate Change this week announced that the price to be paid would be 41p/kWh, a far higher level than expected.
The department said this level of feed-in-tariff could mean that a photovoltaic (PV) panel could generate £900 a year if all its electricity were sold.
David Strong, chair of the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes, said: “This changes the renewables industry from being marginal to one with a strong business driver.”
Companies that supply or fit renewable energy generators such as Eaga and SIG are set to benefit from the tariff; shares in Eaga rose 8% after the announcement.
SIG estimates that the market for PV alone could be worth £27bn. Paul Roche, director of SIG’s Sustainable Solutions arm, said: “It is great news for the construction industry. Incentivisation programmes across Europe, especially Germany, have proved to be a massive success and provided a boost to the roofing sectors.”
The announcement gave a range of feed-in-tariff prices for different technologies, as well as committing the government to linking the price to inflation. The government will also consult on introducing a system for paying developers to produce heat through renewable technology.
Neil May, chair of the Good Homes Alliance, said there was a danger the move would distract housebuilders from constructing energy-efficient buildings.

Source: Building

Shell to cut 1,000 jobs and close six refineries

2010-02-08T09:32:00.001Z

Royal Dutch Shell yesterday announced plans to shed a further 1,000 jobs and sell six refineries as the oil company fights to stem widening losses from its global refining operation.

The announcement came as Shell unveiled a 69 per cent plunge in annual profits to $9.8 billion (£6.2 billion), from $31.4 billion, prompting Peter Voser, the chief executive, to deliver a gloomy verdict on the industry’s prospects.
“For my outlook for 2010, I would not call it a rosy one,” he said, as Shell revealed that it had suffered a loss of $1.7 billion in its downstream business, which includes its network of 35 refineries around the world, in the final three months of 2009.
Mr Voser, who is in the midst of a restructuring drive in Shell, said that the disposal of the refineries, which include the Stanlow plant, in Cheshire, and sites in New Zealand, Germany, Sweden and El Salvador, would trim Shell’s refining capacity by about 15 per cent or the ability to process 560,000 barrels of crude per day into petrol, diesel and other oil products.
The group’s refineries have total daily capacity of 3.3 million barrels, but it is struggling amid a collapse in profit margins. They hit a 15-year low of $1.49 per barrel in December, down from $5.19 a year ago.
For the full year, Shell said, profits from its downstream arm were down by 95 per cent at $258 million.
Mr Voser said that the worldwide recession has dramatically cut fuel demand, while industry overcapacity — particularly in North America and Europe — had undermined the economics of processing crude into petrol and other oil products. He said that the disposals, likely to raise several billion dollars, could take more than a year.
Gordon Gray, oil and gas analyst for Collins Stewart, said that the decision made sense, given the poor margins and the fact that there was no real sign that they would get better.
Mr Voser also pledged to press ahead with the global restructuring programme launched when he was appointed chief executive last July. He said that Shell had made 5,000 job cuts during the second half of last year — more than 800 a month — but said that he intended to remove a further $1 billion from the group’s costs this year, in part by cutting a further 1,000 jobs.
“This is all about simplification,” he said, adding that most of the cuts so far had been in “management and non-technical functions”.
Shell said that it would keep its dividend for the first quarter of 2010 frozen at 42 cents per share, as in the previous fourth quarter. This is up from the 40 cents of a year earlier.
Shares in the Anglo-Dutch oil giant slipped by 2.5 per cent to £16.66 after the results, which were slightly weaker than expected.
The steep fall in annual profits from a record $31.3 billion in 2008 was also driven by the weaker oil prices, which averaged $56 per barrel in 2009, compared with $90 the year before, as well as even steeper falls in the price of gas.
Shell revealed that, unlike its top rival, BP, oil production had fallen last year by about 3 per cent.
The company also said that it had sold 6 per cent less fuel last year than in 2008, with volume totalling 6.156 million barrels. Petrochemical sales fell by an even sharper 10 per cent.

Source: The Times

British Gas starts energy price war as bills fall for 8 million

2010-02-08T09:30:00.002Z

Britain’s big energy companies are on the brink of a price war after British Gas cut its prices by 7 per cent.

The reduction, which will benefit about 8 million households, is expected to start a battle for customers with E.ON and RWE npower thought to be among the companies considering a cut as early as next week.
Scottish and Southern Energy and Scottish Power are also believed to be studying price reductions.
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, which is Britain’s biggest energy supplier, has been criticised for resisting pressure to reduce the price of gas all winter despite falls in the wholesale gas price that began more than 18 months ago.
“Consumers could have seen prices fall earlier,” said Audrey Gallacher, energy expert at Consumer Focus. “Energy companies should have passed on the wholesale price cuts before winter.”
John Hall, an independent energy analyst, pointed out that the wholesale price of gas was about 35p per therm yesterday, about one third of the levels of more than 100p per therm during mid-2008.
A year ago, prices were at 60p per therm — nearly double the current levels.
“They could have cut prices by 20 per cent a year ago but they chose not to,” Mr Hall said. “They have been under no real pressure to do so.”
In an announcement that is likely to add to the anger felt by many hard-pressed consumers, British Gas is expected to report bumper profits at the end of this month of £540 million for 2009.
The unusually cold weather in December, which forced people to use their central heating systems more often, prompted City analysts to raise their profit forecasts for the company by at least £10 million.
The business is thought to have benefited by about £1.5 million in extra profits each day during the period from mid-December to mid-January when Britain was affected by its most severe bout of winter weather in decades.
On January 7, daily gas demand reached a record high of 454 million cubic metres, up 30 per cent from a seasonal average of 350 million cubic metres.
About 40 per cent of the average annual household energy consumption occurs during the three months between December and February.
Wholesale gas prices have been pushed lower because of the recession, which has reduced industrial demand for energy as factories reduce production levels. Industrial gas demand in Britain has fallen about 10 per cent since mid-2008.
Supplies are plentiful after the opening of new liquefied natural gas terminals at Milford Haven in Wales and imports through a pipeline from Holland and Norway.
Andrew Horstead, energy analyst at Utilyx, the energy and carbon advisers, said: “Given the sizeable drop in wholesale prices from the peaks in 2008, a 7 per cent cut is below our expectations.
“We have already seen a price war in the online market and we hope that this latest move will stimulate a similar response from the other suppliers to pass on lower cost to their beleaguered customers.”
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “We have said for some time that householders must start to see the benefit of lower wholesale gas prices. This is very welcome news at a time when many will be facing the prospect of hefty winter bills. We expect to see other firms follow suit as quickly as possible.”

Source: The Times

Energy regulator warns of power blackouts and renationalisation

2010-02-04T11:40:00.002Z

Britain’s energy regulator yesterday warned of power blackouts and spiralling consumer prices and raised the prospect of partial renationalisation of the industry.

In a damning report, Ofgem says Britain’s power industry is in a dire state and in desperate need of investment. The regulator raised the prospect of direct government intervention that would wind back the clock on 20 years of deregulation.
Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem’s chief executive, said: “We do not advocate change lightly, but all the facts point to the need for reforms now ... Leaving the present system unchanged is not an option.” In remarks akin to proposals by Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, in an interview with The Times on Monday, Mr Buchanan said that there was “reasonable doubt” over the security of Britain’s energy supplies before 2015 and set out proposals to unlock an estimated £200 billion of investment needed to solve a looming energy crunch. “Acting earlier will also help keep costs as low as possible for consumers and business,” he said.
Mr Buchanan claimed that the crisis had been compounded by an “unholy trinity” of factors — including the impact of the recession on energy industry investment, Britain’s growing reliance on imported gas as North Sea supplies are depleted and the closure of nine ageing coal-fired and oil-fired power stations by 2015 in order to meet new EU pollution laws, a move that will at a stroke scrap almost a third of UK generating capacity.
However, Ofgem’s Project Discovery report, which has thrust energy policy centre stage weeks before an expected general election, immediately provoked a storm of criticism.
Lord Lawson of Blaby, the Conservative former Energy Secretary, an architect of energy market deregulation in the 1980s, rejected Ofgem’s analysis and accused it of being subject to political interference. He said: “It’s not the free market that has failed but political opposition to nuclear, coal and other forms of carbon power ... Ofgem just feels it has to trim its sails to the prevailing political wind.”
Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at Oxford University, said the findings exposed a failure by Ofgem to tackle deep problems in the energy market that had been clear for many years. “Ofgem has very limited credibility,” he said. “This is a quite remarkable entry into policy by a regulator.”
Ofgem’s proposals range from placing new requirements on Britain’s Big Six energy companies to generate more electricity from wind or nuclear power to more drastic steps such as creating a centralised national “energy buyer” that would coordinate investment through a single company, probably with state support. Another proposal is to set a floor on the price that power plant operators must pay for their CO2 emissions — to funnel investment into cleaner alternative fuels.
All these proposals would involve greater central control or government intervention and having a centralised buyer would involve an element of industry renationalisation.
Greg Clark, the Shadow Energy Secretary, said it was a “sign of desperation” that Ofgem, whose chief role is to execute government policy, was having to urge the Government to adopt a policy for energy security. He said: “This is a devastating verdict on Labour’s 13 years of neglect of Britain’s energy security.”
Mr Miliband rejected the concerns and agreed with Ofgem’s conclusions. He said: “For the longer term, Britain will need a more interventionist energy policy. The scale and upfront nature of the low-carbon investment needed is likely to require significant reform of our market arrangements.”

Source: The Times

Labour prepares to tear up 12 years of energy policy

2010-02-01T09:02:00.002Z

The Government is drawing up plans for a wholesale reform of Britain’s energy markets that could wind back the clock on 12 years of deregulation.

In an interview with The Times, Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said that Britain’s existing, highly liberalised market regime, introduced under Labour in 1998, was failing to deliver the investment needed to cut UK carbon emissions by more than a third by 2020.
A market structure was being designed to boost long-term investment in low-carbon sources of electricity, including wind parks, nuclear reactors and fossil fuel stations equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
Mr Miliband said: “We are going to need a more interventionist energy policy to deliver the low-carbon investment we need.”
Mr Miliband said that changes being considered included: reform of Ofgem, the energy regulator, to improve care for consumers; an overhaul of Britain’s existing new electricity trading arrangements (Neta), which have been in place for more than ten years; and the introduction of “capacity payments” to guarantee returns to developers of low-carbon sources of power.
Mr Miliband said that big reforms would be essential to deliver the estimated £170 billion of investment to meet its goals of huge carbon cuts. The Neta system, in which electricity is traded via contracts between buyers and sellers or power exchanges, does not give sufficient guarantees to developers of wind turbines and nuclear plants.
He said that one alternative would be a return to “capacity payments” — in which power station operators would be paid for the electricity they generate and also for capacity made available. The idea of such payments is to give greater certainty to investors in renewable and nuclear energy. They would help to bolster the reliability of a grid that was more heavily reliant on power generation from wind farms.
He said: “This is very different from the current system, where you get paid for the electricity you produce and are not given any guarantees in advance. In future you could say ‘We need a certain amount of low-carbon capacity’ and generators would say how much they can provide.”
Such a move would be one of the biggest changes in Britain’s energy market since the 1989 Electricity Act, which began deregulation. It would also represent a return to some of the principles of the system before 1998. The Electricity Pool, which Neta replaced, had capacity payments but was criticised for being too inflexible. Mr Miliband said that details of the reforms would be in a document to be published in April called Roadmap to 2050, published with the 2010 Budget. He said that the changes were essential to help Britain to prepare for a doubling of electricity demand by 2050, driven by other policy objectives such as a growth of electric cars and a move from gas to electricity for heating.
A huge expansion of wind power is expected to have a big impact on the reliability of the national grid, which capacity payments could help to offset. Wind energy is intermittent and heavily reliant on back-up power generation for use when it is not blowing.

Source: The Times

RWE npower Considers Gas-fired Power Generation Option At Tilbury, Essex

2010-01-30T11:16:00.001Z

RWE npower has said that it may construct a gas-fired power plant at its site at Tilbury in Essex to replace the existing coal-fired power station. The existing Tilbury plant is scheduled to close under European regulations governing power station emissions (the Large Combustion Plant Directive) by the end of 2015.
The company said in November 2009 that it will not be proceeding with a consent application for a 1600MW cleaner coal plant at the site because the economic conditions were not supportive for coal projects.
An area of the site has been identified for the potential fitting and enablement of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in the future, if and when this technology becomes viable. One CCS method that may be considered is integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology, RWE npower said.
IGCC is the process where coal can be turned into a gas and used as a fuel for the CCGT power station, with the resulting CO2 being captured and removed for permanent storage.
Kevin McCullough, chief technical officer of RWE npower, said: "This is just an option at this stage, but our Tilbury site is an excellent one for power generation. It has good energy infrastructure and is close to areas of high electricity demand. Gas generation has a part to play in our energy mix alongside coal, renewables and nuclear projects.
"The development of CCS technologies is essential if we are to meet national carbon emissions targets, and maintain secure supplies of electricity. We are already developing a carbon dioxide capture pilot plant at our coal station in Aberthaw, South Wales. A modern gas station at the Tilbury site would be 'CCS ready' and, in the future, could enable us to capture CO2 from our plant using this alternative technology."

Source: Energy Business Review

Cold winter leaves utilities with a warm feeling inside

2010-01-25T10:45:00.003Z

The cold winter weather this year will deliver a £100 million boost to the profits of Britain’s Big Six energy companies, according to forecasts by City analysts.

Centrica, the owner of British Gas and Britain’s largest gas and electricity supplier, with 16 million customers, is likely to be the biggest single winner, Peter Atherton, utilities analyst at Citigroup, said.
He forecast that Centrica would rake in extra operating profits of between £40 million and £50 million over the past month, after a plunge in average UK temperatures in midDecember that prompted millions of consumers to turn up their thermostats and use more gas and electricity.
He said that the company had benefited by about £1.5 million in extra profits each day in that period.
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) was likely to enjoy a boost to profits of £25 million to £30 million over the same period.
The other big suppliers — EDF, E.ON, ScottishPower and RWE npower — also stood to scoop windfall profits, Mr Atherton said. “They will all have benefited. It could easily add up to an extra £100 million in profits between them.”
Consumption of gas and electricity soared in mid-December as temperatures plunged and Britain was hit by its most severe bout of winter weather in decades.
On January 7, UK daily gas demand hit an all-time record high of 454 million cubic metres, up 30 per cent from a seasonal average of 350 million cubic metres.
On the same day, British electricity demand hit a high of 58 gigawatts, up from a seasonal average of 56.2 gigawatts.
Yet the predictions of big increases in corporate profits have stoked anger from consumer groups. Robert Hammond, energy expert for Consumer Focus, said: “All the energy suppliers will be enjoying rocketing profits while millions of consumers will be worrying about how to afford to keep warm. Suppliers have failed to pass on wholesale price cuts and have boosted their profits by not reducing prices before customers turn up their heating in the cold winter.”
He called for a Competition Commission investigation to address the problem.

Source: The Times

EirGrid Wales-Ireland electricity project in Flintshire reaches second stage

2010-01-18T11:59:00.003Z

THE second phase of a project to build an undersea electricity connection between Wales and Ireland is due to start next week.

The East West Interconnector, which will enable the two-way transmission of electricity between both countries, is being developed by EirGrid in connection with Flintshire County Council.
The 600m euro (£560m) project will see cables travel under the Irish Sea and underground from Barkby Beach, Prestatyn to the site of the planned converter station in Shotton.
The work will get under way in Ffynnongroyw on Monday.

Source: The Flintshire Chronicle

Western Isles wind farm gets go-ahead but ancient site protected

2010-01-17T12:03:00.003Z

THE first large-scale wind farm in the Western Isles has been given the go-ahead and will be able to provide enough power for nearly four times the number of homes on the islands. Original proposals had been criticised for damaging the view of the ancient Callanish standing stones. Revised plans removed a number of turbines from the national scenic area, and yesterday energy minister Jim Mather approved the proposal on condition more turbines were cut.
The 33-turbine, 118MW scheme at Muaitheabhal, on Lewis, was proposed by developer Nick Oppenheim on his Eisgen Estate.The announcement comes a week after Mr Mather approved the controversial Beauly-Denny powerline which is due to carry renewable energy from the Highlands and Islands.
The £120m Lewis project will be able to provide green electricity for 55,000 homes and will create about 150 construction jobs.

Originally, Mr Oppenheim planned to erect 133 turbines, reduced in 2004 to 53. Last year, his company announced an amended application for 39 turbines, totalling 140MW. This removed towers which would have been built in a national scenic area and damaged the view of the Callanish standing stones, about which campaigners had raised concerns.Mr Mather's decision further removes six turbines from the application, and the minister said he imposed conditions to protect the natural environment and cultural heritage.

The original proposal had attracted criticism on the grounds that it would adversely affect the view of the ancient Callanish standing stones

The islands' council has been promoting the area's potential for wind farm for many years, but plans for a £500m, 181-turbine development on Lewis were turned down in April 2008 by Scottish ministers, who decided the plan did not comply with European law on peatland wildlife habitats.

Mr Mather said yesterday: "Since the first proposals for a wind farm on Lewis were put forward, I have maintained that the Western Isles must be able to play its part in harnessing and benefiting from our vast green-energy potential. Today, we are making that reality."I am delighted that the application was able to be approved, bringing as it does substantial economic and community benefits to the islands."

He said the scheme could support existing firms, create new businesses and offer possibilities for the former oil fabrication yard at Arnish Point, near Stornoway, which has been used by the renewables industry.

Mr Mather said it also provides a stimulus for moves to have a grid inter-connector to the mainland.

Angus Campbell, leader of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council), said the decision was a key building block to opening the renewable energy potential of the Outer Hebrides, but Aedán Smith, head of planning and development with RSPB Scotland, is concerned the project has been approved in an area of great value to Scotland's natural heritage. It had one of the highest densities of golden eagles in the world, and he raised concerns about a lack of monitoring.

Helen McDade, head of policy at the John Muir Trust, said the decision eroded another area of "stunning wilderness", the day after the organisation launched a campaign to protect wild land from development.

Source: The Scotsman

Security fears threaten smart meter plan

2010-01-14T18:51:00.002Z

The £8.1 billion rollout of smart meters in Britain could be knocked off course unless the Government and Ofgem, the energy regulator, act urgently to convince the public that the information provided by the meters will be held securely.

Fears that data on energy consumption could be misused by criminals, police or insurance companies have curtailed the compulsory introduction of the meters in the Netherlands, according to a report by Datamonitor, the market analyst.
Dutch consumer and privacy organisations were concerned that information relayed as frequently as every 15 minutes could allow employees of utility companies to see when properties were empty or when householders had bought expensive new gadgets.
Smart meters, which are due to be rolled out to the UK’s 26 million households by 2020, are fitted with information and communications technology so that they can send data and receive instructions. The intention is that they will transform the energy industry — enabling the transition to a low-carbon economy — but utilities have been frustrated at the delay to agreeing a common model and standards for use.
Now Datamonitor is warning that the introduction of smart metering will rival the creation of the internet as a telecommunications project and will stretch utility industry practices and processes to breaking point.
Alex Desbarres, senior renewables analyst at Datamonitor and co-author of the report, said: “The Government and the regulator have to decide what they want the programme to achieve and then they have to quickly establish a dialogue with consumer groups and the general public.
“The backlash against smart meters could be aggressive if the message that they will reduce energy consumption and help lower carbon emissions is not made clear. The Government also has to address these privacy and security issues. Many people do not like the idea of utility companies having a permanent window on their private life.
“What is the industry going to do with all this data? At the moment, they do not have the processes to manage it — and without significant new systems the data itself is worthless.”
A new communications centre will be created to receive and manage the data from the meters to make it easier for customers to switch suppliers.
According to Datamonitor’s report, the present trials of smart meters, which are being conducted with four of the leading suppliers, are throwing up potential problems, including issues about access to properties and the need for rewiring and repiping. Datamonitor says that all suppliers have had difficulty obtaining and installing the necessary equipment for trials, illustrating the relative immaturity of the technologies.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said that the privacy and security issues were being addressed: “Data protection and system security are crucial issues for the success of the rollout and operation of the smart metering and will be a vital part of the implementation work we will be doing. We will take a rigorous and systematic approach to assessing and managing these issues.”
A spokesman for Ofgem said: “Ofgem’s main concern is that the interests of consumers are protected when smart meters are introduced. Data protection and system security are crucial issues for consumers and we will take a rigorous and systematic approach to assessing and managing these issues. This will include stringent rules and safeguards.”
Energy UK, which represents the six main gas and electricity suppliers, said: “The industry has been working flat out to develop the smart metering programme since 2006 and continues to take on board lessons from other programmes around the world.”
The European Union said in 2006 that smart meters should be made mandatory, but voters in the Netherlands have vigorously opposed a compulsory rollout and succeeded in persuading politicians to vote against it.
Smart meters are expected to lead to the introduction of more variable price tariffs, based on time of day. It should be possible to charge consumers more at peak hours, which in turn would encourage many people to use electricity in periods of lower demand.
Flicking the switch

The Department of Energy and Climate Change wants to see 47 million meters in 26 million properties by 2020
Trials suggest that the £8.1 billion scheme may help people to save £28 a year
Smart meters have a visual display allowing customers to see exactly how much electricity and gas they are using and relay the data to energy suppliers automatically
Energy suppliers will be responsible for the roll-out of the meters at a cost of about £340 per household.
UK homes add £33 a year to bills by leaving appliances on standby

Source: The Times

National Grid in talks to avert walkout by workers

2010-01-13T12:48:00.001Z

National Grid is meeting union chiefs today in a last-ditch attempt to stop hundreds of electricity workers walking out during one of the coldest winters on record.

If a strike or overtime ban by workers from the transmission business went ahead, the network could become vulnerable to power failures.
The business has been operating flat out during the recent cold spell to maintain electricity supply in parts of the country where heavy snow has brought down power lines.
Unite, the UK’s largest union, has balloted its members on whether to strike over a change to terms and conditions that would create a two-tier workforce.
While there is support for industrial action within the union, management is hoping that it can avoid that outcome with the last-minute negotiations.
“National Grid cannot confirm any planned meetings between it and the unions, but the company has always said that it is keen to resolve this issue through negotiation,” a spokesman said. “As you’d expect, the company has, of course, taken steps to ensure that any possible industrial action does not have any impact on gas and electricity supplies to consumers or on the safe operation of its networks.”
Talks between the company and Unite have been under way since April after the company said that it wanted to remove health cover and reduce holiday entitlements for new starters. A proposed 1 per cent increase in pay is also behind the dispute.
“In real terms, with the comparative Retail Prices Index at -1.4 per cent at the settlement date of July 2009, the offer amounts to 2.4 per cent above inflation, plus a lump sum equal to about £350 for each employee,” National Grid said.
Unions have said that they would work with management to cover emergency cases and protect vulnerable people.

Source: The Times

Britain on gas alert as extreme cold freezes Norway’s undersea pipelines

2010-01-12T10:50:00.002Z

Cold weather in Norway put Britain’s gas network on alert today as supplies dropped from Ormen Lange, a giant Norwegian gasfield operated by Norske Shell.

National Grid issued a gas balancing alert, its fourth warning in a week, when pressure dropped over the weekend in the Langeled pipeline that delivers gas from Norway to a terminal in eastern England.
The cut in Norwegian supply left Britain temporarily short of fuel, forcing National Grid to call on gas shippers to bring extra supplies into the system.
National Grid said that no gas consumers had been cut off in today’s alert and it did not expect any cuts. More than 100 industrial users had their gas cut temporarily last Thursday when Norwegian supplies were interrupted because of the shutdown for several hours of Troll, another Norwegian gasfield.
Ice forming in pipelines is believed to be the cause of the shutdown of Ormen Lange, a huge offshore resource capable of supplying Britain with a fifth of its gas for decades. A gas processing plant at Kaarstoe on the Norwegian mainland that separates liquid fuels, such as butane and propane, from natural gas was closed over the weekend as a result of icing.
A Norske Shell spokesman blamed cold weather for the shutdown of Ormen Lange. Temperatures on the coast of Norway in the region of Kaarstoe are normally mild, at about 0C, but in recent weeks the area has experienced minus 7C to minus 10C.
Shell was unable to predict when Ormen Lange production would resume. “We are working round the clock to put measures in place to remedy the situation,” the spokesman said.
Gassco, the state-owned Norwegian gas exporter, said that it was restoring production at the Kaarstoe plant. However, tonight Langeled was supplying only 16 million cubic metres of gas — a fraction of its normal flow of 71 million cubic metres.
Britain’s gas grid has come under unprecedented pressure in the weeks of snow and ice. Gas volumes have risen to record levels above 460 million cubic metres, exposing the nation’s recent dependence on imports of fuel, notably from Norway. The Norwegian shortfall was made up today mainly in supplies through interconnector pipelines with Belgium.
Manufacturers hit by recent interruptions in supply have called for more storage facilities, pointing to the greater gas storage capacity available in continental Europe. According to National Grid, there is enough gas in storage to last until mid-March if consumption continues at these levels. At peak demand last week, stored gas supplied 16 per cent of demand. The UK North Sea supplied 38 per cent, Norway supplied 21 per cent, 13 per cent was imported from mainland Europe and 12 per cent was imported as liquefied natural gas, mainly from Qatar.
The recent fluctuations in volumes through Langeled, a 1,100km (685-mile) pipeline and the longest subsea pipe in the world, will be embarrassing to Norway. From the beginning, Ormen Lange was developed with Britain as its target market and the Norwegian Government highlighted the issue of energy security when the project was sold to the British public.
Statoil, Norway’s leading enterprise, invested billions in developing Ormen Lange and Langeled. The construction of the gasfield, which is operated entirely on the seabed without a surface platform, posed huge technical challenges, including laying a pipe up a subterranean cliff face.

Source: The Times

European chill cuts power, strands travellers

2010-01-11T11:17:00.002Z

Extreme winter weather has left thousands of people without power in Germany, France and Poland, while disrupting rail, air and motorway travel in many parts of Europe. Near-freezing temperatures are forecast for the week ahead.

The Arctic freeze gripping Europe left hundreds of people stuck in vehicles in deep snow or stranded at airports with scores of flights cancelled and power cuts to thousands of homes.
The treacherous conditions cut off villages in northern Germany and on the Baltic islands, and disrupted rail traffic with Eurostar still only able to run two out of three trains under the Channel.
The weather, blamed on a low pressure system that forecasters labelled "Daisy", unleashed blizzards in north Germany that left motorways, secondary roads and railways impassable at certain points.
Hundreds found themselves stuck in their cars and lorries in snow, or in trains overnight on Saturday, authorities said.
"Daisy" dumped even more snow on Germany during Sunday, particularly in the northeast, and forecasters warned of more to come overnight and all day Monday, with heavy snow showers expected to spread southwards.
School was cancelled for Monday in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state, while snowsdrifts up to two metres (six feet) high meant many villages were "left to their own devices", police said.
All of Germany was blanketed with snow, whipped up in some places by strong winds. Leipzig in the east shivered under 29 centimetres (11 inches) of snow, Berlin had 27 centimetres and Hamburg in the northwest 12 centimetres.
Dozens of villages in rural Schleswig-Holstein state and on the Baltic Sea islands were completely cut off, while more than 1,000 car accidents have been reported across Germany in recent days, several of them fatal.
Air travel was hit as well, with nearly 100 flights cancelled Sunday at Frankfurt airport, Europe's third busiest, after 255 flights were scrapped on Saturday, a spokesman told AFP.
The snowfall which has blanketed Britain for a week eased on Sunday, but the freezing conditions continued to cause extensive disruption to air travel.
More than 80 flights were cancelled at London's Heathrow airport on Sunday, while low-cost airline Easyjet scrapped almost 100 flights.
Eurostar said that it would continue to operate on a reduced timetable Monday, and urged passengers to postpone their trip to a later date if possible.
The army helped to deliver much-needed supplies of food to rural areas in Kent in southeast England. Snow had cut off many remote areas.
At least 26 people have died from the frigid weather, according to British media.
Health and safety concerns about access to stadiums wiped out all but two of the weekend's English Premier League football matches, and the Serpentine swimming lake in London's Hyde Park was closed for the first time in 140 years.
Temperatures were expected to edge above freezing as the week wears on, forecasters said.
The unusually harsh conditions were caused as relatively warm humid air from the Mediterranean met cold air from the north and east, meteorologist Michel Daloz from Meteo France said.
In France, fresh snow and freezing rain made for another day of disruption, with 800 people including 500 British tourists on their way to a skiing break in the French Alps forced to spend Saturday night at Lyon airport.
Around 3,000 homes in southeastern France were without power for a second day Sunday, while icy conditions caused numerous accidents on roads around Paris, prompting the closure of motorway sections and a ban on lorries.
Later in the day, however, conditions had improved enough for French road authorities to lift a "status orange" state of alert across much of the country.
In Poland, around 80,000 households were left without power after tree branches weighed down by snow fell on electricity cables, while freezing rain caused major problems on busy rail links between Warsaw and Krakow.
In the northeast of the Czech Republic, heavy snow forced traffic on the rail line into neighbouring Slovakia to be suspended for six hours, while in the southeast, power outages left thousands in the dark.
In the Balkans, heavy rain and melting snow meanwhile led to flooding in parts of Croatia and Bosnia, with an emergency declared in the central Croatian district of Lika and 100 homes evacuated.
Several European countries sent rescue teams to Albania after 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of land were flooded in the north, affecting 2,500 homes, officials said. No deaths were reported.

Source: France24

Google asks for govt permission to buy and sell electricity

2010-01-11T11:14:00.002Z

Internet giant Google has asked for government authorisation to buy and sell electricity in the United States, in a move seen as an expansion of its operations in renewable energy.

Internet search giant Google is seeking government authority to buy and sell electricity in the United States, a further expansion of its operations aimed at boosting renewable energy.
In a document filed last month with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and obtained by AFP, Google indicated that its Google Energy unit asked for "market-based rate authority."
Under that authority, "Google Energy will engage in wholesale electric power and energy transactions as a marketer," the filing said.
The move marked an additional step by the California-based Internet giant to reduce its carbon footprint.
Google announced in 2007 that it would invest in renewable energy. It has already launched a free software, PowerMeter, that allows individuals and businesses to monitor their energy consumption.
The company in mid-December pledged on its blog "Going green at Google" that it was going to make its operations carbon-neutral and reduce greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Niki Fenwick, a Google spokeswoman, told specialist website CNET that the company wanted to become a player on the power grid.
"Right now, we can't buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets," Fenwick said.
"We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits," she said.
"We don't have any concrete plans. We want the ability to buy and sell electricity in case it becomes part of our portfolio."

Source: France24

Crown Estate wind announcement is "defining moment" for Britain

2010-01-08T16:14:00.003Z

This morning’s announcement of the chosen wind farm developers for Round 3 lays the foundations for Britain to become a renewables world leader, the government has said.

“This is a defining moment in the future of clean energy in Britain,” said Prime Minister Gordon Brown. “This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity.”

Brown spoke as The Crown Estate announced the successful bidders for each of the nine new offshore wind zones in waters around the UK − potentially totalling 32GW in capacity − this morning.

All selected bidders have now signed exclusive Zone Development Agreements with The Crown Estate to take the proposals through the planning and consenting stage.

The largest zone, Dogger Bank − more than 125-km off the east coast of Yorkshire and equivalent in size to North Yorkshire − was awarded to the Forewind Consortium equally owned by SSE Renewables, RWE nPower Renewables, Statoil and Statkraft.

The second largest zone, Norfolk Bank − measuring 6036.8km² and almost 10% larger than Norfolk county − was won by East Anglia Offshore Wind Ltd which is equally owned by Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft.

The Prime Minister cited wind energy as the renewable option that will deliver the scale of emissions cuts needed for the UK to meet its targets.

Industrial success

He said the Round 3 wind farms could create up to 70,000 jobs by 2020, including 30,000 in installation, operation and maintenance. “I’m determined to do everything we can to bring those jobs to Britain,” he said.

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband said the elements are being put in place for Britain to become the world leader in offshore wind. “Industrial success needs to be earned and created and cannot be taken for granted,” he said.

“There is less than 2GW of wind energy being generated across the world. Today we are talking about an extra 32GW.”

Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Peter Mandelson said the announcement heralds “huge opportunities for UK companies”. The developments will create in the UK “the largest market in the world for offshore wind and with it huge opportunities,” he said.

Mandelson also said Round 3 will bring advances in turbine manufacture and engineering knowledge, equipping British engineers to win business abroad too. He emphasised the need to “get the UK supply chain moving”.

Miliband said: “I am very confident about what the British supply chain can achieve and I believe there is real commitment in those companies.”

25GW minimum

Responding to questions as to whether 32GW of wind capacity could be delivered in time to meet 2020 targets, Miliband said the targets could be achieved with Round 3 only partially completed. “It is a fast pace of delivery that we are talking about. We don’t necessarily need all of it to happen by 2020 to meet our renewable targets,” he said.

The goal is to source 15% of UK electricity from renewables by 2020. But it is thought that Round 3 generation could deliver up to 25% of the UK’s electricity needs.

However, Miliband warned that wind intermittency could prevent Round 3 farms from generating the total 32GW. “If you are talking about derated capacity it would be a lower number,” he said.

Crown Estate director of the marine estate Rob Hastings said a minimum of 25GW out of the possible 32GW is expected to be delivered. “What actually can be developed out of those 32GW we will find out when we get there,” he said.

ICE director general Tom Foulkes also welcomed the morning’s announcements. “This could be a significant export opportunity for the UK. We have the engineering expertise to deliver world-class wind farms but we must ensure progress isn’t hindered by planning delays, a lack of skilled engineers and supply chain constraints,” he said.

Source: The New Civil Engineer

Siemens, BPL Global Team-up For Smart Grid Solutions

2010-01-08T16:00:00.001Z

Siemens Energy and BPL Global (BPLG) are expanding their relationship in North America to provide smart grid solutions. Siemens is currently an investor in BPLG and a co-marketer of its transformer monitors, and now Siemens will team with BPLG to integrate and resell BPLG load management and distributed energy resource management solutions.

The companies will integrate BPLG smart grid solutions with Siemens' distribution automation applications, including its distribution management system (DMS), SCADA and substation automation solutions.
Keith Schaefer, CEO of BPLG, said: "Expanding our strategic relationship with Siemens as an investor and partner provides a comprehensive Smart Grid solution for electric utilities. This is essential to meet the step-change in market demand catalyzed by ARRA funding. Combining the unparalleled market presence and solution breadth of Siemens and leading Smart Grid solutions from BPLG positions both companies to better serve our customers."
BPLG develops and deploys transformational smart grid solutions to modernize electric grids, addressing applications across the grid from the substation to customer premises. BPLG's demand management solution integrates software, hardware and services that enable the utility to directly manage non-critical load for operational and market monetization needs. The solution provides electric utilities with direct control of dispatchable load with predictable and verifiable management of individual loads.
Mike Edmonds, vice president of energy automation at Siemens Energy, said: "Working with innovative partners like BPLG allows Siemens to strengthen our Smart Grid solutions, a portfolio unmatched by any supplier in the industry.
"Power SG Smart Grid solutions from BPLG enable Siemens to provide direct load management and distributed energy resource management integrated with our distribution automation solutions. This link will enable utilities to add controllable demand management to their smart grid deployments, creating enhanced value for distribution network operations."

Source: Energy Business Review

SeaEnergy JV Likely To Bag Wind Farm Development Deal

2010-01-08T15:58:00.000Z

EDP Renovaveis (EDPR) has confirmed that the Crown Estate has notified its intention of selecting Moray Offshore Renewables Limited (MORL), its joint venture with SeaEnergy Renewables (SERL), as one of the zone partners of the third UK offshore wind farm leasing round (UK Round 3). The effective outcome of such round is expected to be announced this month.
In 2009, EDPR and SeaEnergy Renewables (SERL) incorporated a joint venture called MORL, in which EDPR holds a 75% shareholding and SERL a 25% interest, with the purpose of participating in the third offshore wind farm leasing round in the UK.
EDPR expects MORL to be awarded and to enter into a zone development agreement for Zone 1, which is located in the northeast of Scotland with a target capacity of approximately 1.3GW.
The selected partners will be awarded an exclusive right to proceed first with the study and development of offshore wind farm projects in a specific zone for the purpose of obtaining the relevant consents.
If the relevant consents are obtained, MORL will be authorised to begin construction and operation of the relevant offshore wind farm projects, which, should MORL be selected now as a zone partner, is expected to take place between 2015 and 2020.

Source: Energy Business Review

Gas supply rationed as temperature drops to -21C

2010-01-08T10:28:00.002Z

The gas was turned off for nearly 100 businesses yesterday to protect domestic power supplies after unprecedented demand brought on by the cold weather.

The national grid was forced to reduce the supply to companies in the North West and East Midlands shortly after issuing its second warning in three days that the system was running out of gas. Demand in recent days has been 28 per cent above seasonal norms and is likely to increase today after temperatures fell to minus 21C in some areas overnight — the coldest night of the winter so far.
Business groups and politicians criticised the Government’s attempts to safeguard the supply and called for more gas storage facilities to be built. “The longstanding vulnerability in our energy system has today been exposed and as a nation we now need to take security of our energy supply more seriously,” said Roger Salomone, the energy adviser of EEF, the engineering employers organisation.
John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat MP, said: “We are on the edge when it comes to our power supplies and there is no safety margin.”
National Grid issued a warning that the system would run short when pressure dropped in a pipeline that brings gas from Norway to a terminal at Easington on the East Coast of England. It said that it had been the first time in six years it had been forced to curtail the supply.
Britain’s biggest salt mine and the Government are drawing up rationing plans as councils run out of supplies to grit roads. Gordon Brown asked Salt Union, which runs the Winsford Rock Salt Mine, in Cheshire, to increase production as Richard Stokoe, of the Local Government Association, said that some councils such as West Berkshire had enough for only one round of gritting.
Thousands of minor roads and residential streets were icebound last night. The A628 in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, the A66 in Cumbria, the A1(M) in Co Durham and the M20 in Kent all remained closed along with several roads in Wales. Bus services in Cornwall were cancelled.
Thousands of people were left waiting for delayed flights and trains and hundreds were trapped underground for two hours after a Eurostar train broke down in the Channel tunnel.
Eurostar, which suspended services for three days before Christmas as a result of snow-related breakdowns, cancelled nine trains and said only a limited service would run today.
Passengers were evacuated from a train in Surbiton, Surrey, because of a fire beneath a carriage. Broken-down trains also caused disruption at Cambridge, Bolton, Colchester and between Bedford and Sevenoaks. Commuters trying to get home last night faced delays. Throughout the day 11 per cent of trains were cancelled and fewer than half ran on time.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled, including more than 130 at Gatwick. EasyJet cut more than 100 services and British Airways cancelled 113 flights at Heathrow and 36 at Gatwick.
Christopher Sturman, the chief executive of the Food Storage and Distribution Federation, said that its members were working “flat out” to get supplies to retail outlets but admitted there were “pinch points”.
Milk supplies are being disrupted by the extreme weather with tankers being prevented from collecting fresh stocks from farms in remote parts of the country. Most problems were in the Midlands and the West of England owing to poor conditions on the roads, a spokesman said.

Source: The Times

First Energy Bank to build $1bn Saudi solar plant

2010-01-07T13:18:00.002Z

Bahrain-based First Energy Bank plans to build a $1bn polysilicon plant in Saudi Arabia with a local partner to cater to rising regional investments in solar power, the company said on Tuesday.

Polysilicon is used in the production of solar panels. The Gulf Arab region is trying to capture more of its solar and wind energy, thereby reducing its consumption of oil.

Kuwait plans to start a tender competition next year for a solar energy plant that it hopes will one day provide 5 percent of its energy needs, and Saudi Arabia plans to build a two-megawatt solar power plant at its King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

Source: Arabian Business

Mega offshore wind deals to be announced on Friday

2010-01-07T12:58:00.002Z

The Crown Estate will annouce the consortiums that will develop 25GW of offishore wind in Round 3 of its licencing regime on Friday.

The Crown Estate, which owns shores a distance of 22.2km off the UK coast, is set to create one of the biggest infrastructure projects for wind energy in the world.
In total, it will allow generators to deliver 25GW of electricity from wind farms off the British coast. These are planned for nine zones around the territorial waters and the Continental Shelf.
The licensing award is expected to generate 57,000 jobs by 2020 with the potential market investment for R3 estimated at £100bn.
Once negotiations are concluded, zone development agreements (ZDAs) will be signed and a development partner in each zone announced.
Once this happens, the Crown Estate says it will work with regional development partnerships to stimulate local construction industries, signalling jobs for potential contractors.

Source: The New Civil Engineer

UK Likely To Face Gas Shortage

2010-01-07T12:48:00.002Z

National Grid, an investor-owned electricity and gas company, has warned of a temporary natural gas shortage in the UK.

Britain may face the gas shortages in near future as demand for natural gas approaches record highs during the icy weather conditions for heating and power generation. The demand is about to outstrip supply.
National Grid has urged the power companies to use gas judiciously to meet the rising demand and emphasized on building more gas storage facilities. It has issued an alert asking the power companies and large industries to reduce their use of gas.
Greg Clark, shadow energy secretary of the UK, said: "Gas supply shortages are already being predicted in the North West and East Midlands and at today's level of demand we only have enough stored gas for another eight days worth of supply.”
However, National Grid has assured that there is no danger of the UK running short of gas. A spokesman of the company said: "We do have more than adequate supplies for the whole of the UK."

Source: Energy Business Review

Sparks fly as power line approved - Press & Journal

2010-01-07T12:39:00.001Z

Scottish ministers have finally approved controversial plans to build a line of 600 electricity pylons to carry power through some of the most spectacular landscape in the world.

Energy Minister Jim Mather announced at Holyrood yesterday that permission to replace and upgrade the 137-mile power line from Beauly in Inverness-shire to Denny in Stirlingshire had been granted because it was “vital” to unlock Scotland’s vast onshore and offshore renewable energy potential.
He described the project — which will see the line upgraded from 132kilovolts to 400kV and carried by towers ranging from 137ft to 213ft through the Highlands to central Scotland — as the “most significant and important energy” infrastructure electricity grid project in a generation.
But opponents described the news as a “black day” for Scotland, however. They warned the that decision could cost the SNP dearly at the ballot box because the views of thousands of people had been ignored despite their participation in what was Scotland’s biggest public local inquiry, which lasted 52 months.
Stirling Before Pylons and the John Muir Trust have accused ministers of “washing their hands” of the project by telling developers Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and ScottishPower to come up with environmental impact mitigation measures themselves and report back to ministers.
Stirling Before Pylons health spokeswoman Caroline Paterson said: “The Scottish Government has abdicated its full energy policy to industry. It is going to be led by companies motivated by money and profit.”
Mr Mather insisted that extensive conditions had been imposed to protect the interests of communities and minimise the impact on the environment along the line.
He added that SSE had been asked to come up with visual impact solutions in seven areas – Muthil in Perthshire, Balblair, the Cairngorms National Park, Errochty and Stirling. Measures must be put in place in the Stirling area, at Glenside, near Plean, and at Auchilhanzie House, near Crieff.
Mr Mather said 53 miles of lines that would feed into the new overhead cable would either be removed or placed underground.
Colin Hood, of SSE, said: “This project has rightly been subject to a huge degree of scrutiny, but the need to provide more electricity network capacity for indigenous, renewable sources of energy is overwhelming.
“Our priorities now are to confirm the conditions associated with ministers' consent can be satisfied and to make sure that building the new line and dismantling the old one are done with the minimum possible impact.
“We hope to be in a position to get construction under way this summer and we will implement a programme of meetings and events along the route to inform landowners, local communities and statutory bodies about our construction timetable, when it is agreed.”
Liberal Democrat energy spokesman Liam McArthur described Mr Mather’s performance as confused.
Highlands and Islands Conservative MSPs Jamie McGrigor and Mary Scanlon criticised ministers for not fully exploring all the alternative options. .
Scotland Office minister Ann McKechin welcomed the decision but expressed concern that it took so long.
Scottish Renewables chief executive Niall Stuart said: “This upgrade will unlock a massive increase in renewable electricity in the north of Scotland and is good news for the economy, employment and the environment.”
A spokesman for business organisation CBI Scotland added: “A colossal amount of private-sector investment in energy infrastructure will be required over the next few years if we are to realise ambitions to build a low-carbon economy. While a decision on this project has been a long time coming it is nevertheless a welcome step forward.”
John Muir Trust policy officer Helen McDade said: “It is a black day for Scotland. It is clear the government is washing its hands of various key decision-making areas.”

Sparks fly as power line approved - Press & Journal

New hydroelectric power station planned for north east England

2010-01-06T12:10:00.000Z

A hydroelectric station will be built to generate electricity in the Tees Valley as part of a new power partnership between Northumbrian Water and RWE npower renewables.

The station, at Selset Reservoir, near Barnard Castle, County Durham, will generate as much as 750kW of electricity, or 4,000MWh a year, of electricity. This will be enough to meet the energy needs of around 1,000 households.
Building work on the £2.5M Selset hydroelectric project will commence in early 2010. The turbine and generator will be housed in a small building, which will be built in the style of a Teesdale farm building in stone, with a pitched roof. The hydroelectric station will need integration with existing water supply operations and improved access to a supply road.
In order to make working conditions safe during construction, the water level of the Selset reservoir, which holds 15,320 million litres when full, will be lowered.
RWE npower renewables project manager Tim James said: “We have a number of hydroelectric projects in Wales and Scotland and this is the first we have constructed.”

Source: The New Civil Engineers

Cold snap underscores reliance on imported gas

2010-01-06T12:04:00.001Z

Freezing temperatures are putting the squeeze on Britain’s gas infrastructure and could force industrial users to shut their operations to save fuel for offices and homes.
National Grid warned this week that the gas grid was close to running short of supplies.
Icis Heren, the gas consultancy, reckons that some industrial customers could be cut off within days if the cold weather continues.
“It is pretty tight. At one point on Monday, we were on a knife edge,” said Louise Boddy, managing director of Icis Heren.
The exceptional cold, about 6C below the seasonal norm, has pushed gas demand up and is exposing Britain’s new dependency on imports of fuel.
Shippers are bringing gas from storage to meet exceptional demand. National Grid yesterday removed a storage unit from its calculation of gas in storage because volumes had fallen to only two days’ reserve.
At the same time, power generators responded to the pressure on gas markets by switching from gas to coal as demand for gas increased the price of the cleaner fuel.
Demand for gas was running at 448 million cubic metres yesterday, 28 per cent higher than the seasonal norm.
According to Icis Heren, the system was within 2 million cubic metres from another alert, a device used by the National Grid to ensure the system is balanced.
Alerts are not a sign that the grid is about to collapse but a signal that, unless shippers supply more gas to the network, either from storage or pipeline imports, the grid will begin to cut off large industrial customers.
Energy-intensive businesses, such as cement, glass or chemical manufacturers, often opt for interruptible supply contracts that provide cheaper fuel in exchange for the risk of supply cuts.
Exceptional demand and a temporary loss of supplies from Norway because of a gasfield closure caused the alert on Monday. Shippers responded by releasing liquefied gas from storage on the Isle of Grain.
However, cold weather across Northern Europe is putting pressure on the Continent’s gas supplies.
This has prompted power generators to switch to coal as they seek to protect their margins from rising gas prices. The Clean Dark Spread, the margin earned by an electricity generator burning coal, including the cost of carbon emission permits, is close to £11 per megawatt hour, compared with £9.50 per megawatt hour for the Clean Spark Spread — the margin earned by burning gas.
Nonetheless, while gas prices had risen sharply, Ms Boddy said, the recession had kept a lid on the market.
At less than 50p per therm for day-ahead gas, the cost was comparatively cheap compared with previous years. “If this had happened in the 2005-06 winter, we would be at £2 per therm,” she said.

Source: The Times

British Gas fails to pass on £400 boiler grants to customers

2010-01-06T12:02:00.002Z

British Gas is profiting from the Government’s boiler scrappage scheme by failing to pass on the full value of the grants. The company is refusing to offer its usual discounts to customers who apply for a £400 grant.

Some homes could be better off ignoring the scheme and negotiating a discount with an installation company.
The Prime Minister announced the scrappage scheme yesterday at the company’s training centre for boiler engineers in Kent. He claimed that the scheme could be worth up to £800 for households taking part because some companies, including British Gas, had agreed to match the £400 offered by the Government. Mr Brown did not mention that British Gas operates an unsubsidised scheme under which all customers could get a £752 discount on a new boiler This offer comprises £300 off the price of the boiler, radiator controls worth £248 and free servicing and repairs for a year worth £204.
A customer adviser at British Gas’s call centre said anyone applying for a scrappage grant would not be eligible for these discounts: “It’s much of a muchness whether you go for the scrappage grant or the savings we already offer. But you can’t get both.”
People aged over 60 might get a much larger discount under the Warm Front subsidy scheme than if they apply for the scrappage scheme. British Gas offers a discount of £1,052 for over-60s under Warm Front but only £800 under the scrappage scheme.
Mr Brown claimed that up to 125,000 households in England would benefit from the scrappage scheme, saving £200 to £235 a year on energy bills. The Department of Energy and Climate Change said the scheme, costing £50 million, would “help sustain work for 130,000 boiler installers and over 25 UK-based boiler manufacturers”.
The scrappage scheme is open to the 3.5 million homes with inefficient “G” rated boilers with a permanent pilot light. Most gas boilers more than 15 years old will qualify, as will oil-fired boilers more than 25 years old.
The Energy Saving Trust is advising home owners on whether their boilers qualify. But the public funds allocated will cover only one in 28 of the homes with G rated boilers. Consumer Focus said: “The [scrappage] scheme will help those on low incomes who do not qualify for the Warm Front scheme, but the budget limits the number of people it will help.
“The amount people will save depends on the cost of installing a new boiler, which can vary considerably. Nevertheless, “G” rated boilers are so inefficient that most people installing a new system should see their gas bills fall dramatically.”
British Gas denied failing to pass on the full benefit of the £400 scrappage grant but their spokeswoman admitted that some customers could save almost as much by taking up existing unsubsidised discount deals. “It’s about choosing what’s right for you,” she said.

Source: The Times

Oil nears $80 a barrel after Russia briefly halts supply via Belarus

2010-01-05T13:55:00.001Z

Oil prices approached $80 a barrel on the first trading day of 2010 after Russia cut crude supplies to Belarus on New Year's Eve following a price dispute. Russian oil resumed normal flows to Europe via Belarus on Monday.

AFP - Oil prices raced toward 80 dollars a barrel on the first trading day of the year Monday after Russia cut crude supplies to Belarus, analysts said. New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, rose 61 cents to 79.97 dollars a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for February delivery gained 53 cents to 78.46 dollars. Crude prices rose on concerns over the implications of Russia's move, which has been effective since New Year's Eve, analysts said. "Oil is up, reacting primarily to... Russia stopping oil supplies to Belarus," said Victor Shum, senior principal of Purvin and Gertz energy consultants in Singapore. "That is the dominant factor... and has added some momentum to oil." Media reports said Russia had stopped supplies to Belarus from December 31, 2009, with ongoing negotiations to restart deliveries hampered by tariff disagreements. The incident is the latest in the energy dispute between the two nations over tariff arrangements. Moscow also severed supplies to Belarus in January 2007 following a similar row. An analyst quoted by the Financial Times said the pipeline through Belarus supplied up to 800,000 barrels of oil products a day to Germany and Poland. However, oil exports to Europe were still flowing despite the Russian move, with refineries in Belarus holding a week's worth of stockpiles, media reports said.

Source: France24

US nuclear reactor plans announced

2010-01-01T10:11:00.003Z

A project to develop new-generation nuclear reactors in Central Valley, California, will be carried out by Areva and the Fresno Nuclear Energy Group (FNEG).

French nuclear engineering firm Areva announced the plans to build either one or two reactors, and added that FNEG is aiming to acquire the European Pressurised Reactor technology (EPR).
Construction work on EPR reactors is already underway in France, Finland and China.
But the project in Finland has been plagued by problems since the start. The 1,600MW EPR unit was due to be completed by 2012, but Areva has said the cost and completion date of the project is now uncertain.
In California, it said that next year the two companies will begin a series of studies identifying the most feasible site for a new nuclear power plant, and will work together on the initial development and permitting process.
Areva said that six companies-Constellation, PPL, AmerenUE, Amarillo Power, AEHI and Duke Energy-have chosen the EPR for a total of eight potential reactor construction projects, pending US certification.
Financial terms of what Areva dubbed a “letter of intent to formalize cooperation” with FNEG weren’t disclosed.

Source: New Civil Engineer

Anaerobic Digestion Biogas Could Meet 10% Of UK Energy Needs: ADBA

2009-12-31T13:08:00.003Z

Biogas produced from anaerobic digestion of waste could provide 10% of the energy needs of the UK within the next ten years, according to Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA).

The trade body also claimed that this gas will not only reduce the overall cost of gas in the UK, it will also be a vital component in meeting the country’s greenhouse gas targets and helping decarbonize the electricity and gas grids.
ADBA said that the development of a comprehensive anaerobic digestion infrastructure could provide up to 20% of Britain’s domestic gas.
ADBA has based these figures on the construction of 1,000 anaerobic digestion plants by 2020, 75% in the agricultural sector, which will cost just £5bn to construct and will produce £1.7bn worth of gas per year at today’s prices.
Without anaerobic digestion, the UK will fail to meet its renewable energy targets and there will be gas shortages in less than five years, ADBA argues.
Lord Redesdale, chairman of ADBA, said: "At a time when the cost and security of our gas supply is in jeopardy, when there is so much public support for renewable technologies, and when we do not look like we are going to hit our renewable and recycling targets, it is surprising that anaerobic digestion is not one of our top priorities.
“Anaerobic digestion will convert waste into power, with the added benefit that the residue is a fertiliser that can be put back on the land."
Anaerobic digestion is a process in which micro-organisms break down agricultural and household waste to biogas and biofertiliser.
ADBA is the trade association for the anaerobic digestion and biogas industries that represents all those involved in the design and build of the biogas infrastructure of Britain.

Source: Energy Business Review

Offshore Wind Industry Likely To Grow Over Next Decade: Emerging Energy Research

2009-12-29T10:03:00.001Z

A new market study by Emerging Energy Research (EER) has revealed that the offshore wind sector is likely to expand over the next decade, led by European utilities. The global installed base is expected to grow to nearly 45GW in 2020.

With large northern European utilities driving the industry forward in the short term, the stage is being set for North America and Asia offshore development as well, according to EER.
Asia and North America are currently looking to Europe for technology and cost benchmarking. Between 2010 and 2020, these two regions will contribute nearly 25% of the total new offshore capacity installed worldwide. In Europe, tapped-out onshore markets and higher capacity factors offshore are driving governments to incentivize the technology, providing support to drive industrial build-out, EER said.
EER expects Asia to tap its offshore markets in 2014, led by China and Korea. In North America, test projects in the US (deepwater wind) and Canada (NaiKun) may come to fruition by 2012, with over 6GW projected by 2020.
Eduard Vedruna, senior wind analyst at EER, said: "The global offshore wind energy industry's entry into the next decade will be marked by concrete progress built on the past 10 years of moving along the learning curve.
"While the global offshore market has been slow to take off due to cost and logistical challenges – climbing from 70MW installed to 1.5GW over the past eight years – the industry is now scaling thanks to increased focus on offshore by Europe utilities."
According to EER, utilities own 90% of the 20GW of offshore projects in the pipeline in Europe, many of which are now moving to procure turbines and define engineering, procurement, and construction strategies for project execution. Northern Europe players, mainly German utilities, have the most aggressive expansion plans in terms of megawatts and geographic diversity of their pipelines.
Europe's offshore wind industry has rapidly evolved into a consolidated market mainly in the North Sea, with onshore competition moving offshore as utility players build portfolios, EER added.

Source: Energy Business Review

EDF Accepts Ofgem Price Control Review Proposals

2009-12-29T10:01:00.002Z

EDF Energy has decided to accept Ofgem's final proposals for the fifth electricity distribution price control review (DPCR5) for the five years from April 1, 2010, in respect of its electricity distribution business which serves London, the East of England and the South East.

EDF Energy said that it has viewed Ofgem's final proposals as a package. The company is developing plans to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness. These plans will also help offset the low headline allowed weighted average cost of capital. As a result, EDF Energy believes that it will earn a return overall on its electricity distribution assets, which meets its shareholders' expectations.
EDF Energy is also convinced that the weighted average cost of capital in the reviews to come will have to be increased in order to deliver sustainable investment in smart and low carbon networks.
EDF Energy is also looking forward to developing the opportunities provided by Ofgem's GBP500m Low Carbon Networks Fund. The company is focused on delivering solutions in its networks businesses to help achieve the decarbonisation of the electricity industry.
Vincent Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, said: "Our comprehensive and detailed analysis of Ofgem's final proposals has been carried out with a clear vision for the future of this business to meet the needs of all its stakeholders. In a nutshell, this package will be challenging but this business is ready to rise to this opportunity.
"EDF Energy has delivered GBP2.1billion of capital expenditure since 2005. In doing so, we have already led the way in demonstrating the need for increased investment, a path which the other operators are now following for the DPCR5 period. Now we also intend to lead the way with our programme of further efficiency improvements and even higher levels of customer service."

Source: Energy Business Review

Dong Energy, Siemens To Join UK Offshore Wind Farm Project

2009-12-29T10:00:00.001Z

Dong Energy and Siemens Project Ventures (SPV) have signed a joint venture contract to acquire 50% stake of a 270MW UK offshore wind farm project Lincs from Centrica, against payment of 50% of the incurred development costs, currently estimated to GBP 50m.

Dong Energy and SPV will hold 25% stake each in the wind farm. Completion of the transaction is expected in January 2010. The companies' aggregated 50% share of the project represents a capital investment of approximately GBP375m. The estimated investment level is net of anticipated proceeds from the disposal of assets under the offshore transmission regime.
The Lincs project is situated eight kilometres off the coast of the town Skegness, Lincolnshire, in eastern England. The project is currently in the final design and procurement phase. Construction of the project is expected to commence in the late summer of 2010, with commissioning scheduled for 2012. Centrica will continue to own 50% of the company.
It is anticipated that the wind farm will be capable of meeting the annual electricity needs of approximately 200,000 households.
Anders Eldrup, CEO of Dong Energy, said: "Lincs is an attractive project that will benefit from the UK Government's enhanced financial framework for offshore wind. The project is well suited for using the newest technology within offshore wind turbines. At Dong Energy, we look forward to broaden and strengthen our collaboration with Centrica."
Johannes Schmidt, CEO of equity investments and project finance at Siemens Financial Services, said: "This investment is a logical step in further strengthening our environmental portfolio by providing yet another good example for the combination of sustainable technologies with economic efficiency. Centrica is a leading developer of offshore wind energy in UK and we welcome the opportunity to working together on sustainable technologies."

Source: Energy Business Review

Abu Dhabi In Joint Bid For EDF UK Network Assets

2009-12-29T09:58:00.000Z

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a wealth fund in the Gulf state, has teamed up with Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) to submit a joint GBP5bn bid for EDF's electricity distribution network in the UK, some sources revealed.

EDF's UK electricity network distributes power to 7.9 million homes in the south-east and east of England.
Earlier in October this year, EDF initiated a process to evaluate ownership options for its UK electricity distribution business, which was in line with the group’s intention to reduce its net financial debt by at least EUR5bn by the end of 2010.
The company said that the sale of the distribution network is also part of its development strategy in the UK, which is a key market in Europe for them. However, EDF will still retain its power generation and supply activities in Britain.
EDF said that it was being advised by financial advisors are Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank London Branch with additional support to be provided by BNP Paribas.
Lexicon Partners and bankers from Goldman Sachs have been appointed to advise the consortium on the bid.
Other bidders who have shown interest in the auction include Scottish and Southern Energy, which has teamed up with Canadian pension fund Borealis, National Grid, and Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings.

Source: Energy Business Review

Seoul wins 40-billion-dollar UAE nuclear power deal

2009-12-28T09:29:00.001Z

A consortium of South Korean firms - including Korea Electric Power Corp, Hyundai and Samsung - has won a deal worth 40 billion dollars to build nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates has awarded a 20.4-billion-dollar contract to build four nuclear power plants to a South Korean-led consortium, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation said Sunday.
The UAE "has determined that the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) team is best equipped to fulfill the government's partnership requirements in this ambitious programme," ENEC chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak said in a statement.
The deal is expected to lead to additional contracts worth 20 billion dollars to operate and maintain the reactors over the next 60 years, South Korea's knowledge and economy ministry said in a statement in Seoul.
However, an Emirati official told AFP that "a contract covering the operation of the facilities has not yet been awarded."
ENEC communications director Padraic Riley told a news conference there could be more contracts in connection with the construction of further reactors, but did not say if there would be a contract for the operation of the first four.
"If, in the future, the UAE moves forward with (building) a fleet of nuclear reactors... there may be more contracts," he said.
ENEC CEO Mohamed al-Hammadi told the news conference his country "will definitely be building more than four (plants)."
ENEC, which was established last week by presidential decree and tasked with implementing the UAE's nuclear energy programme, said that the KEPCO-led consortium has been selected to "help operate" the power plants.
But it did not give further details, saying only that Sunday's deal covers "construction, commissioning and fuel loads" for the four 1,400 megawatt reactors, the first of which is to begin producing electricity in 2017.
The consortium tasked with building the plants comprises Korean firms KEPCO, Samsung, Hyundai and Doosan Heavy Industries, along with US firm Westinghouse, Toshiba of Japan, and KEPCO subsidiaries, ENEC said.
It won the deal against competition from two rival bidding groups that included a consortium of French companies and another composed of the US firm General Electric and Japan's Hitachi.
"Nicolas Sarkozy is probably licking his wounds a little bit this morning", Douglas Herbert, Business Editor for France 24.
In Paris, the French consortium said it took note of the decision and that it remained ready to cooperate with the UAE in future.
"The companies behind the French bid remained convinced of the quality of this offer and the advanced features of the EPR in terms of safety," said the firms, referring to its European Pressurised Reactor model.
France's top energy firms, EDF, GDF-Suez and Total along with engineering giants Areva, Vinci and Alstom had come together to present the bid for the 20.4 billion-dollar contract.
Hammadi said meanwhile that more than 2,000 workers would be employed at the plants and that a "minimum of 60 percent" of the workforce would eventually be made up of UAE citizens. But he did not say who would run the plants in the interim.
Thirty-nine Emiratis are currently on scholarships to universities in France, the United States and Britain in studies related to work at nuclear power plants, Hammadi told the news conference.
Hee Yong Lee, who will lead KEPCO's project in the UAE, said his country had much to offer regarding training for nuclear power plant employees.
"Korea has developed a very systematic training system, from the high school level to the university and vocational training. So we will share all the systems and contents" with the UAE, Lee said.
The four light water nuclear reactors should all be operational by 2020, and will boost the UAE's goal of meeting 23 to 25 percent of its power demand with nuclear energy, Hammadi said.

Source: France24

Irish Sea wind farm deal delays UK wind projects

2009-12-26T14:39:00.001Z

Scottish and Southern Energy has bought a 25.1% stake in a £1bn wind farm in the Irish Sea, potentially delaying construction on green energy projects in Scotland.

Scottish and Southern Energy paid up to £39M to Dong of Denmark for shares in the Walney Wind Farm Project, in a deal requiring it to provide about £250M for building costs.
A SSE spokeswoman said Walney would take priority over some other projects, but could not specify which of its 30 wind farms currently going through planning application or construction will be affected.
Twenty-seven of the projects run by SSE’s renewable energy company Airtricity are in Scotland or its surrounding waters. Walney’s funding will be taken from SSE’s investment budget for the five years until March 2013.
The farm, which will be located near the Isle of Man and east of the Isle of Walney, is due to be completed by the end of 2011 and will have a capacity of 367 megawatts.

Source: The New Civil Engineer

Mega offshore wind farm deals delayed until January

2009-12-26T14:36:00.002Z

The Crown Estate has confirmed that an annoucement of the consortiums that will get to develop 25GW of offishore wind in Round 3 of its licencing regime will now not be made until January.

Signing of contracts is understood to be underway, but the sheer scale of the contracts is believed to have prevented an announcement being made in December as planned.
The Crown Estate is meet with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Carbon trust and the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) in early Jnauary to agree the announcement.
The Crown Estate, which owns shores a distance of 22.2km off the UK coast, is set to create one of the biggest infrastructure projects for wind energy in the world.
In total, it will allow generators to deliver 25GW of electricity from wind farms off the British coast. These are planned for nine zones around the territorial waters and the Continental Shelf.

The licensing award is expected to generate 57,000 jobs by 2020 with the potential market investment for R3 estimated at £100bn.
Once negotiations are concluded, zone development agreements (ZDAs) will be signed and a development partner in each zone announced.
Once this happens, the Crown Estate says it will work with regional development partnerships to stimulate local construction industries, signalling jobs for potential contractors.

Source: The New Civil Engineer

New investment paves way for UK's first commercial-scale tidal farm

2009-12-23T11:06:00.002Z

£3.5M of investment from Carbon Trust Investments Limited, Bank Invest, EDF Energy and High Tide will enable the construction of the first commercial tidal energy farm in UK waters within the next two years.

British tidal energy company Marine Current Turbines (MCT) has raised £3.5M from an investor group led by Carbon Trust Investments Limited and including Bank Invest, EDF Energy, High Tide and a group of significant private investors, to help MCT in its plans to deploy the UK’s first commercial tidal energy farm.
MCT is the developer of SeaGen, the world’s first and largest grid-connected system that extracts energy from tidal currents. Part of the new funding will support MCT’s first deployment of SeaGen in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough which has now been successfully operating for more than six months. The company is now also looking to export its technology abroad.
Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay said MCT is a key player in the UK’s growing marine energy sector.
“MCT has developed one of the leading tidal energy devices and its proven technology is now ready to be deployed in a commercial-scale tidal farm which will be a UK first,” he said. “The UK is leading the way in marine energy and stands to reap the rewards through new jobs and revenue.”
Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt said there is enormous potential to be harnessed through wave and tidal power in the UK. “We have the natural resources, the technical skills, and the talent to lead the world in this kind of advanced green manufacturing, which I believe will be the economic success story of the 21st century.”
MCT managing director Martin Wright said: “We see this significant investment, allied by the Government’s actions to encourage tidal and wave energy, giving the company a massive boost to realise the commercial opportunities that exist in the UK as well as overseas markets.”
Making progress
MCT installed the world’s first commercial scale tidal stream turbine, the 1.2 MW SeaGen, in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland in 2008. The device is now operating remotely and generating power that is being sold to ESB Independent Energy under a Power Purchase Agreement helping to supply businesses across Northern Ireland with renewable electricity.
The Carbon Trust’s investment is drawn from a new £18M fund, provided by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, announced by the Carbon Trust last month. The new fund is designed to speed up Britain’s move towards a low carbon economy by providing promising UK clean energy sector companies with investment over the next 12-18 months.

Source: The New Civil Engineer

Copenhagen’s failure may leave plans for new nuclear power stations high and dry

2009-12-23T11:03:00.002Z

The failure of the United Nations summit in Copenhagen to produce a firm agreement on climate change has jeopardised plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in Britain.

Leading energy industry figures said that the meeting’s failure to help to establish a strong international price for carbon dioxide emissions had undermined the economic rationale for developing the new plants, which emit little carbon but are very expensive to build.
Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, the French-owned company that has proposed building four new reactors in Britain, said that there was an “urgent” need for the Government to intervene in support of nuclear investment. It wants a floor price to be set on the carbon credits that companies need to buy to burn fossil fuels.
Mr de Rivaz said: “EDF Energy believes that a UK-specific minimum carbon price would help to deliver the low-carbon investment needed in electricity generation. This is all the more urgent, as it may take time for an international carbon market to develop fully. UK politicians must continue to lead by ensuring that everything possible is done to encourage the transition to a low-carbon economy.”
After the talks broke up with only the bare bones of an agreement, the price of the credits, which European companies need to buy to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide, fell by almost 9 per cent to below €13 (£11.60).
Last month, the International Energy Agency said that the price would have to reach €33 a tonne in 2020 and €73 by 2030 to make lowcarbon technologies, such as nuclear, economically viable.
A spokesman for Centrica, the owner of British Gas and EDF’s partner in the project, agreed that government support would be needed to ensure that the plants were built. “We need some certainty now over future carbon prices ... it may be necessary to underpin them in this country until EU prices catch up with our objectives,” the spokesman said.
EDF and Centrica have proposed building two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk at an estimated cost of up to €5 billion each — but only if investment conditions are right. The plants are considered crucial to Britain’s energy security as well as its aim of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
Richard Lambert, the CBI Director-General, also described the meeting as a missed opportunity. “Business needs a clearer sense of direction if it is to make the enormous investments needed to shift towards a low-carbon economy,” he said.
Steve Holliday, chief executive of National Grid, Britain’s largest utility, said that he was “seriously disappointed ... It is a real shame that the Copenhagen accord did not lead to legally binding agreement or targets.”
The estimated cost of building a new, 1,000MW nuclear power station — enough to supply 750,000 homes — is about £2.7 billion. That is more than four times as expensive as the £600 million required to build a gas-fired power plant of the same size.
The energy industry has said that it can justify investment in new nuclear plants only if the price that operators of conventional fossil-fuel power stations pay to emit CO2 is high enough to make nuclear power competitive. Yet for David Porter, chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers, the Copenhagen meeting was “no more than half a step forward”. He believed that there was an urgent need for stronger investment signals if the industry is to spend the billions of pounds required to build low-carbon sources of electricity.
Mr Porter said it was inevitable that there would be a “wobble” in investment plans for new UK nuclear plants. “The clarity that our industry needs to make billions of pounds of new investment depended on clear principles emerging from Copenhagen, but the meeting did little to strengthen that.”
The weak deal has left the Government facing a choice of either acting unilaterally to underpin investment in new reactors or running the risk that companies will opt to channel funds into the cheaper, but polluting, gas-fired power stations.

Source: The Times

Exxon’s $31bn for XTO could prompt deal flurry

2009-12-15T12:30:00.002Z

Exxon Mobil’s announcement that it will buy XTO, a natural gas producer, in an all-share agreement valued at $31 billion, sparked speculation that other deals in the sector will follow.

The transaction, the biggest US energy and power deal in nearly a decade, marks a dramatic shift by the world’s largest oil group to take a large bet on US “unconventional” gas production, which extracts gas from unusual sources such as shale.
It also marks a big bet on natural gas, a cleaner-burning fuel than oil, at a time when governments around the world are seeking to combat global warming by reducing carbon emissions.
Shares in a range of smaller energy companies with natural gas interests surged on the news. Analysts said that potential targets could include Andarko Petroleum, Range Resources, Devon, EOG Resources, Southwestern Energy, PetroHawk Energy, Encana and Chesapeake Energy.
The deal is the biggest in the US since Chevron’s $43.3 billion acquisition of Texaco in October 2000, according to Thomson Reuters. It will boost Exxon’s presence in the natural gas industry, at a time when natural gas is driving electricity generating capacity additions.
Since it was created 23 years ago XTO, which produces about 5 per cent of US natural gas supply, has become a leading “unconventional” natural gas producer, building up its business through a string of acquisitions.
News of the deal yesterday coincided with new forecasts from the Energy Information Administration suggesting that total domestic natural gas production in the US will grow from 20.6 trillion cubic feet in 2008 to 23.3 trillion cubic feet in 2035, driven in part by production from shale. Unconventional gas production already accounts for 50 per cent of the US total and is expected to rise to 60 per cent by 2030.
Under the terms of the transaction, XTO holders will get 0.7098 share of Exxon for each share of XTO. This values the stock at $51.69, a 25 per cent premium to Friday’s close of $41.49. The transaction value includes $10 billion of existing XTO debt.
Rex Tillerson, the chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon, said he had been attracted by XTO’s outstanding resource base — equivalent to 45 trillion cubic feet of gas — and its strong technical expertise. He added that Exxon intended to establish a new upstream organisation, located in XTO’s offices in Fort Worth, Texas, to manage global development and production of its unconventional resources.
Bob Simpson, the chairman and founder of XTO, said that the deal would help XTO move to a new level and to “unlock more value than we can do on our own”.
Eric Chenoweth, an analyst at Morningstar, said: “Other major integrated firms, both European and domestic, have shown greater interest in US unconventional gas over the past year; however, these have often involved smaller partnerships.”

Source: The Times

While Copenhagen talks, Exxon bets $41bn on low-carbon gas

2009-12-15T12:28:00.001Z

If you want action on climate change, don't go to Copenhagen – try Irving, Texas instead. Copenhagen is home, temporarily, to 192 countries trying to agree the environmental future on paper, but Irving is home to Exxon Mobil which has spent $41bn on its view of what constitutes a low carbon tomorrow.

What the world's energy giants do with their immense financial resources will be as important as what the world's politicians do.
Given the way Copenhagen is going, however, it will probably be what the politicians don't agree to do which will be the UN summit's legacy.
Anyway, while they bicker, business acts and Rex Tillerson, Exxon's chairman and chief executive, has placed a big bet on the future of energy and has chosen gas, by buying XTO Energy. Not just any gas but gas that counts as "unconventional resources" which is pumped out of shale, so called "tight gas" out of rock and coal bed methane.
Gas is not carbon free, but it is low carbon so addresses lower emission requirements. It's abundant and with technological advances, such as those developed by XTO, more can be pumped from the free world rather than rely on the collection of autocracies and kleptocracies that currently exert such control over the stuff.
That is important because the huge cost, in both time and money, of developing alternatives such as nuclear and wind power mean gas is in huge demand so relying on less than friendly suppliers is a big risk, as vulnerable economies such as the UK recognise. More gas investment can be expected not just from Exxon but from BP and Shell too. However, large scale acquisitions funded by shares or debt may be beyond the latter two if they want to maintain their dividend payouts.
That said, Exxon's XTO deal helps maintain the momentum the mergers and acquisitions market has seen in recent months. As politicians dither and debate, the market has taken another decisive step in dictating where the world's energy dollars are invested, whether campaigners like it or not.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Brussels pumps cash into wind farm and carbon capture schemes

2009-12-10T12:16:00.002Z

The European Commission has earmarked 1.5 billion euros for development of offshore wind farms and carbon capture and storage projects, a move Brussels says will help cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost EU economies.

The EU commission on Wednesday granted 1.5 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars) to offshore wind farms and carbon capture and storage schemes to help relaunch Europe's economy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"With this decision the commission has laid the foundation for the development of two key sustainable technologies that will be essential in our fight against climate change," EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said, adding that it would also "give a push to the economy and employment."
Six carbon capture and storage schemes (CCS) -- in Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain -- will share a billion euros of the money.
These schemes to bury polluting carbon emissions "will be the first six CCS projects in the world," Piebalgs added proudly of the technology which is in its infancy.
Individual European nations and the private sector are also welcome to help fund such schemes which the European Union hopes will become viable propositions by 2020.
"It's important to start," said Piebalgs. A successful conclusion to UN climate talks ongoing in Copenhagen will help make carbon capture and storage development "much, much faster," he added.
The nine offshore wind power projects, in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, will share 562 million euros.
Several of these are German projects with Belgian, British, Danish and Swedish interests also involved.
Some of the projects cross sea borders, such as the interconnection of German, Swedish and Danish wind farms in the Baltic, linking up the national grids.
The money comes from a four billion euro EU reserve fund set up in May for energy projects to help relaunch Europe's economy.
The EU has also pledged to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.
Many other candidate projects failed to secure funding on Friday.

Source: France24

North Sea coal to be burnt underground

2009-12-09T11:43:00.002Z

Vast coal deposits lying deep beneath the North Sea will be burnt in situ to generate up to 5 per cent of Britain’s energy needs, under new plans approved by the Government last week.

The UK Coal Authority has awarded licences to Clean Coal, an Anglo-American company, to develop five offshore sites for a technology called Underground Coal Gasification (UGC).
The method, which has not been used on a commercial scale in the UK, although it is widely used in Australia, taps the high energy content of coal while doing away with the costly and labour-intensive need to mine it first.
Rohan Courtney, a former director of Tullow Oil who is chairman of Clean Coal, said that the potential for the technology was enormous. “There are enormous amounts of coal lying beneath the North Sea which have never been accessed,” he said. “This technology is going to open up the industry again in the UK.”
The sites approved for use stretch up to 10km offshore from Sunderland, Grimsby and Cromer on the shores of the North Sea, Canonbie, near Annan in Dumfries and Galloway on the other side of Scotland, and Swansea Bay, outside the entrance to the Bristol Channel. The combined coal reserves are estimated to be at least one billion tonnes, equivalent to more than one sixth of all the coal consumed in an average year around the world. Global consumption of coal is about 5.8 billion tonnes a year. Total consumption in the UK is about 80 million tonnes a year.
The technique uses two bore holes drilled into a coal seam. The injection well is used to ignite the coal and keep it burning by pumping down oxygen to supply the fire. The other is used to extract a methane-rich synthetic gas that can be used to generate electricity by driving an above-ground power station.
Mr Courtney said that polluting carbon dioxide produced from the burning process could be stripped out and backfilled into the cavities created beneath the surface using a technology that was easier than the carbon capture and storage (CCS) method that is proposed for use by power stations. However, the methane gas produced will also emit carbon dioxide when it is burnt.
Catherine Bond, chief executive, said that Clean Coal planned to conduct seismic and bore-hole surveys over the next 12 to 18 months. If the surveys produced promising results, commercial operations could begin in 2014-15, with each site costing an estimated $250 million (£152 million) to develop.
The projects are likely to prove controversial because the sites are close to to big population centres, such as Swansea and Grimsby. Ms Bond said that the Environment Agency would need to grant permission for the projects before drilling could start and that a public relations campaign was planned to inform local people about the technology and how it worked. She said that the underground fires could be extinguished easily by pumping water down the injection well or by restricting the flow of air.
Opposition to the process in Australia has been modest because the onshore sites lie in remote areas, far from areas with large populations.
UGC technology was invented in Britain about a century ago but has been refined recently through the use of advanced seismic technology and directional drilling developed by the oil industry. Ms Bond said that UGC had become commercially viable in Britain with the advent of this new technology and because high oil prices had improved the economics.
Enormous deposits of coal are known to lie beneath the North Sea, extending from onshore deposits that have been mined in Britain. Offshore exploration for oil has also shown the presence of coal in many areas. Ms Bond said that, within 20 years, UGC could supply a large amount of Britain’s power needs, with some projects being developed far offshore using former oil platforms.

Source: The Times

UK signs up to Europe’s first offshore wind grid

2009-12-08T12:59:00.001Z

Nine countries including the UK signed up to develop an integrated offshore grid in the North and Irish Seas today, as £5M of new grants were awarded for offshore wind technology research and a Renewable Energy Expert Chair was appointed by the government.

In the margins of the Energy Council meeting in Brussels, Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt signed the agreement along with ministers from Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland.
A grid spanning European waters should make supplies of electricity more secure for the participating countries by making it easier to optimise offshore wind electricity production . It will also help the EU as a whole to meet its renewable energy target for 2020.
Lord Hunt also announced the next round of Low Carbon Energy demonstration capital grants for Vestas, Clipper and Mitsubishi, and also the appointment of Professor Bernard Bulkin as the expert chair of the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) Office for Renewable Energy Deployment (ORED).
Vestas will receive £1.75 million from the Government and a further £1.75 Million from the South East England Development Agency, in addition to £6 million already awarded.
Vestas have announced today that with the award of their grant they will be going ahead with their R&D facility on the Isle of Wight. Vestas currently employ 160 on the Isle of Wight. By the time they open the technology centre in 2011 they expect this to grow to over 200 and then to nearly 400 over the following years.
Leading development
“This award is good news for the UK’s position in the offshore wind market. Vestas is a key employer offering high value jobs and we are keen to retain them at the heart of the Isle of Wight’s centre of excellence in advance composite materials,” said SEEDA chief executive Pam Alexander. “The R&D centre will shortly be leading the development of new off shore wind technologies for the rest of the world.”
On his appointment as expert Chair to ORED Professor Bulkin said the role would be “challenging”. “We need to move to low carbon energy supplies in order to combat climate change and achieving our renewables targets for 2020 are a key part of that. I am looking forward to getting started at DECC,” he said.
Lord Hunt commented: “We’re already the world leader in offshore wind here in the UK and today’s announcements bring new funding and expert direction to grow this vital new industry. They also mean we can work with other countries in the EU to increase our renewable energy supplies.”

Source: The New Civil Engineer

Thames uses evacuation for electrification

2009-12-08T12:57:00.002Z

Thames Water has reported saving some £15M in its electricity bills by using human waste to generate power.

The company generates some 14% of its power from either burning sewage sludge or methane derived from it.
Thames Water’s climate change strategy manager, Dr Keith Colquhoun, said: “There’s no polite way of saying this but what we produce - our poo - isn’t simply waste, it’s a great source of energy. That’s good news because we treat 2.8 billion litres of sewage every day at our 349 sewage works. The solids in sewage have a high calorific content that we use to generate electricity.
“And this isn’t a gimmick: as well as helping us to be more sustainable as a company, it also saves money - £15M less of customers’ cash spent on National Grid energy last year alone, which ultimately has a downward pressure of bills.
“Our goal is to cut greenhouse emissions by 20% on 1990 levels by 2020 - that’s about 200,000 tonnes less CO2. By using poo power and other renewable energy sources, we’re making significant progress towards this target after cutting emissions by five per cent in the past two years, despite grid energy becoming more carbon-intensive.
“Delegates at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit must face that fact that combating climate change is no longer about talk. It’s about all of us taking action - and in our case, that includes poo power."
Thames Water has the largest renewable electricity generation capacity within the M25, using:

Thermal destruction with energy recovery, where sewage sludge, which is the solid content of the sewage after it has been dried and processed into blocks of ‘poo cake’, is burned to generate power
Anaerobic digestion, or CHP (combined heat power) generation, which is where methane derived from sewage sludge is burned to created heat, which in turns generates power.

The following Thames Water sewage works have CHP plants: Maple Lodge (Rickmansworth), Mogden (Isleworth), Rye Meads (Herts), Deephams (Edmonton), Oxford, Reading, Long Reach (Dartford), Slough, Hogsmill (Kingston), Beddington (Surrey), Swindon, Bishops Stortford, Banbury, Aylesbury, Basingstoke, Bracknell, Camberley, Crawley, East Hyde (Luton) and Wargrave (Berks).
Two plants use thermal destruction: Beckton in north east London - Europe’s largest sewage works, and Crossness in south east London.
Sewage sludge is finally offered to farmers to use as fertiliser or to developers as landscaping material or soil improver.

Source: The New Civil Engineer

Ofgem calls for new year cuts to home energy bills

2009-12-08T11:23:00.002Z

Energy suppliers are making more money from household customers, with margins doubling in the past year, Ofgem disclosed yesterday.

The industry regulator said gross margins, which include costs such as marketing and IT as well as profits, rose to £210 per dual-fuel customer in November, up from £160 in August.
In its quarterly energy report, Ofgem added that the figure would rise by a further £70 in the next six months unless suppliers cut their prices.
Ofgem added that its analysis of profit margins, using information from the companies during last year's market probe, showed that profits had not been excessive.
For the big six energy firms – British Gas, E.ON, EDF Energy, Npower, Scottish and Southern Energy and Scottish Power – higher household bills had been offset by lower generation returns caused by faltering economic demand and lower prices, it said.
Excluding suppliers' profits and running costs of just over £120, companies were making around £85 a dual-fuel customer in November. Suppliers, it suggested, tended to smooth out good and bad years and said they had not made excessive profits during the past 10 years.
Nonetheless Alistair Buchanan, the chief executive of Ofgem, fired a shot across their bows, warning them they should not use the need to invest in green energy as an excuse to raise prices. "Ofgem's role is to ensure that companies can invest, but do not use investment as a shameful excuse to overcharge consumers," he said.
"At the moment, the effect of companies smoothing prices has been neutral on consumers, but if prices stay unchanged in the New Year, then we will see customers losing out."
Energy UK, the suppliers' trade body, released a report of its own to coincide with Ofgem's. Commissioned from the NERA Economic Consulting, it stated that suppliers made only £9 a year from each electricity customer and £10 a year from gas customers. For dual fuel customers, there was no profit, because of the additional discounts usually offered to customers, NERA said.
Christine McGourty, director of Energy UK, said: "Many of us are concerned about our energy bills and would like them to be lower. But the energy itself only accounts for about half of our gas and electricity bills.
"There are a wide range of other costs, such as the cost of providing cleaner, renewable energy and the cost of bad debt, and many of these other costs are rising."
Robert Hammond, energy expert at the public-funded watchdog Consumer Focus, said: "Consumers who have seen only tiny cuts to their energy bills, while wholesale prices have plummeted, will find it laughable that the suppliers say they are making such miniscule profits. These figures are completely at odds with Ofgem's own analysis, which shows the energy firms are making huge, and increasing, profit margins."
David Hunter, an energy analyst at McKinnon & Clarke, said it was impossible to unravel the profitability of the companies, which own both generation and supply.
"Without having access to the level of detailed commercial information Ofgem says it has had from the suppliers, it is difficult to strip away the layers of complexity in these large, vertically integrated utility giants," he warned. "What is clear is that overall, profits have seldom been higher for these companies, and dividends for shareholders continue to rise."

Source: The Independent

Double blow dents confidence in £40bn nuclear programme

2009-12-07T11:14:00.002Z

Contractors are facing uncertainty about the Government’s £40 billion nuclear programme after blows to both the decommissioning and new build programmes this week.

The body in charge of decommissioning toxic sites revealed it may have to defer some work as part of a Government cost-cutting drive, while the safety regulator admitted there was still a significant number of flaws to be ironed out in the newbuild reactor designs before work could progress.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority confirmed its board was considering a range of potential cuts to its budget. It could include scrapping some work, although other projects could be brought forward if it was decided they offered better value for money.
The NDA, which has an annual budget of almost £1 billion to clean up contaminated sites, said: “The range of scenarios to be considered includes: bringing forward some work, subject to affordability, where there are strong value-formoney business cases; the deferral of some non-essential work to later years; the deletion of scope where alternative plans can be formed; increasing income generation from our remaining assets; [and] opportunities for further efficiency savings.”
The review is part of a Government-wide process to cut costs and drive efficiencies in all public sector agencies. The NDA said it planned to make a decision on where costs would be cut by February.
One insider said: “There is still a lot of uncertainty there as to what this could mean. We think there will be cuts in areas where the work is non-essential, but the thing is that there is a great deal of work that is essential.
“And in the current climate, when you are trying to make the case for new nuclear, the last thing
you want to be doing is cutting clean-up costs for sites like Sellafield, which are, in effect, toxic dumps at the moment.”
The news came as the Health and Safety Executive raised a string of concerns over the two proposed new build reactor designs.
The HSE – which is reviewing designs put forward by an EDF/ Areva joint venture and Westinghouse – said it had identified a “significant” number of problems. Detailed assessment is due to conclude in June 2011.
While there are fears the design problems could set back the programme, the Civil Engineering Contractors Association said it was important to get the designs right pre-construction in order to avoid the kind of delays currently being experienced by reactor schemes in Finland and France.
Head of industry affairs Alasdair Reisner encouraged EDF, Areva and Westinghouse to “call upon the skills and knowledge of [our] members” to help overcome any buildability issues relating to the civil engineering aspects of the reactors.

Source: Construction News

GE Hitachi To Resubmit Nuclear Reactor Design To UK

2009-12-07T10:24:00.002Z

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, a US-Japanese joint venture, is expected to resubmit its nuclear reactor design to the UK in 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported citing a Dow Jones report.

To concentrate on getting its Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor design licensed in the US, the company had withdrawn its design from the UK last year. However, it will resubmit the reactor design to the UK after it completes the regulatory process in the US.
GE Hitachi has already initiated talks with the UK government and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to return to the UK process. Once the reactor design clears the regulatory process in the UK, the company expects its design to be licensed in the country by 2014, which will allow the company to have its first nuclear reactor in operation by 2020.
However, after returning to the UK, the reactor design is expected to go through the final two steps in parallel as the site already has been chosen.
Danny Roderick, senior vice president of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, told Dow Jones: "In this case, we've resolved the technical issues, and we have the design strategy to satisfy the (UK) regulator with the level of detail they need to be able to get closure to some of the issues that are delaying some of the reviews of the two designs they are reviewing."

Source: Energy Business Review

E.ON, Dong Energy Cancel Plan To Develop Scarweather Sands Offshore Wind Farm

2009-12-07T10:23:00.001Z

E.ON and Dong Energy, the partners in Scarweather Sands offshore wind farm in the UK's Swansea Bay, have decided against proceeding with the construction of the project.

A lease for the project was awarded to the partners by The Crown Estate as part of the first round of developments of offshore wind in the UK waters. It was viewed as a demonstration scale site to allow companies to gain experience for future developments.
However, the companies said that the challenging seabed conditions, relatively poor wind speeds at the location and a restriction on turbine height mean that Scarweather, with just 30 turbines, is no longer commercially viable.
Dave Rogers, regional director of renewables at E.ON, said: "This is not a decision that we've taken lightly, a lot of work has gone into trying to make the project work but, sadly, we've had to recognise that we can't go ahead. Put simply it has become clear that Scarweather Sands is not the best place to build a small scale offshore wind farm.
"We've learnt a lot from this development which has helped us in successfully delivering other larger projects and rather than carry on for the wrong reasons, we've decided not to build the wind farm."
E.ON and Dong Energy are also partners, together with Masdar, in the 1GW London Array project, a consented offshore wind farm, which is due to be built in the Thames approaches in 2012.

Source: Energy Business Review

British Gas To Launch EnergySmart Online Service

2009-12-07T10:22:00.002Z

British Gas will launch EnergySmart, a new online service that is designed to help put customers in control of their energy bills. The service is developed by Rufus Leonard and the internal development team at British Gas.

Every British Gas customer signing up to EnergySmart will receive a free electricity cost monitor (retail value of £35), which allows people to see exactly how much electricity their appliances are using. Evidence from early trials suggests that customers using the new EnergySmart service and the electricity monitor could reduce consumption by 12%, saving over £110 per year.

Rufus Leonard has also designed a Consumption Hub, which allows customers to compare usage to previous years and help predict the next bill.

Benjamin Braun, head of online services at British Gas, said: "Estimated bills are one of the biggest dissatisfiers amongst customers. With EnergySmart customers can say goodbye to estimated bills and only pay for what they use by monthly accurate billing. We are committed to provide customers with tools to control and manage their energy consumption online and by text."

Neil Svensen, founder and CEO of Rufus Leonard, said: "EnergySmart gives customers a brand new way of managing their energy usage and bills. It will dramatically change the way customers interact with their energy account in the same way that online banking or self-service check-in has for airlines."

Source: Energy Business Review

UK Outlines Civil Nuclear Package

2009-12-07T10:17:00.003Z

The UK business secretary Lord Mandelson has outlined a package to support the country's civil nuclear industry.

The package includes a new £25m Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) that will be based in South Yorkshire alongside the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). The research centre, which is likely to be up and running by the end of 2011, will be led by the University of Sheffield with Rolls-Royce as the lead industrial partner and supported by the University of Manchester.

Funding for the project comprises £15m from the Department of Business, Industry and Skills and £10m from the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward.

In July, Rolls-Royce had revealed an investment programme that included £45m of government funding, in four new plants in the UK. Rolls-Royce has said that one of these plants will be in South Yorkshire, which will provide manufacturing technologies to deliver components for nuclear power plants.

Mr Mandelson also revealed a Nuclear Low Carbon Economic Area (LCEA) for both Yorkshire and the Northwest, led by both regional development agencies. The UK companies are expected to provide up to 70% of the work on construction of components for new nuclear power plants, and the LCEA will support the development of UK capability to win this business.
Mr Mandelson said, "We know that we have to make the transition to a low carbon future, and the government is determined to ensure that British businesses get the support they need to seize the business opportunities that transition creates.
"The civil nuclear sector is one of the key low carbon industries where the UK has the potential for job creation, economic growth and engineering and manufacturing excellence. Today's announcement is about investing in our future. A greener, smarter, more skilled, more balanced British economy."

Source: Energy Business Review

Redundant meters offer harvest of precious metal

2009-12-07T09:41:00.002Z

It might not look like a goldmine under your stairs, but meters tucked out of sight are expected to yield a haul of precious metals worth £10 million for Britain’s utility companies, which are about to begin replacing them with smart meters.
Installation of the new generation of electricity and gas meters will cost £9 billion, but rising commodity prices have potentially created millions in profits from the recycling of the old models.

According to Mark Wolle, whose company EEE specialises in the recycling of electronic waste, 100,000 British electricity meters could collectively contain one kilo of gold. With prices close to record highs of $1,200 an ounce, a kilo of gold is now worth £23,000.

The same number of meters would also contain about five kilos of silver, valued at an estimated $936 (£598), and 1½ tonnes of copper, worth $10,000, he said.

The energy companies will replace 26 million electricity meters and 21 million gas meters.

Paul Golby, chief executive of E.ON UK, said: “We can’t just dump them in a hole in the ground, so this is going to be a massive recycling exercise.” He said that the company was considering whether to build a processing plant to handle all the old meters during the ten-year roll-out.

Mr Wolle said that the energy companies were compelled to recycle the meters under European law.

Consumers considering depriving their energy company of their treasure should beware. The meters are hazardous and each contains only minute quantities worth a few pence. A spokesman for Greenpeace said that the meters could contain toxic materials.

National Grid said that 85 per cent of the average British gas meter could be recycled, mostly for steel. The company was studying the possibility of plastic recycling.

Source: The Times

£6M to develop smart meters

2009-12-03T12:34:00.003Z

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has set aside £6M to develop smart meters, which are due to be fitted in all homes by 2020.

Smart meters will save consumers money and reduce overall use of electricity, so reducing overall carbon emissions. The scheme is expected to cost some £8.5bn, but make far greater savings.

Energy minister Lord Hunt said: “A global climate deal in Copenhagen needs all countries to make the most ambitious commitments possible, but it will also require all of us to change how we lead our lives and how we generate our energy.
“Smart meters will put the power in people’s hands, enabling us all to control how much energy we use, cut emissions and cut bills. Smart grids will help manage the massive shift to low carbon electricity such as wind, nuclear and clean fossil fuels.
“Globally the business of developing smart grids has been estimated at £27 billion over the next 5 years and the UK has the know-how to be part of that.”
“Smarter Grids: The Opportunity”, also published today, makes the case for developing smart grids in the UK. Smart grids will give operators and consumers much more information about supply and demand of electricity – enabling more effective interaction between consumer needs and fluctuating supplies.

Specifically smart grids will:

Deliver electricity more efficiently and reliably - reducing the costs and emissions from electricity generation and transmission
Facilitate increased generation of low carbon electricity sources such as wind

Source: The New Civil Engineer

Arqiva Teams Up With Sensus To Deliver UK Smart Meter Solution

2009-12-02T15:57:00.001Z

Arqiva, a communications infrastructure and services company, and smart grid company Sensus, have formed a partnership to deploy a communications platform as part of the UK's rollout of smart meters to all homes and businesses.

Under terms of the partnership, Sensus will supply Arqiva with its technology for smart metering, telemetry and control of utility assets. Arqiva will focus on the operation of long range radio-based solution for the single centralised national communications network as recommended by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Sensus will also provide its FlexNet smart grid communications system and SmartPoint technology.
Bill Yeates, executive vice president of Conservation Solutions at Sensus, said: "The marriage of Sensus' smart metering experience in the North American market and Arqiva's experience with critical network infrastructure in the UK represents an exciting proposition for the UK's smart metering initiative.

"Sensus is already playing a key role in the largest modernisation of utility networks in the US and Canada and we're excited by the prospect of helping the UK to achieve its energy modernisation ambitions."

Sensus is a technology and communications company providing data collection and metering solutions for water, gas and electric utilities.

UK PEAK ENERGY DEMAND MAY OUTSTRIP SUPPLY CAPABILITIES BY 2017: DOUGLAS-WESTWOOD

2009-12-02T13:56:00.003Z

A report by Douglas-Westwood has revealed that the UK's peak electricity demand could exceed available capacity by 2017, due to the planned closure of nuclear and coal power stations and a potential short-term gap in replacement of power generation solutions.

In addition, gas power stations running on imported fuel will offer short-term method of bridging this impending power capacity gap until a new generation of wind farms, nuclear plants and clean coal power stations are brought online.

The report 'The UK Power Generation Expenditure Forecast 2010-2030' covered coal, gas, nuclear, offshore and onshore wind, wave and tidal, hydro, biomass, and solar photovoltaics sectors.

The report highlights that current UK power generation capacity is approximately 85GW, but that taking into account the potential for increasing demand, and intermittency of renewable sources such as wind, it will need to grow to 112GW by 2030. This means the equivalent of 95% of existing UK capacity will need to be built over the next 20 years - corresponding to a required capital investment that could be as high as GBP162 billion over the same period.

John Westwood, chairman of Douglas-Westwood, said: "The rising amounts of required energy capacity will place considerable pressure on the UK economy, the entire energy supply chain and it is the consumer who will ultimately have to pay the price of indecision.
"Considering successive governments have had 30 years notice of the present serious decline of UK oil & gas supplies and full knowledge of generation plant lifetimes there is no excuse for allowing the development of the pending problem. A balance will need to be struck quickly between energy security, the intermittent nature of renewable energy generation, climate change mitigation targets and potentially volatile public opinion."
Douglas-Westwood is a provider of business research and analysis, strategy, and commercial due diligence on the global energy services sectors.

Areva hopes nuclear option won't go into meltdown

2009-12-01T11:41:00.003Z

Delays to Areva's nuclear reactors could stop the UK hitting its emissions targets

Unqualified welders and badly-mixed concrete are just two among 1,700 "quality deviations" that have dogged the construction of Europe's first nuclear plant since Chernobyl. It has turned into a costly €2.3bn (£2.1bn) nightmare for Areva, the company, leading the severely delayed build at Olkiluoto, a tranquil, pine-forested island off the coast of Finland.

But Rob Davies, director of UK new nuclear for the French state-owned group, insists Britain's fleet of new reactors will not meet in the same fate.

According to Mr Davies, Britain is at the forefront of Areva's plans to show it can deliver a fleet of stations on time, in budget and without safety hitches. For the UK to meet its 2020 targets on cutting emissions –which may even be tightened at the Copenhagen summit next week – it will be vital for Areva to deliver a flawless reactor ready for EDF's first plant in 2017.

"How important is Britain? Very," he says, excitedly pencilling a diagram of the reactors new safety features. "Eyebrow-raisingly important. We're in pretty good shape to do it in time."

But these new safety features only exist because UK, French and Finnish regulators warned that the original designs did not adequately separate operational and emergency systems.
"It's part of the regulator's 'no surprises' policy, where it's not going to tell us at the last minute the reactor can't be built," Mr Davies says soothingly, creating the impression that all reactors start off a bit dodgy and evolve into impenetrable fortresses. "It was a surprise for some. But it's exactly what happened at Sizewell where they had to impose a new back-up system onto the original. Now it looks like the regulator will be happy."
In Areva's defence, a progress report from the regulator shows it is far further ahead at ironing out initial problems than Westinghouse, its single rival competing to design a UK reactor.
One key stress test is that the plant should withstand being hit at top-speed by the biggest plane in the world. The flagship European Pressurised Reactor, is made of a six foot concrete shell, then a steel liner, then the width of an elephant, then more steel and concrete.
"It's like walking through a castle," he says. "That's the size required to make sure we won't have another 9/11."
Nobody died after iodine-131 oozed from a US reactor at Three Mile Island in 1979. But the leak did start the slow death of the new nuclear industry, finished off by the reactor meltdown and humanitarian disaster in 1986 in Ukraine. Areva had to diversify into the less thrilling world of inter-connectors and life extensions for old reactors.
"Even up until six years ago, we only had about one company through our doors enquiring about a new plant every six months," Mr Davies says. "Now it's hard to name a country that has not expressed interest from Namibia to Vietnam."
No one could have predicted that climate change, brought on by global addiction to fossil fuels, would force states, companies and even some green campaigners into the arms of nuclear.
"When Blair said nuclear should be the heart of energy policy, everyone said: 'Bloody hell we didn't see that coming," he recalls. "There was a belief that the public was dead against. But climate change has led to a remarkable turnaround story."
Areva looks in pole position to benefit, if it can withstand suspicions that all its new reactors will be subject to the same cost overruns, delays and safety concerns as Olkiluoto. The company is aiming for 60 new orders by the early 2020s across Europe, the US, the Middle East, India and China. It is building already delayed plant in Flamville, France, will provide solely reactors to EDF in the UK, and wants to win the contract to build two entire UK plants with RWE and E.ON.
"Last year we added one employee every 50 minutes," Mr Davies boasts, pointing out that, unlike rivals, Areva not only makes plants, but mines uranium, makes fuel, services the reactors and deals with waste. It will still be a challenge to expand from its 70-odd staff on the UK new build to the 4,500 needed to deliver each site.
"These major projects are not put up over night. It will take time to build a workforce and global supply chain," he says. "I don't think lack of expertise will be a stumbling block to Europe's ambitions. But there is no hard answer."

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Green light for rollout of 47m gas and electricity meters

2009-12-01T11:36:00.002Z

The government is this week set to give a green light to the biggest shake-up in Britain’s energy industry for over 30 years: the £9 billion rollout of 47 million new gas and electricity meters in every British household.

Details of the rollout of so-called smart meters, which monitor energy consumption in real-time, are expected as early as Wednesday.
The phase-out of traditional meters represents the biggest single change in the sector since the 1970s introduction of North Sea gas and is set to trigger thousands of job losses for meter readers, engineers, call centre staff and middle managers. But the new meters will enable power companies to make big strides on energy efficiency by introducing off-peak deals similar to those offered by telephone operators.
Consumers will be rewarded for using energy-hungry appliances such as dishwashers and tumble dryers at off-peak times, such as between 1am and 5am, allowing for a reduction in the total number of power stations needed to power the UK.
Inaccurate billing will also end because suppliers would receive exact data.
Finlay MacDonald, manager of the smart metering programme at ScottishPower said:
"The new meter technology will streamline a lot of our internal procedures, helping to improving account handling and turnaround times for processes like a change of tenancy or a change of supplier. Fundamentally, they will make it easier for our customers to do business with us."
The announcement is expected this week from Baron Hunt of Kings Heath, minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
There has been disagreement over the cost of the rollout, which will start next year and last as long as 10 years.
DECC has said that the project could be completed at a cost of between £7 billion to £9 billion, or an average of £269 to £346 per household.
Ernst & Young, the audit firm, has rejected that estimate, arguing that the true cost would be at least 49 per cent higher, at about £13.4 billion, or £515 per household.
Consumers are expected to shoulder the bulk of the extra cost in the form of higher bills, although the industry claims there will be offsetting savings.
In an interview last week with The Times, Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, the owner of British Gas, claimed consumers would not pay anything extra for the meters because they would allow them to cut their overall energy use.
To help to oversee the project, which could start next year, the Government has approved the creation of a body to manage the meters and the relaying of information to energy suppliers.
The project will be highly lucrative for the manufacturers of smart meters, such as General Electric, IBM and Itron, of the United States, and Landis+Gyr, a privately owned Swiss group.
Scottish Power’s Mr MacDonald said: “We support the commitment made by the Government to roll-out of smart meters across every home and business in Britain by the end of 2020. There is no doubt that smart electricity and gas meters will have a major positive impact on all of our energy habits and consumption, not only helping to reduce bills, but also cutting overall carbon emissions.”
“Smart electricity and gas meters are being designed with consumers' interests at heart. They will provide precise real time information on energy consumption, enabling customers to better manage their energy use. Energy companies will also be able to design specifically tailored tariffs that will benefit their customers. Smart meters will also mean the end of estimated bills and manual meter readings, so there will never be any doubt about the cost of energy.”

Source: The Times

British company to help India harness the power of the sea

2009-11-30T09:45:00.002Z

A small British-based tidal energy company has won a landmark contract to attempt to harness the power of the sea around India for the first time.

Atlantis Resources has forged a deal with the western state of Gujarat, under which the privately owned company will establish the feasibility of developing tidal power projects capable of generating more than 100 megawatts of power — enough to supply about 40,000 households.
Of particular interest are the Gulf of Kutch and the Gulf of Khambhat in the Arabian Sea: two sites renowned for extreme daily tides. The project could lead to hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment in tidal energy if the results of the study are positive.
India has more than 4,500 miles of coastline and is scrambling to tackle a gaping power deficit but has yet to establish a single tidal power project. The move to explore the untapped resource comes ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, an event where India will strive to demonstrate that it is doing its utmost to limit emissions while refusing to cap economic growth.
India, which imports 70 per cent of its oil and relies on modest coal reserves to generate most of its electricity, is on course to become the third-largest user of energy by 2030, behind the US and China.
Atlantis’s backers include Morgan Stanley and Statkraft, the Norweigan state utility. The company, which is run by Tim Cornelius, an Australian former pilot of manned submersibles, is also hoping to establish a £400 million project to build one of the world’s biggest tidal power plants in the Pentland Firth, off the Scottish coast.
The waterway, famous for its treacherous currents, has the potential to turn Scotland into “the Saudi Arabia of tidal energy”, according to Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister.
Proponents of tidal current power argue that it is the most reliable and predictable form of clean energy, even though the technology lags that used in wind power.
The gravitational pull of the moon and sun is predictable and moves horizontally around the earth, creating high and low tides. Tidal current energy takes the kinetic energy in these tidal currents and converts it into renewable electricity.
Sea water is 832 times denser than air and gives more kinetic energy than a 350 km/h wind. That means — in theory — that a smaller device is required to harness tidal current energy than to harness wind.
There is an estimated 50,000 megawatts of potential tidal current energy available worldwide. Britain, according to one estimate, could meet about 15 per cent of its total electricity needs with this source of energy.
India has emerged as a world leader in wind power, and Atlantis hopes to leverage the nation’s expertise in that field to forge ahead with a tidal project.
India has also recently stepped up its efforts to tap other renewable energy sources — most notably through a $19 billion plan to develop solar energy.
The national Solar Mission calls for India to generate 200 gigawatts of power from the sun by 2050. The entire world can generate about 14 gigawatts of solar power today.
It is not yet clear where the funding for the initiative will come from, but the scale of the solar project hints at the seriousness of India’s looming energy crisis. About 400 million Indians are not connected to the national grid.
Moreover, demand for electricity in India is likely to increase more than fivefold by 2030, according to a study by McKinsey, the consultants.
The same report said that the country could produce 6.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gases in 2030, compared with about 1.6 billion tonnes this year.

Source: The Times

Ecotricity To Supply Biogas To UK Households

2009-11-27T11:51:00.001Z

Energy firm Ecotricity is set to offer green gas as an alternative fuel to the UK households, which will be supplied from renewable sources.

Green gas can be made during a composting-like process that breaks down food waste and other material that normally gets dumped straight into landfill or burnt in incinerators. Britain currently wastes around 18 million tonnes of food alone a year, which could produce enough biogas to supply over 700,000 homes, the company said.
According to Ecotricity, green gas has the potential to generate as much as half of the UK's domestic gas needs with the right government backing. Ultimately, the company plans to create bio-gas from emerging next-generation technologies such as special strains of algae, a naturally occurring, fast reproducing and potentially endless source of energy.
Ecotricity said it will supply gas from a mix of green and conventional 'brown' sources, with the green fuel mix increasing as more customers sign up and it builds new renewable supplies, the same model it has used with electricity since it started in 1996. Since then Ecotricity's green electricity mix has grown to 45.6%, entirely from its own sources with a continuing long-term mission to reach 100% and beyond.
Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, said: "We're the real British Gas now. We're kickstarting the market to move Britain from brown to green gas, turning people’s gas bills into green gas mills, just as we've been doing with windmills for over a decade.
"By choosing green gas, customers can help unhook Britain from its addiction to foreign gas supplies, make a positive long-term change to the world we live in, and could also keep thousands of tonnes of waste out of landfill which could even help keep council tax bills down."

Source: Energy Business Review

EDF Energy To Sell Land For Nuclear Power Plant

2009-11-27T11:24:00.001Z

EDF Energy has started a process to sell land suitable for a new nuclear power plant at its site in Bradwell in southeast England.

The company acquired part of the land at Bradwell in Essex as a result of its takeover of British Energy in January this year and purchased the remainder through an auction of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in April.
The company has agreed with the UK government to sell off the land as part of the acquisition of British Energy. EDF has started inviting 'credible nuclear operators' to submit expressions of interest in the site.
Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, managing director of nuclear new build at EDF Energy, said: "We believe the site at Bradwell which was named in the (UK) government's recently published draft Nuclear National Policy Statement, has good potential for new build and will be attractive to potential developers of nuclear power plants.
"This sale process goes hand in hand with our plans and the industry's wider objectives in seeking to help address the country's long-term energy issues."
EDF Energy said that any sale agreed will be conditional on EDF Energy getting planning permission for two European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) at its Sizewell power station in eastern England.

Source: Energy Business Review

Siemens Bags New Order For Wind Power Plant In New Zealand

2009-11-27T11:23:00.001Z

Siemens Energy and Meridian Energy have signed an order for the supply of 28 SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines for Te Uku wind power project near Hamilton, New Zealand.

The wind farm is scheduled to come on line in 2011 and will have a capacity of 64MW. It is estimated that the project will save approximately 145,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
Andreas Nauen, CEO of wind power business unit at Siemens, said: "New Zealand's abundance of natural wind resources is ideal for wind power generation. Siemens and Meridian Energy initially worked together on the West Wind project which was recently commissioned ahead of schedule. We are confident that the follow-up project at Te Uku will also be a great success."
The Te Uku project will have the first installation of the new Siemens SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines in the Asia-Pacific region. With a diameter of 101 meters, the rotor of the new SWT-2.3-101 has a swept area of 8,000 square meters. The new turbine is based on the design of the 2.3MW family.
In October, Siemens commissioned its first wind power plant in New Zealand. The 62 SWT-2.3-82VS wind turbines at the West Wind site, which is also owned by Meridian Energy, is now supplying up to 70,000 homes with clean energy.

Source: Energy Business Review

Abengoa Solar, E.ON To Build Two 50MW Solar Plants In Spain

2009-11-27T11:22:00.000Z

Abengoa Solar and E.ON Climate & Renewables have formed a partnership to jointly own and operate two 50MW Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants. The plants, which are already under construction, are located in Ecija (Seville), Southern Spain.

The 50:50 partnership is aimed to invest around EUR550m into the two plants, which will start operation in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The solar facilities is expected to produce enough power to supply 52,000 homes and avoid the emission equivalent to 63,000 tonnes of CO2.
However, the participation of E.ON in the projects is still subject to the EU Commission approval under merger control.
Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa Solar, said: "Having E.ON on as a partner in these projects will allow us to continue growing at the speed we want and to improve our capabilities in areas where E.ON has extensive experience".
Frank Mastiaux, CEO of E.ON Climate & Renewables, said: "Solar Power will be the next strong pillar in E.ON’s renewables portfolio. Our entry into CSP complements our recent moves into the photovoltaic business and we will now stand on two feet in solar in the future. I am also delighted to be working with Abengoa. We have found an experienced partner with whom we want to drive CSP to new levels of performance."
The plants in Ecija will utilize Parabolic Trough technology, a solution developed in the 1980s that Abengoa Solar has in recent years tested and enhanced at the Solucar Platform plants in Sanlucar la Mayor, Seville.
E.ON is investing EUR8 billion in renewable generation and climate protection projects between 2007-2011. The company currently has over 2.8GW of renewable capacity in operation.
Both companies are founding members of the Desertec Industrial Initiative to develop secure renewable energy production in the desert regions of the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Source: Energy Business Review

EDF EN Canada Reveals Framework Agreement With REpower

2009-11-27T11:21:00.001Z

EDF EN Canada, an EDF Energies Nouvelles company, has said that EDF Energies Nouvelles and RES Canada have signed a framework agreement with German turbine supplier REpower, covering the delivery of up to 954MW of generating capacity.

The turbines are intended for five Quebec wind projects being developed by Saint-Laurent Energies, a Montreal based wind energy company jointly owned by the consortium of EDF EN Canada, Hydromega Services and RES Canada.
This framework agreement guarantees a minimum capacity of 748MW for the five wind projects located in different regions of Quebec. The five power purchase agreements, representing a future investment of over CAD2 billion, were signed in June 2008 with Hydro-Quebec.
The projects, consisting of up to 477 turbines, are due to be commissioned between year-end 2011 and year-end 2015 and are expected to contribute to the progress of the Quebec economy.
Fabienne Demol, representative of EDF EN Canada & president of Saint-Laurent Energies, said: "EDF EN and REpower have a long-term partnership with a proven track record in Europe and the US working together to ensure profitable projects are built on schedule.
"The framework agreement marks a key milestone in the development process, following both the award from Hydro-Quebec and the signing of the PPAs, paving the way for implementation. It further allows for turbine procurement in accordance with the local content requirements imposed by Hydro-Quebec."

Source: Energy Business Review

Centrica Completes Acquisition Of 20% Stake In British Energy

2009-11-27T11:19:00.001Z

Centrica has completed the purchase of its stake in British Energy through the acquisition of a 20% equity stake in Lake Acquisitions from EDF, and the sale of its 51% stake in the Belgian business SPE through the purchase by EDF of Segebel.

In addition to owning a 20% stake in British Energy's existing eight nuclear power plants, Centrica will also off-take 20% of the uncontracted power from the fleet. EDF and Centrica will form a separate 80/20 joint venture through which they will undertake the pre-development activities for a planned nuclear new build programme, with the intention of constructing, and operating and decommissioning four European Pressurised Reactors. EDF will also provide Centrica with an additional 18TWh of power at market prices over five years from 2011.
Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, said: "We are delighted to have now completed the transaction with EDF. We believe nuclear energy is an essential component in ensuring clean, secure energy for the UK and we are proud to be part of our country's nuclear renaissance.
"The price secured for the sale of SPE will help preserve our balance sheet firepower as we consider other investment opportunities that will further underpin UK energy supply security."

Source: Energy Business Review

UK nuclear inspectors question reactor designs

2009-11-27T11:18:00.000Z

The UK's nuclear inspectors will today reveal that Areva's new designs to improve the safety of its heavily criticised reactor look "reasonable", but raise "significant concerns" about Japanese rival Westinghouse's designs in key areas.

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) will say that it is worried about Westinghouse's squib valve and shielding, which could entail re-designs or further testing.
This year, the NII, along with French and Finnish regulators, has already issued warnings about the fact that Areva's control and safety systems are not independent.
However, the French company quickly submitted modified designs, hoping they will be suitable for EDF Energy's first two new plants. The plants are due to be built by 2017.
The NII "anticipates that the modified designs will be acceptable", but will add that it is too early to judge whether the plans will pass its final tests in June 2011.
Westinghouse and Areva are both competing to construct reactors for the RWEnpower and E.ON new nuclear consortium, as the NII moves on to the final stage of its assessment process.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Nuclear plans still flawed, says watchdog

2009-11-27T11:14:00.002Z

The nuclear safety regulator has warned that two new reactor designs earmarked for use in Britain remain incomplete and could be rejected unless improvements are made.
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) said that it was concerned about several features of both the US-Japanese and French reactor technologies that had been proposed for use in a new generation of British nuclear power stations.
The NII, which is part of the Health and Safety Executive, is conducting a safety review of the so-called AP-1000 reactor from Toshiba-Westinghouse and the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) from Areva of France.
Final approval of the designs is not due to be granted until 2011, but an update on progress said that significant questions remained unanswered.
Kevin Allars, the director of new nuclear build design assessment at the NII, said that he was confident that both designs “could be suitable” for use in Britain. However, he added: “If they aren’t acceptable, or there are sufficient doubts in our mind whether they should be built in this country, then we will not issue a design acceptance confirmation. So far we don’t have a complete design yet from either . . . So we cannot rule it out.”
In particular, he said that progress on the AP-1000 design was behind schedule because its parent company had been too slow in providing information about a range of issues.
He said that the NII was concerned about the functioning of specialist valves controlling pressure at the heart of the reactor, while there were also worries about a proposal to use a “modular” method of construction designed to cut costs.
“There is still a lot of work to do,” Mr Allars said, although he added that Toshiba-Westinghouse had recently increased the manpower that it was devoting to the British safety review, which is known as the generic design assessment. The review is a key part of the Government’s drive to build a fleet of new nuclear plants in Britain.
Mr Allars said that the NII was also concerned about some aspects of the design of the French reactor, although he added that Areva and EDF, the French state-controlled energy company, had been co-operating more closely with the agency in recent months.
In July, The Times disclosed that the NII was concerned about the “control and instrumentation” systems, the so-called brain of the reactor. Mr Allars said that, since then, Areva and EDF had submitted a proposal to resolve these concerns, which the NII said it had accepted “in principle”.
However, he added that it was “too early to say” whether they would be sufficient to resolve the matter and that further details would be published next year.
Mr Allars said that the NII was also concerned about the strength of safety doors used in the design of the French reactor and that these needed to be fortified.
The EPR is the world’s most powerful nuclear reactor, with a capacity of 1,600 megawatts — or enough to power a city the size of Manchester.
EDF wants to build at least four EPRs — two each at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, and Sizewell, in Suffolk.
Mr Allars said that the NII had enough staff to complete the job after completing an intensive recruitment programme. There had been concerns, at the beginning of the review, that the nuclear safety regulator lacked the resources required to complete it while continuing with its normal workload of monitoring safety at Britain’s existing nuclear stations.

Source: The Times

Wind means more C02

2009-11-26T15:26:00.003Z

Over-reliance on wind power could scupper government plans to cut carbon emissions by 2050, consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff warned this week.

The firm warned that extra back-up power generation capacity would be needed to pick up shortfalls in wind generated electricity during calm weather. The most cost effective and fast response solution would be gas fired power stations, but these generate high levels of CO₂.

Its report Powering the Future models options for the UK’s energy supply. It finds that if Britain builds 30GW of distributed wind capacity, 10GW of additional fast response capacity would be needed to ensure reliability of supply.

This need is unlikely to be met by building new pumped storage facilities, given the high capital costs and limited site availability.

The report also warns that a major wind farm programme would also weaken the economic case for low carbon plant capable of responding to peaks in demand. Traditionally this capacity has been met by coal or gas.

High-efficiency plant with lower CO₂ emissions but higher capital cost such as coal plants with carbon capture and storage only offers minimum life cost when used heavily. At lower usage levels, however, it is likely that lower-cost plant such as gas-fired power stations would be the preferred solution.

Long term benefits

The consultant said that a more “holistic” approach would be needed if Britain were to meet its target of cutting CO₂ emissions by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. “We need to deal with electricity quite carefully,” said Parsons Brinckerhoff deputy director of engineering and lead author of the report Paul Willson.

Willson said a broader approach to renewable energy would leave room for better benefits in the long term.

He cited the potential of “smart” electric vehicle infrastructure to help cope with energy surges caused by wind power. “You can have a great synergy,” he said. “So actually it works better if you defer this wind development.”

But right now, Willson said strong government leadership is essential for balanced action both within and between sectors.

Source: The New Civil Engineer

UK Plans To Construct 16GW Nuclear Capacity

2009-11-25T16:29:00.002Z

As part of its efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions, the UK plans to build a 16GW of new nuclear energy capacity, Dow Jones reported citing the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The UK government now sees to triple nuclear energy generating capacity in the country to approximately 40% by 2025 from 13% now.

Mr Brown has been quoted by Dow Jones as saying: "We will now build not 12GW of nuclear capacity but 16GW, a total for new building that is bigger than all our current nuclear capacity and represents significant progress toward a low-carbon future."

Last month, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said in a report that a new nuclear programme can help the UK meet its carbon targets. The organisation further said that the country requires 16GW of new nuclear power (equivalent to 10-12 reactors) to meet climate change targets and reduce dependence on energy imports.

The UK government has recently approved ten sites in England and Wales for future nuclear power stations.

Source: Electrical Business Review

Shell seeks stake in giant Russian gasfield

2009-11-25T14:08:00.002Z

Royal Dutch Shell is hopeful that it will gain an equity stake in a giant Russian gas field that could supply all of the world’s needs for a decade.
Peter Voser, Shell’s chief executive, said that talks with the Russian government about the Yamal project in the Siberian Arctic were progressing well.
“Our understanding is that this would be based on equity participation,” he said, adding that a development plan for Yamal would be drawn up by the end of March 2010.
“We are preparing ourselves for a potential participation.”
Reserves in the remote Yamal peninsula and Kara Sea in the Russian Arctic may hold more than 30 trillion cubic meters of gas, enough to supply the world for a decade, according to a plan presented in the Kremlin by Shell in 2007.
Shell has estimated that development of the province may cost “several hundred billion” dollars and take more than 50 years.
Mr Voser, who visited Moscow last month to discuss the project, said that Shell hoped to be part of a consortium to develop the project, which would be at least 51 per cent controlled by Russian companies including Gazprom.
“Russia has such huge gas reserves we will try to be part of that,” he said.
The conditions in Yamal were so inhospitable that its development would require the development of new technologies, such as a ice-breaking liquefied natural gas tankers, he said.
Mr Voser, who took over as chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant in July, also said that another giant gas project in Qatar, called Pearl, was going well and would soon add 10 per cent or about 350,000 barrels per day to the company’s total production.
Royal Dutch Shell will gain cashflow of $4 billion a year from 2011 following the opening of the Pearl project, which aims to convert natural gas into a liquid fuel.
Mr Voser also said that a major cost-cutting drive at Shell was now on track for completion by January 1. The group had axed nearly 20 per cent of staff from some business units in a drive to shed a total of 5,000 staff.
A new technology and project management division had been created with 8,200 staff, allowing Shell to let go 1,800 un-needed staff from other divisions because of overlaps. “I am pleased with progress so far," Mr Voser said.
Shell was aggressively cutting costs across other parts of the business and drilling costs were likely to be down 15 per cent this year from $7 billion.
Mr Voser wanted Shell to increasingly focus on gas production, in part because of its lower carbon emissions.
He warned that Europe was losing its leadership in so-called carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to countries such as Canada and Australia, who he said were pushing harder to commercialise the technology.
“Europe had a leading position for quite a long time but they are losing their CCS leadership. I have conveyed that message to Brussels and the UK government,” he said.

Source: The Times

Cuts loom over UK’s nuclear clean-up budget

2009-11-25T13:56:00.002Z

The Government is sharpening the axe for Britain’s £4 billion nuclear clean-up budget and drawing up plans for big spending cuts at contaminated sites including Sellafield and Dounreay, The Times has learnt.
The Treasury has begun a sweeping review of spending by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the quango that over the past four years is understood to have spent about £1 billion of taxpayers’ money annually on cleaning up at Britain’s 20 contaminated nuclear sites.
An NDA spokesman said that it was in talks with the Treasury and the Department for Energy and Climate Change about options to cut costs.
These include the acceleration of some pieces of work as well as scrapping or deferring others.
He said that a final shortlist of options would be agreed in February. A Treasury spokesman said that it was “reviewing arm’s length bodies, which could include the NDA”, but no plans had been published and he declined to give further details.
One area of concern is understood to be the fact that almost a third of the NDA’s budget — or £800 million per year — is not spent directly on clean-up operations but on “support”, including administration and other costs.
The bulk of the NDA’s budget is used to pay engineering subcontractor firms involved in clean-up, which employed 18,467 staff on its sites last year. Most work at Sellafield, Europe’s most contaminated industrial site.
The cuts could affect future revenues of companies such as Areva, of France, AMEC and Washington Group, of the United States, which won the main Sellafield decommissioning contract last year, worth an estimated £1.3 billion per year. The NDA’s budget for the four years to 2011 is £8.5 billion.

Source: The Times

Deep water wind turbine foundation design shortlisted by the Carbon Trust

2009-11-20T17:03:00.001Z

A design for a new generation of deep water wind turbine foundations developed by a British consortium led by consultant Gifford has been selected in a competition organised by the Carbon Trust.

Just seven design concepts out of more than 100 entries have been chosen for further development and the team of Gifford, Freyssinet and BMT Group is the only British-led consortium to reach this far.
The team’s design centres on a concrete foundation rather than steel, with a large base allowing the structure to self-stabilise under forces of gravity in water depths of 20 to 45 metres. The team has also devised a cost-effective transportation and installation system using submersible barges, avoiding the use of heavy crane barges and offshore jack-up platforms. The offshore structures which typically weigh over 3,000 tonnes are then settled into place.
The system proposed allows for production line onshore construction to achieve substantial reductions in the cost of deep water wind farms, an important consideration in the design competition. Next year up to three designs will be taken on to the second phase of large-scale demonstration.
Gifford director Pat Jansen said: “Energy producers face the challenge of generating clean and sustainable energy so they are looking to build bigger offshore wind farms in deeper waters. We believe our concept will provide a practicable and competitive solution. “

Source: The New Civil Engineer

Government pledges Energy, Floods and High Speed action

2009-11-19T12:54:00.003Z

In today’s Queen’s Speech, the Government included both an Energy Bill to fund Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and a Floods and Water Management Bill to allocate responsibility for floods in addition to action on a high speed rail link between London and Scotland, although opposition MPs claim the legislative timetable is unrealistic.

Gordon Brown today published his opening election gambit at the annual opening of Paliament, in the Queen’s Speech.

Only 13 Bills and two draft Bills were published.

Of interest are two key Bills:

The Floods and Water Management Bill, designed to implement the recommendations of Sir Michael Pitt’s report into the 2007 floods, and
An Energy Bill to fund experimental CCS technology.

The Queen said: “My government’s overriding priority is to ensure sustained growth to deliver a fair and prosperous economy for families and businesses, as the British economy recovers from the global economic downturn.

“Through active employment and training programmes, restructuring the financial sector, strengthening the national infrastructure and providing responsible investment, my government will foster growth and employment.”

She went on to say: “Legislation will be introduced to support carbon capture and storage and to help more of the most vulnerable households with their energy bills.

“Legislation will be introduced to protect communities against flooding and to improve the management of water supplies.”

Consultants praised the inclusion of the Floods Bill. Principal engineer at Royal Haskoning, Granville Davies said: “The passing of this bill will enable local authorities to take the lead in local flood risk management in the UK and brings an essential EU directive into UK legislative frameworks.
“With 3.8M properties in England alone at risk of surface water flooding, the bill will also facilitate essential surface water management planning activity. This will enable greater understanding of surface water flood risks, the identification of flood risk management assets, and improved collaboration between stakeholder groups to implement preventative measures.”
However, developers have been critical of the lack of additional funding for the Environment Agency in the Floods Bill. Chief executive of the British Property Federation, Liz Peace, said: “Landlords and insurers are still likely to have reservations over the government’s funding commitment for flood defences.
“While the proposals will go some way to reducing risk, what we need to see an end to this obsession with consultation and some real action to pass these quite urgent measures.”
Interestingly, in her speech, The Queen also said: “My Government will respond to proposals for High Speed Rail services between London and Scotland.”
The High Speed 2 group was formed a year ago to look at possible routes from London to the West Midlands and is due to report to government next month.
The speech also outlined a legal obligation to halve government debt within four years in the Fiscal Responsibility Bill.

Other Bills of interest include:

The Digital Economy Bill will allow OFCOM to promote the construction of new wired and wireless digital infrastructure
The Bribery Bill, which will make it an offence to pay, offer or accept a bribe either here or abroad, and companies could be penalised if they fail to prevent bribes being paid, unless “adequate procedures” are in place.

However, with only 70 days of Parliament left to pass this legislation, many believe the timetable is unrealistic.
Liberal Democrat Shadow Scotland Secretary Alistair Carmichael said: “We will see is the kind of empty spin that has made the country so sick of this Government.
“This amounts to little more than political posturing by Gordon Brown, as we can expect few of the measures to become law ahead of an election.”
Conservative peers have also pledged to block the majority of these Bills in the House of Lords, hampering their progress towards Royal Assent.

2009/10 Legislative Agenda:

Financial Services Bill - to promote stability, efficiency and competition in financial markets, and reduce the frequency and impact of systemic financial crises
Fiscal Responsibility Bill - commits the Government to halve government debt within four years
Personal Care at Home Bill - to provide free personal care to those with the most needs in their own homes
Children, Schools and Families Bill - to guarantee tailored tuition for each primary and secondary school child, abolishing national literacy and numeracy strategies
Crime and Security Bill - to make parents responsibe for their child’s antisocial behaviour
Digital Economy Bill - to expand the digital economy and to improve the communications infrastructure
Energy Bill - to introduce a £9.5bn fund for ‘up to four’ CCS demonstration projects and encourage households and businesses to reduce carbon emissions
Flood and Water Management Bill - to clarify flood and coastal risk responsibilities
Equality Bill - to encourage a culture of equality
Child Poverty Bill - sets targets relating to the eradication of child poverty
Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill - to establish statutory management of the civil service
Draft House of Lords Reform Bill - to create an 80 -100% elected House of Lords
Bribery Bill - to provide a new, comprehensive scheme of bribery offences
Cluster Munitions Prohibitions Bill - to introduce new arms control agreements
Draft International Development Spending Bill - to commit to spending 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance by 2013

Source: The New Civil Engineer

Energy issues to dominate EU-Russia meeting

2009-11-18T11:17:00.001Z

Energy issues are expected to top the agenda at an EU-Russian summit in Stockholm Wednesday, as Europe hopes to avoid a repetition of last winter's Russian natural gas flow stoppage.

EU and Russian leaders meet at a summit in Stockholm on Wednesday set to be dominated by energy issues, as Europe hopes to avoid an interruption of Russian natural gas supplies via Ukraine this winter.

Sweden, which currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, is also expected to press Moscow on human rights issues in the north Caucasus -- a sensitive subject -- as well as climate change, the global economy and a follow-up of the G20 summit.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt will host Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for the talks.

“The two sides are very likely to discuss the establishment of a sustained dialogue in the field of energy, security of oil and gas supply and energy efficiency,” Russia's ambassador in Stockholm Igor Neverov said in a statement.

On Monday, Russia and the EU signed an energy early warning agreement they said would help avert a sudden disruption of gas supplies.

A quarter of the gas consumed throughout the European Union comes from Russia, with most of it transiting Ukraine, which regularly has rows with Moscow over bills.

Russia has warned repeatedly in recent weeks that Ukraine, which has been badly hit by the global economic crisis, could have trouble paying its gas bills to Moscow this winter.

Price and pay disputes between Russia and Ukraine in recent years have led to serious gas supply disruptions across the EU. In January, Russia cut off gas supplies to more than a dozen European countries for two weeks.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet Thursday with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko for talks on energy.

Under the agreement signed in Moscow, Russia and the EU will notify each other of any likely disruption to supplies of oil, gas or electricity and jointly work to find a solution, the European Commission said in a statement.

Third parties will be allowed to participate in the arrangement, the Commission said.

Russia would like the European Union to aid Kiev financially to pay its gas bills to avoid any more problems, an issue likely to be discussed on Wednesday.

“An energy crisis like the one the EU suffered in January is harmful for supply, transit and consuming countries alike,” said EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

“We need to do everything necessary to make sure that such a situation never happens again,” said Piebalgs, who signed the deal with Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko.

But the energy talks could be aggravated by Sweden's plans to press Russia on its human rights record.

“If Sweden pushes the human rights issue in north Caucasus, Russia will be very defensive,” a Russia expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Andrew Wilson, told AFP.

Sweden's European Affairs Minister Cecilia Malmstrom said recently: "We welcome president Medvedev's comments on democracy and human rights but this has to be followed up with clear deeds, the situation of human rights in Russia is of great concern."

“We'd like to highlight recent events in north Caucasus where we've seen violence against human rights defenders, repression of minorities... also in Russia,” she said.

Last year Sweden and Poland championed the setting up of an Eastern Partnership for the EU with six nations which Russia still considers to be within its sphere of influence: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Sweden Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has also upset Moscow with comments over its human rights record and its brief 2008 war in Georgia.

As a sign of the tensions, the Russians had appeared set at one stage to refuse to attend any summit in Stockholm, according to Swedish sources, preferring the more neutral Brussels.

The EU is also expected to ask Russia to clarify its intention to join the World Trade Organization.

Source: France24

Scottish & Southern Energy in power play for wood

2009-11-18T09:53:00.003Z

Britain’s second-biggest energy company plans to buy a Scottish forest to help to feed its growing network of biomass-fired power stations, The Times has learnt (see Commentary).
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), which supplies electricity and gas to nine million British homes, hopes to use the forest to supply fuel for two of its power stations — Fiddlers Ferry, in Cheshire, and Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire — where it has installed equipment allowing it to burn timber as well as coal.
The move reflects a scramble by British utilities to secure timber supplies to burn in biomass electricity plants, which are rewarded by lucrative subsidies.
An SSE spokesman said that the company was studying opportunities to invest directly in Scottish forestry, but declined to offer further details.
As well as Fiddlers Ferry and Ferrybridge, SSE is planning to build four biomass plants in a joint venture with Forth Ports in Dundee, Leith, Rosyth and Grangemouth. Together, the Scottish facilities will burn an estimated four million tonnes of wood per year — equivalent to 40 per cent of the UK’s domestic annual wood harvest of ten million tonnes. They will generate about 400 megawatts of electricity, less than 1 per cent of total UK power-generating capacity.
SSE also owns Slough Heat and Power, an 80 megawatt biomass-fired power station in Berkshire.
Cameron Maxwell, head of business development for Forestry Commission Scotland, said that there was growing interest in forestry ownership from British energy companies. “If you are going to build one of these plants, you really have to be able to source the supply properly. It’s a very important commercial consideration.”
Scotland produces about seven million tonnes of wood a year, about 70 per cent of the UK’s annual harvest.
Up to 11 new biomass plants are planned in the UK, but, with only 12 per cent of Britain covered by forest, most of the wood for the new plants will need to be shipped in from the United States, Brazil, Scandinavia and Canada. About 70 per cent of Scandinavia is forested.
The Forestry Commission has predicted a 150 per cent surge in British wood imports from 20 million tonnes today to 50 million tonnes by 2015.
Fenning Welstead, an agent at John Clegg, a chartered foresters and surveyors firm in Edinburgh, said that the interest from energy companies in timber was “skewing the market”.
Drax, operator of Britain’s biggest coal-fired station, has raised the idea of a joint venture with Forestry Commission Scotland to supply timber for three new biomass plants that it plans to build in Yorkshire. Details of the proposal, which was made in an official response to a consultation exercise on forestry provisions to Scottish climate change legislation, were contained in a document seen by The Times.

Source: The Times

CKI Expresses Interest In EDF UK Power Asset

2009-11-17T15:24:00.002Z

Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) has expressed its interest in bidding for the UK's power distribution network, which is being sold by French state-controlled utility Electricite de France (EDF).
The electricity network is expected to be put up for sale next month. Reportedly, the Chinese fund is in competition with Canadian pension funds and Scottish & Southern Energy, who are also considering whether to make the bid.
H L Kam, group managing director of CKI, is quoted by Reuters as saying: "We have a gas network in the UK and the regulatory environment in gas is similar to power. So if we buy the power network, it will create synergies."
The EDF group last month initiated a process to evaluate ownership options for its electricity distribution business in the UK. This is in line with the group's plan, already revealed in February 2009, to reduce its net financial debt by at least EUR5 billion by the end of 2010.
EDF has sent sale documents to potential buyers of its GBP4 billion electricity distribution network in the UK. If a sale proceeds, the utility is expected to accept first-round bids around the middle of January with binding bids due by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

Source: Energy Business Review

World leaders deal major blow to Copenhagen climate change deal

2009-11-16T10:22:00.002Z

A key element of the international plan to address climate change is in jeopardy after several of the most powerful nations failed to confirm a previous commitment to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum, which includes the US, China, Japan and Russia, deleted the commitment from the final version of the official communiqué issued after a two-day meeting in Singapore. The commitment had been made by G8 leaders at L’Aquila in Italy in July and the decision to remove it is a retrograde step.
The resolve of world leaders to take firm action on climate change appears to be weakening, with President Obama confirming that there would be no legally binding deal at the UN summit in Copenhagen next month.
Officials at the Apec meeting said the view of Mr Obama, President Hu Jintao of China and other leaders was that Copenhagen was merely a “staging post” towards a global deal on climate change. They said a legally binding deal was very unlikely to be agreed until late next year.
The Apec communiqué talked only vaguely of working “towards an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen”. It failed to mention any targets, including those previously agreed.
A draft version of the Apec communiqué said that “global emissions will need . . . to be reduced to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050”. But the subsequent version was non-committal.
Most climate scientists believe that a 50 per cent reduction in global emissions by 2050 is the minimum needed to have a chance of avoiding catastrophic change. Chinese officials made it clear that they regarded the original draft as controversial. “If we put it in this [final] statement, I think it would disrupt the negotiation process,” Yi Xianliang, a Chinese foreign ministry official, said.
Michael Froman, a senior climate change negotiator for the United States, said: “I don’t think the negotiations have proceeded in such a way that many of the leaders thought it was likely that we were going to achieve a final agreement in Copenhagen.”
Ed Miliband, the UK’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary, tried to talk up the prospects of eventually agreeing a deal. He said: “It’s a bit like when you buy a house. Exchange may happen at Copenhagen and completion some months afterwards. What is most important, as far as I am concerned, is to get a really ambitious set of commitments from all world leaders.” He urged Mr Obama to commit to attending the Copenhagen conference.
Mr Obama has said that he would go to Copenhagen if he was confident that his presence would secure a meaningful agreement.
Joss Garman, Greenpeace climate campaigner, said: “It’s been twelve years since Kyoto and two years since negotiations began on Copenhagen, but now Obama says we need another year of talks about talks. The world can’t afford more prevarication and procrastination.”

Source: The Times

Britain cuts down forests to keep ‘green’ power stations burning

2009-11-16T10:14:00.003Z

Britain is set to plunder the lungs of the world to feed its growing hunger for wood to burn in power stations.

A series of biomass-fired plants are being built in the UK that will trigger a 150 per cent surge in timber imports from 20 million tonnes today to 50 million tonnes by 2015, according to the Forestry Commission.

British power plants are already shipping wood from Canada, Brazil, Scandinavia and South Korea.

Just one of the new biomass plants at Port Talbot, South Wales, will consume three million tonnes of wood per year — equivalent to 30 per cent of the UK’s domestic annual wood harvest of ten million tonnes.

But the plant, which is due to open in 2012, will generate only 300 megawatt hours of electricity, or about 0.4 per cent of the UK's current power-generating capacity. At least four more 300-megawatt plants are planned, including three in Yorkshire that have been proposed by Drax, operator of Britain’s largest coal-fired power station. Another company, MGT, plans to build one on Teesside.

A spokesman for Prenergy, which is behind the Port Talbot plant, said 90 per cent of its wood supplies would be imported, although he insisted that all of it would be sourced from proven sustainable sources.

Nevertheless, environmental campaigners have raised concerns about the carbon emissions involved in shipping the wood such large distances, while to meet UK pest control laws the timber will need to be baked before it can be shipped to the UK.

Wood industry officials have warned that British families could face soaring prices for a range of wood-based products, including furniture, wood panels and even wallpaper because of its impact on low-grade timber and wood pulp prices.

“It’s going to push timber prices through the roof,” said Gavin Adkins, chairman of the Wood Panel Industry Federation. He is concerned that large parts of the £1 billion industry that rely on wood as its main raw material will be forced offshore.
Although wood prices have moderated during the recession, rapid growth in demand had led to a 25 per cent rise since 2007, Mr Adkins said. “We operate in a low-margin industry and our ability to absorb such increases in raw material costs is limited. Inevitably these costs will have to be passed on to the consumer. Obviously, the timing could not be worse for the construction industry, which has been seriously hit in this recession.”
He said the number of jobs that may be lost was causing concerns for companies in the saw-milling, wood-panel and paper and pulp industries. The federation is lobbying for the biomass industry, which is supported by a government subsidy regime, to be given extra incentives to use waste wood instead of virgin timber for fuel. An estimated 4.5 million tonnes of waste wood are landfilled in the UK each year, according to government estimates.

A recent report from the Environment Agency stated that shipping timber from overseas could halve the potential carbon dioxide savings from biomass power.

Natural fuel

1% The amount of UK energy consumption from biomass
744 sq miles The size of forest needed for UK wood-fuelled power station growth in next three years
50% The rise in carbon discharges caused by long-distance transport and burning of wood over burning coal
30 years The time new trees need to absorb the equivalent amount of carbon released by cutting down and burning wood for fuel

Sources: Times Database; Massachusetts Environmental Energy Alliance; Biofuelwatch.co.uk

Source: The Times

EDF may start £4bn electricity network sale next month

2009-11-15T12:04:00.001Z

EDF’s plans to look at selling its three UK electricity distribution networks are expected to proceed as early as next month in an deal that could raise £4bn.

The utility company said six weeks ago that it was considering a sale of the business that serves 8m homes in London, the South-East and East of England.
Starting the sale process in December would give potential bidders some clarity on the medium-term profitability of the networks, because Ofgem, the energy regulator, is due to set allowed returns for operators before then.
National Grid, the UK’s biggest energy infrastructure company, Scottish & Southern Energy, Canadian pension funds and a number of investment funds are thought to be interested in bidding.
EDF, which is 80pc owned by the French government, has committed to reducing its debt by €5bn (£4.5bn) by the end of next year from €24bn at the end of 2008.
It took on extra liability of £12.5bn after buying the owner of nuclear sites British Energy last year, as part of its strategy to build new plants in the UK.
“The process to evaluate ownership options for our UK electricity distribution networks is part of the announced asset divestment programme, aiming to reduce our net financial debt, ” Pierre Gadonneix, the EDF chief executive, said last month.
A source close to the company said a sale was still only one of a range of options being considered by its financial advisers, Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank, with additional support provided by BNP Paribas.
If a sale proceeds, it is likely that first-round bids will be accepted in mid-January with binding bids due by the end of the first quarter of next year.
The networks cover 47,000km of overhead wires and 135,000km of underground cables, costing the company £530m to maintain last year.
However, regulated electricity networks are considered safe investments because the energy regulator sets a fixed return, generating steady profitability.
The utility group will still retain its power generation and supply activities in the UK, but is looking at other ways of cutting its capital expenditure.
Earlier this year it said it was seeking financial partners in building new nuclear power stations in the UK and France. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is expected to take a 20pc stake in the new-build project, but it is hoping to sell another 20pc to third party.
It is continuing to look at other disposals, having already sold a 20pc stake in British Energy, the UK nuclear operator it acquired last year for €13.5bn, to Centrica for €2.6bn.
A spokesman for EDF declined to comment.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Senior Authorised Persons Required!!!!!! Contract/Perm

2009-11-13T10:44:00.003Z

Are you a qualified Senior Authorised Person working up to and including 33kV? If so we would like to talk to you. A client of ours is now recruiting and is extremely busy all over the UK. So if you hold any of the following authorisations and you are considering a career move then please do get in touch.

Authorisations are:

EPN
SPN
Scottish & Southern
Central Networks
United Utilities
NIE

The client is also interested in individuals who have worked up to and including 11kV.

References: JV0911-80 (Perm) & JV0911-81 (Contract)

Salary: £40,000 – £50,000 + benefits Contract Rate Negotiable

Locations: Various parts of the UK depending on Authorisation

British Gas profits soar – but prices remain high

2009-11-13T10:25:00.003Z

Consumer groups vent their anger at energy company's £541m profits
British Gas is on course for soaring returns from its 15 million household energy customers this winter, with profits expected to rise by 43 per cent to £541m, its owner Centrica told investors yesterday.
It said Britain's biggest energy supplier was trading "above expectations" despite a 7 per cent fall in demand due to the recession and increased energy efficiency.
In a note to investors, stockbroker Charles Stanley praised BG's residential supply business, saying its margins "came in at a very healthy 6.8 per cent (top end of target range)", adding it expected the returns to be maintained until its annual results in February. Consumer groups were less impressed, complaining that energy companies appeared to be profiteering from high prices, amid steep falls in wholesale costs for gas and electricity.
The Independent is calling for a 10 per cent cut in energy prices and greater powers for the regulator to act against firms that are not passing on cuts in wholesale costs, amid signs that suppliers are making sharply higher profits. In July, Centrica announced an 80 per cent rise in British Gas residential half-year operating profits to £299m, while operating profit across its business, which includes boiler and central heating services, rose by 56 per cent to £476m. Its latest trading update came a day after another supplier, Scottish & Southern (S&S), announced a 36 per cent rise in profit, from £302m to £410m, in its first half.
Last year S&S, the only other British-owned Big Six supplier, put its gas and electricity prices up by 44 per cent, or £384 per customer a year, reducing bills by 5 per cent on March 30 this year, after peak winter demand, to an annual average of £1,133. British Gas put gas prices up by 50 per cent and electricity prices up by 24 per cent last year – and cut them 10 per cent in February and May to an average of £1,127.
During the past year, wholesale prices have more than halved, from £84.95 per megawatt to £34.75 per megawatt in September, and from 61p a therm to 24p a therm.
Meanwhile, largely because of high retail prices, 6.6 million households have become trapped in fuel poverty, paying at least 10 per cent of their income on gas and electricity, treble the number five years ago.
More than 100 MPs have signed a Commons motion calling for the Competition Commission to investigate the pricing strategies of the Big Six suppliers. Four are foreign-owned: EDF, E.On, Scottish Power and Npower. The latter three are the most expensive energy companies.
Yesterday, responding to British Gas's statement, Fiona Cochrane, senior policy adviser at the consumer watchdog Which?, said: "There must be greater transparency over prices to convince people that they're not being ripped off by their energy supplier."
Consumer Focus, the publicly-funded watchdog, said: "Millions of customers struggling to afford their energy bills will find it difficult to understand how energy firms are making such healthy and, in some cases increasing, profits in the recession."
Joe Malinowski, founder of energy price comparison website TheEnergyShop.com, said that the Big Six suppliers were concentrating on lowering online tariffs for the minority of "price-sensitive" customers, rather than reducing prices for all customers.
"These online tariffs have tracked wholesale prices lower and now offer discounts of over £160 compared to standard tariffs," he said.
"So the potential to benefit from lower wholesale energy prices is there, but only if customers are prepared to shop around."
By taking advantage of cheap wholesale prices, two new companies, OVO Energy and First:Utility, are offering households much cheaper deals than the more established suppliers.

Source: The Independent

Contractors urge early involvement on nuclear

2009-11-13T09:23:00.003Z

Contractors will urge energy companies to engage them early on plans for nuclear new build following the publication of the draft national policy statements for the energy sector, which was described as a “defining moment” in the Government’s £40 billion nuclear programme.

On Monday evening, the Department for Energy and Climate Change unveiled a series of draft policy statements with a clear direction towards a new nuclear programme based around 10 sites, a “massive expansion” in renewables and ambitious moves to introduce clean-coal technology.
The statements were drawn up for use by the new Infrastructure Planning Commission, which will from March decide the fate of a string of major projects. Sources say energy companies had been eagerly awaiting the publication of site names on the energy NPSs “because if your name wasn’t down on the list then it would have been game over”.

Ten out of 11
Ten of the 11 potential nuclear new build sites identified earlier this year were given the green light by the Government, with only EDF’s Dungeness site being rejected on environmental grounds.
Civil Engineering Contractors Association director Rosemary Beales said: “Now that we have the planning reform that is needed, what the industry is really going to be after is an idea as to what they are going to be building and when.
“This is a chance for real innovation, but the energy sector is going to need to engage early to get what it wants.”
Nuclear Industry Association chief executive Keith Parker said energy companies had been trying to keep contractors in the loop, and would be able to increase discussions now there was more certainty of which sites the Government had deemed suitable and why.
EDF Energy chief executive Vincent de Rivaz said: “This is a defining moment on the road to a low carbon Britain.
“For EDF Energy it means we can prepare to take the next steps in our plan for a multi-billion pound investment in the UK, which is already creating opportunities for the British supply chain.”
EDF has already let 40 contracts for preparatory works – including appointing Jacobs Engineering for site and preliminary assessments at Hinkley Point – and said it had a further 150 contracts in the pipeline for construction work at Hinkley and Sizewell.
Hinkley Point in Somerset is still leading the race to be the first site on which a new nuclear plant will be built in more than 20 years.
Balfour Beatty is understood to have teamed up with Vinci Construction Grands Projets while Kier is working with Bam Nuttall to bid for the job. Bouygues and Laing O’Rourke have also formed a joint venture, while Costain, Carillion, Skanska and Morgan Est have all also shown interest in the £4bn scheme.
EDF Energy will begin formal consultation at Hinkley Point later this month, with the aim of submitting a planning application by next summer.
It said preparations were also well advanced for reactors on its land in Sizewell, Suffolk.
A spokeswoman said: “These sites are our priority for our new nuclear build project and we are progressing with our plans to build twin EPR reactors at each site.”
The RWE npower/E.On UK nuclear joint venture, known as Horizon Nuclear Power, said the draft statements were an “important step” toward the planning and construction of new reactors.
The joint venture, which has bought land at Oldbury-upon-Severn in Gloucestershire and at Wylfa on Anglesey, both named as suitable sites for development, has announced plans to invest more than £15bn in building 6GW of nuclear capacity.
Although a planning application for Oldbury has been scheduled for submission in mid-to-late 2011, E.On said it still could not give any timeline to contractors as to when it would tender for the work.
It did confirm, however, it is in the process of finalising a site report which will be submitted to the IPC within weeks.
A spokeswoman said: “As things progress, there will be more opportunities for people to get involved.”
Opportunity to appeal
Although Dungeness was omitted from the Government’s list as a potential new nuclear site, EDF will have an opportunity to appeal the decision in the consultation.
A spokeswoman said: “We are disappointed to see that Dungeness is not included in the draft NPS but will need to study the reasons for its omission carefully before commenting further.”
Separately, three major banks said on Tuesday they will start offering new loans to onshore wind farm developers this week. The scheme – which will use new finance from RBS, Lloyds TSB and BNP Paribas Fortis – is backed by the Government, which says it could enable £1.4bn of wind farm projects to move to construction over the next three years.

Source: The Construction News

Carbon capture coal power stations will still be less viable than gas competitors

2009-11-12T11:06:00.002Z

Government efforts to encourage the construction of coal-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will fail unless more subsidies are offered, consultants warned this week.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband said he hoped to have “up to four” CCS projects up and running by 2020, with all new coal plants made ready to have CCS retrofitted by 2025.
Miliband was speaking as he launched the government’s framework for CCS in parallel with the first National Policy Statements on infrastructure.
Under the framework, a levy on electricity suppliers will be put in place until 2020 to cover the costs of trial CCS plants. It will be extended to 2025 if the price of carbon is not high enough to cover retrofitting new plants.
Consultants fear that the levy will not match the uncertainty of developing plants with CCS installed, making coal-fired plants less financially viable than gas-fired ones. CCS does not have to be fitted to gas plants, as they emit less emissions.
Professor of geology and CSS expert Stuart Haszeldine said the only way to drive CCS was to ensure that gas plants which do not have to use CCS also have the technology imposed.
“Here, there will be a disincentive to build coal plants. Gas prices are low and are forecast to fall further. Gas plants are cheaper to build, so remain a much more attractive alternative,” he said.
A Department for Energy and Climate Change source admitted that the government could do nothing to make suppliers build new coal plants.

Source: The New Civil Engineers

Loans on offer for £1.4 billion wind farm investment

2009-11-11T11:56:00.001Z

Onshore wind farm development looks set for a huge cash boost with the news that three banks will soon offer loans to projects meeting the Government’s new power policy directives.

RBS, Lloyds Banking Group and BNP Paribas Fortis will make loans of between £20 million and £100 million available to eligible schemes, with the Treasury, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the European Investment Bank (EIB) also stumping-up cash for the £1.4 billion initiative.
Chancellor Alistair Darling said: “We welcome the EIB’s commitment to provide this vital funding for renewable projects across the UK.
“The money that is being made available will help continue the essential work of building the UK’s capacity in renewable energy.
“It is even more important that we live up to our responsibilities and make progress in reducing this country’s dependence on carbon.
“This Government is determined to provide all the support that is needed to secure a greener future.”

Source: The New Civil Engineer

2009-11-11T11:30:00.002Z

You'll join a leading player in the UK power industry and you'll carry out system testing activities within the substation automation department.

Responsibilities:

Point to point wiring checks & Applied Voltage Withstand Tests.
Downloading of configurations to IEDs.
Set up test equipment and wiring (for example, plant simulator and secondary injection test equipment).
Systems testing.
Support System Engineers by performing customer witness tests.
Disassemble test wiring and equipment.
Complete Test Documentation.
Modify cubicle wiring. and support Commissioning Engineers on site.
You're qualified to HNC / HND level (or equivalent) in electrical / electronic engineering.

Furthermore, you're be able to:

Read and understand wiring and schematic diagrams.
Understand configuration of protection IEDs and relays.
Demonstrable understanding of protection systems, secondary injections and electrical test safety regulations.

Previous experience working on HV substations is essential for this role.

To apply via the Calco Website click here

World gas glut will weaken ‘Russian grip on Europe’

2009-11-11T10:33:00.002Z

A looming glut in supplies of natural gas will trigger sliding prices and weaken Russia’s grip over Europe’s energy supplies, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday.

In its 2009 World Energy Outlook, the IEA said that the surplus in global supplies could hit 200 billion cubic metres per year by 2015 — equivalent to more than three years’ annual gas production from Britain’s part of the North Sea.
Fatih Birol, chief economist with the IEA, said that the glut was emerging because of slumping global energy demand amid the recession and booming American production of gas from “unconventional sources”, so-called “tight gas” and “shale gas”. New technology that uses hydraulic pressure to blast previously unreachable gas out of rock formations was driving a “silent revolution” in the US energy market, with “far-reaching implications” for the rest of the world. “This is a gamechanger that will put downward pressure on spot prices,” he said.
The United States is the world’s largest gas market, with annual consumption of about 653 billion cubic metres, but, until only two years ago, it was expected to have to import growing quantities of the fuel from overseas. However, production of unconventional gas in America has quadrupled since 1990 and now accounts for more than half of the total.
The IEA said that the trend had raised doubts about the wisdom of huge investments that have been made around the world in recent years in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and transport. “Gas suppliers to Europe and Asia-Pacific will come under increasing pressure to modify their pricing terms and cut prices to stimulate demand.”
Mr Birol said that the glut would have a host of other effects and would “call into question Russia’s ambitions” to start selling LNG to other countries.
Britain is the world’s fourthlargest consumer of gas, after the US, Russia and Iran. The UK burns about 91.4 billion cubic metres of the fuel every year.

Source: The Times

Global oil reserves overestimated, media report says

2009-11-11T10:30:00.002Z

A senior official at the International Energy Agency says the Paris-based watchdog, which is due to release its latest World Energy Outlook this week, has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage of oil, UK daily the Guardian reports.
The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, but the International Energy Agency is underplaying a looming shortage for fear of sparking panic buying, a report said Monday.
The United States has played an influential role in encouraging the IEA to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields, the Guardian said.
The newspaper cites an unnamed senior IEA official as saying the US has also encouraged the Paris-based organisation, formed to try to safeguard energy supplies, to overplay the chances of finding new reserves.
The allegations come ahead of this week's publication of the IEA's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply which many governments use to help guide their energy and climate change policies.
The last outlook predicted that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83 million barrels a day to 105 million barrels.
"Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further," the official said on the newspaper's website.
"And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources," he added.
A second unnamed source, a former IEA official, said a key rule at the organisation was that it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted.
"We have (already) entered the 'peak oil' zone. I think that the situation is really bad," he added.
The report comes amid international debate about the sustainability of the reliance on oil for energy.

Source: France24

Dungeness dropped from list of new nuclear reactors

2009-11-10T15:29:00.001Z

Dungeness in Kent has been dropped from a Government list of potential locations for new nuclear power stations.

The location, which was one of eleven sites nominated by industry in March, was not listed in the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s draft National Policy Statements consultation, which opened today.
Concerns about how to mitigate potential environmental impacts at the site, coastal erosion and associated flood risk were among the reasons.
The draft Nuclear National Policy Statement named ten locations that had been assessed as potentially suitable for new nuclear deployment by the end of 2025.
These are: Bradwell, Braystones, Hartlepool, Heysham, Hinkley Point, Kirkstanton, Oldbury, Sellafield, Sizewell and Wylfa.
The nuclear NPS was one of six statements published today aimed at removing unnecessary planning delays facing large energy proposals.
Other areas covered include fossil fuels, renewables, transmission networks and oil and gas pipelines, as well as the Government’s final Framework for the Development of Clean Coal.
The statements will be the basis on which individual planning decisions are made from next March by the new Infrastructure Planning Commission.
Energy and Climate secretary Ed Miliband said change was needed to tackle both climate change and energy security.
He said: “The current planning system is a barrier to this shift. It serves neither the interests of energy security, the interests of the low carbon transition, nor the interests of people living in areas where infrastructure may be built, for the planning process to take years to come to a decision.
“That is why we are undertaking fundamental reform of the planning system which will result in a more efficient, transparent and accessible process.”
The consultation closes on February 22.

Source: The Construction News

Yes we need renewable energy but just wait for your bills to go nuclear

2009-11-10T09:04:00.002Z

You wait 12 years for an energy policy and six come along at once. In an apparent rush of decisiveness Ed Miliband, Climate and Energy Secretary, confirmed 10 sites for new nuclear reactors and a further push to develop clean coal technology.

The policies also represent a “massive expansion” in renewables, all based on “faster and fairer planning decisions”.
It’s a shame Labour wasn’t so decisive in 1997, or even 2007 for that matter. Now a lame duck administration, such grandiose statements as yesterday’s ring hollow. But let’s imagine we’re at the start of a new Parliament with a new government in possession of a mandate to change. First the cost. To keep the lights on and meet our environmental targets, including generating 30pc of electricity from renewables by 2020, we are going to have to find £200bn - that’s Ofgem’s official estimate. This scale of investment needs to start being made now if we’re going to meet Miliband’s dream of having the first of our new nuclear sites humming by 2018 - but we’re in the middle of the worst credit crunch in 80 years making financing for this sort of thing challenging.

But we’re not alone in wanting to build more nuclear reactors. China, for instance, is expected to have completed 22 by the end of next year with 132 planned in the next 20. This is according to Japan Steel Works which supplies the specialist steel casings in which the nuclear reaction takes place — it pretty much has a monopoly on that business and has been turning out parts for 5.5 reactors a year. The good news is it’s investing in its plant so it can supply kit for 12 reactors a year but the queue forming outside its headquarters on Japan’s Hokkaido island is lengthening by the day.
I see the Chinese in the line, the Indians, French, Poles, Hungarians, Italians and many others but no sign of the Brits. Even if there was enough kit and capital to go round, there’s no certainty the French and German utilities that control nuclear here will choose to invest in the UK compared to their own nuclear-hungry domestic markets that may have higher subsidies and better returns. To make it attractive here, assuming the technology works, energy prices are going to have to rise which is why that £200bn bill will end up on our doormats. The consumer will pay and, given that time is running out thanks to Labour dithering, that cost will be a burden in the immediate term, not the long term. The fact that the cost of emitting carbon is still low enough to make investing in alternatives a mug’s game anyway makes Miliband’s vision of “near-zero carbon emissions from power” delusional.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Ten nuclear stations to be built in bid to prevent energy shortage

2009-11-10T09:02:00.002Z

Ten nuclear power stations are to be built in Britain at a cost of up to £50 billion as the Government tries to prevent the threat of regular power cuts by the middle of the coming decade.

The nuclear industry welcomed the plans, but critics said that ministers had acted too late to avoid an energy crunch caused by the closure of ageing coal-fired stations.
Although the sites were known to be in line for development, the announcement signals the Government’s increasing ambition for nuclear power.
Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, intends that construction of the stations should be quick enough to help to meet Britain’s 2050 target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent while bolstering energy security as North Sea gas supplies decline.
The announcement comes after a radical shake-up in planning laws. Under powers awarded to the Government last month, local authorities have been stripped of the right of veto over new nuclear plants and other key energy projects. Decisions will instead be taken by the Infrastructure Planning Commission, which was created to slash the period required to secure consent for energy projects from seven years to one year.
Mr Miliband said: “The current planning system is a barrier to this shift. It serves neither the interests of energy security, the interests of the low-carbon transition, nor the interests of people living in areas where infrastructure may be built.”
The reactors should meet at least a quarter of electricity demand by 2025. “New nuclear is right for energy security and climate change and will be good for jobs too,” Mr Miliband said.
“The threat of climate change means we need to make a transition from a system that relies heavily on high-carbon fossil fuels to a radically different system that includes nuclear, renewables and clean coal power.”
None of the plants, which will cost at least £4 billion each, will be ready before 2017 — too late to replace eight coal-fired stations earmarked for closure by 2015.
Greg Clark, the Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, branded Mr Miliband’s statement a “declaration of a national emergency for our energy security”.
He said: “Every one of the measures contained in this statement should have been brought forward ten years ago when they had the chance to secure the investments that are so desperately needed to keep the lights on, keep prices down and cut carbon emissions. Why did they leave it so late?”
Last month Ofgem, the energy regulator, warned that Britain may face blackouts within four years owing to a supply shortage.
Sam Laidlaw, the chief executive of Centrica, owner of British Gas, which is a partner with EDF, welcomed the changes.
He said: “Britain has a power generation gap looming from 2015 onwards which will need to be filled by new low-carbon replacements, particularly nuclear, and speed of decision making is very important. The current planning system has been a significant barrier so moves to streamline the process are welcome.”
Each new reactor will generate up to 1.6 gigawatt-hours — enough to power a city the size of Manchester — and should last for 60 years.
The first is likely to be built by EDF Energy at Hinkley Point, Somerset, and should come into service by the end of 2017. New reactors at Sizewell, Suffolk, Wylfa, Anglesey, and Oldbury, Gloucestershire, are also likely to be among the first wave. Hartlepool, Co Durham, Bradwell, Essex, Heysham, Lancashire and three sites near Sellafield, West Cumbria, were also named.
Ministers have ruled out construction of a new plant at Dungeness, Kent, citing the risk it faced from rising sea levels.
Mr Miliband indicated three greenfield sites that might be suitable later on, although he cautioned that there were “serious impediments” to all of them. They are Kingsnorth, Kent, and Owston Ferry and Druridge Bay, both in the North East.
About 13 per cent of Britain’s electricity was generated from nuclear power reactors last year and the Government wants to raise this to 25 per cent by 2025.
Ben Ayliffe, the head of Greenpeace’s nuclear campaign, rejected the plans. “Miliband can name as many sites as he likes for new nuclear power stations, but the fact remains that the figures simply don’t add up,” he said.
“Our lawyers will be examining this announcement very closely. You can’t justify building more nuclear power stations when there is no solution to radioactive waste and when international regulators are saying there are huge uncertainties surrounding the basic safety of new reactor designs,” he said.
A spokesman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change confirmed last night that the Government was studying an exemption for electricity produced from nuclear reactors from the Climate Change Levy, a tax on energy use imposed on industrial companies. The levy, which was introduced in 2001, raises an estimated £1 billion per year for the Treasury.
Jeremy Nicholson, a spokesman for the Energy Intensive Users Group, an industry association that has lobbied for the tax break, estimated an exemption would be worth between £160 and £300 million per year to the nuclear power industry.
Last week EDF told The Times that it was unclear if the plants would be built without fresh government support.

Source: The Times

Power Engineers Wanted!!!!! Previous HV Experience Essential!!!!!

2009-11-10T07:54:00.004Z

Calco want to hear power engineers with HV experience in transmission and distribution in the following fields:

Control and Protection
Infrastructure, distribution and outage planning
Project Management
Project Engineering
Asset Management / Maintenance
CAD
Control Room Engineering
Substation, networks, cables and overhead line design
Connections
Commissioning
Rail
Senior Authorised Person

Roles are available nationwide on a contract and permanent basis!
We'd also welcome contact from anyone with experience in the renewables and power generation sectors.
Please note that to be considered, you must have previous experience within the power industry and be eligible to work in the UK.
Salaries: Negotiable
Locations: UK Wide
To apply click here

Test Engineer - HV SUBSTATION EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL!

2009-11-10T07:48:00.003Z

Working for a world leader in the power sector, you'll carry out system testing activities on substation automation systems.

Key duties:

Carrying out “point to point” wiring checks and Applied
Voltage Withstand Tests.
Downloading configurations to IEDs.
Setting up test equipment and wiring (for example, plant
simulator and secondary injection test equipment).
Performance of systems testing.
Supporting System Engineers with performing customer witness
tests.
Disassembly of test wiring and equipment.
Completing Test Documentation.

You may also be expected to…

Modify cubicle wiring and support Commissioning Engineers on site...
You should be qualified to HNC / HND level (or equivalent) in electrical / electronic engineering.

In addition, you should be able to:

Read and understand wiring and schematic diagrams.
Understand configuration of protection IEDs and relays.
Demonstrable understanding of protection systems, secondary injections and electrical test safety regulations.

You must have previous experience working on HV substations.

Salary: £30,000

Location: Midlands

To apply click here

Utilities given the nuclear go-ahead as coal falters

2009-11-09T12:02:00.001Z

Power companies hail plan for 10 new stations, but clean coal plans in disarray.

Utility companies on Monday welcomed the Government’s commitment to 10 new nuclear power stations as a “significant milestone”, but raised concerns that plans to clean up the coal industry may be unrealistic.

EDF, RWE npower, Centrica and Scottish Power all expressed relief that the process for approving nuclear stations will be accelerated, after Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, published new planning guidelines. In the past, approval has taken up to seven years, but applications will now be rushed through within 12 months.

Despite elation in the nuclear industry, Mr Miliband’s proposals to clean up the UK’s coal industry appeared to be in disarray, after a key consortium of investors withdrew their bid to build a new carbon capture and storage plant.
The Government has committed to funding a £1bn plant by 2014, with three groups of utility companies in the running to win the money.
Yesterday, Mr Miliband put carbon capture at the heart of Government priorities and promised that no coal plants would be built without being fitted with the unproven technology.
However, a consortium of RWE npower, Peel Energy and Dong Energy undermined his optimism saying they no longer wanted the funding, just weeks after E.ON froze its plans until 2016 – missing the Government’s deadline. This makes the consortium of Scottish Power, Shell and National Grid as the only remaining candidate likely to deliver its project on time, raising concerns that utilities find it hard to see carbon capture as commercially attractive.
Any delays to carbon capture and storage plants will make the need for new nuclear stations more pressing, given that the UK wants to replace 55pc of its generating capacity in the next 15 years.
Andrew Duff, chief executive of RWE npower, said the new nuclear planning process would be key in avoiding delays, but emphasised the fact that clean energy will be expensive. “The closure of old coal and nuclear plant means major modernisation of the energy system is still needed,” he said. “This will require billions of pounds of investment to tackle carbon dioxide emissions, keep the lights on and keep energy prices manageable.”

Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, also stressed that “Britain has a power generation gap looming from 2015 onwards” that makes speedy decision-making “very important”.
Meanwhile, Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF, struck the most optimistic note, despite the fact that one of his potential sites for a new station, Dungeness, was the only location to be vetoed by Mr Miliband. “For EDF Energy it means we can prepare to take the next steps in our plan for a multi-billion pound investment in the UK,” he said.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Radioactive waste to be put in £18bn hole

2009-11-09T09:06:00.002Z

Radioactive waste from a new generation of British nuclear power stations will be buried deep underground in a storage facility that could cost up to £18 billion to build, under plans to be announced by the Government today.

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, will give the formal green light to a plan to construct a “deep geological repository” for permanent disposal of the 200 tonnes of high-level waste produced annually by the ten new reactors planned for Britain.
Each reactor will produce about 20 tonnes of highly radioactive spent fuel per year, which will remain lethal for up to 100,000 years.
The store will also provide a permanent place for the stockpile of about 5,000 canisters of high-level nuclear waste from the country’s past civil and military nuclear programmes, which are housed in a temporary facility at the Sellafield plant in West Cumbria.
The Government’s announcement today that it is satisfied with the arrangements it has created for handling Britain’s nuclear waste stockpile will form part of a series of six National Policy Statements on British energy policy designed to fast-track big energy projects — including nuclear power stations, giant wind farms and clean coal plants — through the planning system.
The projects are all considered essential to maintaining the security of Britain’s energy supply while meeting the Government’s goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
Mr Miliband has said that the planning rules are essential. “We can’t build a 21st-century energy supply with a 20th-century planning system,” he said.
Britain generates 15 per cent of its electricity from nuclear energy but wants to increase this to at least 25 per cent by 2025. An increase of 55 per cent in total energy demand is expected by 2050, and all of this will need to come from low-carbon sources.
The announcement today will also include a list of 11 likely sites for new nuclear power stations — including Hinkley Point in Somerset, Sizewell in Suffolk and Wylfa in Angelsey, as well as possible greenfield sites where plants may be built in future. One proposed site for a new reactor where an existing nuclear station exists, Dungeness in Kent, may be rejected because of its low- lying location, which leaves it under threat from rising sea levels. But a site for the nuclear waste store, which is expected to take decades to build, is unlikely to be chosen for many years.
The Government wants a community to volunteer to host it in exchange for a package of jobs and benefits, but so far only one has expressed an interest — West Cumbria.
The so-called National Policy Statements are part of a strategy to strip local authorities of the power of approving big energy projects. A new organisation — the Infrastructure Planning Commission — will instead take decisions. Its aim is to cut the time required to win planning approval from seven years to one year.
Greenpeace said that the Government “still has no environmentally acceptable solution to the problem of dealing with radioactive wastes”.
Additional policy statements will be made today on fossil fuels, renewables, gas supply and electricity networks.

Source: The Times

Test Engineer - HV SUBSTATION EXPERIENCE VITAL!

2009-11-06T13:48:00.002Z

Working for a major player in the UK power engineering sector, you'll be responsible for system testing activities on substation automation systems and equipment.

Responsibilities:

Point to point wiring checks and Applied Voltage Withstand Tests.
Downloading configurations to IEDs.
Set up test equipment and wiring (for example, plant simulator and secondary injection test equipment).
Testing performance of systems.
Support System Engineers in their activities.
Disassemble test wiring and equipment.
Test Documentation.

It's possible you may also be expected to modify cubicle wiring and support Commissioning Engineers on site...

You're qualified to HNC / HND level (or equivalent) in electrical / electronic engineering and you should be able to:

Read and understand wiring and schematic diagrams.
Understand configuration of protection IEDs and relays.
Demonstrable understanding of protection systems, secondary injections and electrical test safety regulations.

It is imperative that you have previous experience working on HV substations.

Crown Estate’s high rents ‘pose a threat’ to Hewett gas storage project

2009-11-06T10:06:00.002Z

A billion-pound project to develop Europe’s largest gas storage facility in the North Sea is close to collapse because the Crown Estate, the owner of the UK seabed, is obstructing its development, The Times has learnt.

The project, which is led by ENI, the Italian oil company, to convert the Hewett gasfield in the North Sea into a storage facility would more than double Britain’s storage capacity from a supply of 15 days to at least 30 days.
But the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed out to 12 nautical miles, has been accused of trying to extract “monopoly rents” for the project, forcing ENI to consider dropping the plans, according to industry insiders.
ENI declined to comment, citing commercial confidentiality. But Roddy Monroe, chairman of the Gas Storage Operators Group, which represents ENI as well as some of Britain’s biggest energy companies, including EDF, National Grid, E.ON, Centrica and ScottishPower, said that the Crown Estate’s position in negotiations over a string of storage facilities had been “incredibly frustrating” and was a threat to UK energy security.
“The Crown Estate is effectively a monopoly,” Mr Monroe said. “If you want to develop a storage site, their position is simple: ‘We are going to charge you an arm and a leg’. There is legal scope to challenge their position through the OFT [Office of Fair Trading].” He added that the situation could force up consumer prices.
The Crown Estate, which holds property owned by the Queen but pays surplus revenues to the Treasury, is one of the largest property owners in Britain, with a portfolio worth £6 billion.
Although Mr Monroe declined to comment on the details of the dispute, energy industry insiders said that, in present negotiations, the Crown Estate was seeking to more than double the charges it levied on offshore gas storage operators.
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, and a company called Stag Energy are also in negotiations with the Crown Estate about gas storage projects.
Gas can also be stored onshore, but the largest available sites are former offshore gasfields in the North and Irish seas, into which the fuel can be injected for long-term storage.
If built, the Hewitt project could contain up to five billion cubic metres of gas, more than doubling Britain’s storage capacity of 4.5 billion cubic metres. The largest existing storage site is the Rough gas facility operated by Centrica, which holds about 3.5 billion cubic metres, or more than 75 per cent of total UK capacity.
Britain is the world’s fourth-largest gas consumer after the US, Russia and Iran but has less storage capacity than any other large EU country. Germany has 99 days and France has 122.
The shortage has raised concerns about energy security in the event of external supply shocks, such as the dispute between Russia and Ukraine earlier this year. The lack of storage also forces up prices because utilities cannot stockpile enough gas when it is cheap, usually in the summer months, to meet demand during the peak winter period.
With North Sea gas production in steep decline, this winter Britain will have to import a record 50 per cent of its gas supplies, up from only 27 per cent in 2007.
On February 20, during the dispute between Russia and Ukraine, the volume of gas being stored in Britain hit a low of 1.2 billion cubic meters, not enough to meet three days of average gas demand during unseasonably cold weather.
A spokeswoman for the Crown Estate rejected the concerns. She said: “Gas storage is a commercial activity carried out by commercial organisations and, as the owner [of the British seabed], we are entitled to a rental charge.
“All net revenue is returned to the Treasury for the benefit of the UK taxpayer.”
Mr Monroe said that offshore projects would be cancelled unless the organisation adopted a “more investment friendly approach”.
The Crown Estate has a mandate to maximise revenues from its assets but also not to exploit its monopoly.
He said: “This is a huge windfall for them. The Crown Estate offers no value. A landlord has an initial purchase price and a service or maintenance charge — but not in this case. It’s a huge frustration. Without gas storage you will have big price spikes which will be very damaging for consumers.”
Malcolm Wicks, the former Energy Minister turned adviser to Gordon Brown, said in August that the Government might have to act to increase gas storage if companies did not act on their own to boost supplies.

Source: The Times