New Power » New Power

ABP wins £300M investment from National Wealth Fund and banks for its ports

New Power — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:50:15 +0000

The National Wealth Fund has announced a £200 million commitment to support Associated British Ports (ABP), alongside £100 million commercial funding jointly from Bank of America, Lloyds and NatWest, help accelerate capital deployment.
Eligible projects in the programme include a further upgrade to the Port of Lowestoft to support more offshore wind operations and infrastructure enhancement works at the Port of Ipswich to develop the local Sizewell C supply chain.
Henrik L. Pedersen, CEO of Associated British Ports, said: “Associated British Ports is delighted to be partnering with the National Wealth Fund on this ground-breaking commitment. The National Wealth Fund’s strategic ambitions, innovative thinking and ability to commit over the long term make it uniquely positioned to support ABP’s targeted major infrastructure investment programme. I would also like to thank Bank of America, Lloyds and NatWest for their involvement, a further expression of their ongoing support for ABP. The projects supported by today’s transaction reflect the full span of ABP’s twin missions – Keeping Britain Trading and Enabling the Energy Transition – unlocking growth and boosting jobs, prosperity and opportunity in coastal communities.”

ScottishPower offers half price electricity during Scotland and England World Cup group games

New Power — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:41:38 +0000

ScottishPower is offering its customers half price electricity during the World Cup with two hours of cut rate power during all planned group matches for Scotland and England.
ScottishPower said the limited-time offer will help customers make the most of the event while keeping energy costs down. The bonus hours can be grabbed in addition to the existing Power Saver scheme which allows customers to choose eight hours of electricity at half price every week, at a time that suits their lifestyle best.
ScottishPower said it expects the tournament to be the biggest overnight electricity demand event in its history, with opening fixtures forecast to create surge in demand — during what is normally one of the quietest periods for the network.
Existing ScottishPower customers will soon be able to opt into the Power Saver World Cup bonus hours initiative, and new customers joining the leading green energy company will be eligible to opt in too.

Key matches included in the offer are (UK kick-off times);
Scotland group games;
Scotland v Haiti – Sunday 14 June, 2:00am (discounted period 0200-0400)
Scotland v Morocco – Friday 19 June, 11:00pm (discounted period 1100-0100)
Scotland v Brazil – Wednesday 24 June, 11:00pm (discounted period 1100-0100)
England group games:
England v Croatia – Wednesday 17 June, 9:00pm (discounted period 2100-2300)
England v Ghana – Tuesday 23 June, 9:00pm (discounted period 2100-2300)
England v Panama – Saturday 27 June, 10:00pm (discounted period 2200-0000)

The World Cup deal adds an extra assist to ScottishPower’s existing line-up of customer perks, including Power Saver, which offers customers 8 hours of cheaper electricity at selected times throughout the week.
To take advantage of the special Power Saver World Cup Bonus Offer, you need to be a ScottishPower electricity customer with a communicating smart meter and consent to half-hourly readings being automatically shared.
Customers should download the SP app and switch on notifications to receive alerts ahead of the World Cup kicking off to opt in for their two hours 50% discount covering Scotland and England matches.
Usage savings will appear as ‘Power Saver Credit’ on a customer’s bill or statement in line with normal billing process. Daily standing charge will be charged at normal rates. Eligibility criteria, exclusions, and T&Cs apply.

Seventh Carbon Budget: the industry responds

New Power — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:00:01 +0000

Rachel Solomon Williams, Executive Director, Aldersgate Group:
“Today’s publication of Carbon Budget 7 is a major step forward in the UK’s plans to meet its net zero commitments. It is good to see the government is setting a target that should drive urgent action to drive down carbon emissions.
“As today’s new report by the CBI and ECIU also shows, net zero is delivering benefits right across the UK economy. The sector encompasses 23,000 firms, of which over 96% are small or medium size; it also supports over 1 million jobs, with wages at 11% higher than average.
“We look forward to the publication of a delivery plan to accompany this new carbon budget, providing the certainty businesses need and placing the UK’s net zero plans at the heart of our economic future. The plan must set out clearly what action will be taken across different sectors, especially on meeting growing demand for electricity across heating, transport and industry, as well as bringing costs down.”

Toby Perkins MP, Chair, Environmental Audit Committee:
“I am pleased that the government has today set out its proposals for the Seventh Carbon Budget (CB7), getting on with the job of reducing the fossil fuel emissions and moving the UK ever closer to a net-zero carbon future.
“My committee’s recent report made clear that warmer homes, cleaner air and cheaper running costs all await if ministers get the next steps right. But keeping public consent for these ambitious measures will be critical. I urge ministers to ensure that its plans for delivering this Carbon Budget have fairness at their heart.
“We welcome the fact that CB7 will be properly scrutinised, both through our Committee’s inquiry and through the debate that will take place in Parliament.
“My Committee will soon publish the government’s response to its report on the Seventh Carbon Budget, and we will scrutinise the Carbon Budget measures in detail to ensure that they meet the demands of a just transition.”

Nimoy Kher, Managing Associate Sharpe Pritchard:
“An 87% emissions cut by 2040 will require a wholesale re-wiring of the economy – more clean power, more grid, more storage, more electrified transport and heat, and new models for industrial decarbonisation.
“The Seventh Carbon Budget is a clear signal to market stakeholders that the UK’s decarbonisation pathway remains legally anchored, notwithstanding the political noise around net zero. But the market will not respond to targets alone. Our clients will need bankable revenue and financing models, greater cost predictability, faster consenting, and clearer grid access in a manner that supports investment.
“The target confirms the scale of the opportunity – the challenge now is creating the conditions for capital to flow into deliverable projects.”

Charlotte Lee, Chief Executive, Heat Pump Association UK:
“Today’s Government decision to adopt the CCC’s recommended targets for the Seventh Carbon Budget proves yet again that electrification remains firmly on the agenda. To meet this ambitious level of emissions reduction, we must decarbonise heat from homes and buildings. Moving at pace to do so will not only benefit the consumers, who will see increased comfort and reduced energy bills, but also stimulate economic growth and local jobs, reduce our reliance on volatile fossil fuels and provide healthier homes.
Our latest analysis evidences this, with the heat pump sector contributing £1 billion to the UK economy in 2025, with the potential to grow to £15 billion by 2035. Heat pump related employment could also grow to over 110,000 jobs by 2035. The transition to electrified heat presents a significant economic and industrial opportunity, and today’s new targets emphasise this further, providing certainty for the sector and potential investors. The Seventh Carbon Budget must now be supported by a clear plan and delivery at pace.”

Tara Singh, Chief Executive, RenewableUK:
“Setting clear goals helps us to attract billions in private investment in the UK’s world-class clean tech industries, creating well-paid jobs throughout the country in wind, solar, energy storage and green hydrogen – our new powerhouses of economic growth.
“The clean power we generate cuts bills by pushing the most expensive gas generators off the system. Low-cost electricity from renewables protects billpayers from price shocks on volatile global fossil fuel markets which we can’t control, strengthening the UK’s energy security as we move closer towards energy independence”.

Alice Williams, VP Digital Energy UK&I, Schneider Electric:
“Government backing for the CCC’s proposal to cut emissions by 87% by 2042 is a clear commitment to decarbonise the UK economy while strengthening energy resilience. To deliver it, we must electrify at pace – cutting reliance on volatile fossil fuels, reducing exposure to price shocks and lowering costs for households and industry.
“But energy security also depends on a grid fit for the future. The UK’s networks are ageing and increasingly stretched. Policy must prioritise investment to modernise and expand infrastructure, connecting renewables faster and keeping the lights on for buildings, services and industry up and down the country.
“Modern infrastructure must also be intelligent infrastructure. Electrification alone is not enough; organisations need greater visibility and control over how energy is produced, distributed and consumed. Digital technologies can turn energy data into actionable insights, helping make efficiency gains, renewable integration and carbon reduction measurable and scalable.
“Alongside this, incentives to accelerate clean technologies such as solar and heat pumps, alongside stronger energy efficiency measures, are essential. Targeted support for green investment, digital infrastructure and skills will help accelerate the transition.”

Drax Group to acquire Bluefield renewables projects and pipeline

New Power — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:03:50 +0000

Drax Group has announced an agreed acquisition of Bluefield Solar Income Fund saying it is an attractive opportunity to grow its UK renewable generation business whilst being highly complementary to the Wider Drax Group’s existing operations and FlexGen portfolio.
Drax will gain a 0.9GW portfolio of solar and wind assets operating and under construction, plus a 2.9GW gross capacity development pipeline to be constructed across the next decade.
Drax said these would complement the Drax group’s existing portfolio of 2.2GW of FlexGen assets and developments and 2.6GW of biomass, creating a broader base of UK generation assets and associated earnings.
For the financial year ended 30 June 2025, BSIF generated underlying earnings of c.£95 million, EBITDA of c.£130 million and operating free cash flow of c.£118 million. BSIF will provide an opportunity to grow Drax’s EBITDA from renewables, offering greater predictability and visibility of cash flows from a large operational portfolio, reducing the group’s earnings risk from grid connection delays.
In March, Drax completed the acquisition of Flexitricity Limited, a UK-based optimiser of flexible energy assets.

Evero seeks planning permission for CCS addition

New Power — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:02:51 +0000

Evero has submitted a planning application to equip a wood-burning power plant within the HyNet industrial cluster in North West England with carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Ince Bio Power currently generates energy from waste wood, which the company says is domestically sourced Category C material, which has no other use apart from landfill. It says that by installing CCS it will capture up to 250,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually.
The project was selected as a priority under the Government’s Track-1 expansion process in 2025. It will benefit from shared carbon transport and storage infrastructure, by which the captured CO₂ will be stored beneath the Irish Sea.
Neil Bennett, Chief Commercial Officer at Evero Energy, said:
“Submitting this planning application marks a major milestone for Evero and for the UK’s carbon removals sector.” Operation is targeted from 2030.

UKPN to explore local hydrogen production and use to replace emergency diesel generators

New Power — Tue, 26 May 2026 15:32:29 +0000

UK Power Networks has begun the early development stage of a project that could provide backup power for communities, by using hydrogen produced locally at times when there is excess power being generated. It is working with hydrogen specialists The First Element, and engineers Frazer Nash Consultancy on the hydrogen backup system, dubbed SHARED (Smart Hydrogen and Resilient Energy Decarbonisation), which would combine an electrolyser, fuel cell and hydrogen storage.
The initial six-month project phase is focusing on developing the first of a kind unit, identifying the types of rural locations where it could be used, and testing the design requirements. If the project is successful, later phases would include test deployment.
Currently the alternative to such a system is diesel generators, which typically have to be transported on a lorry to rural locations. In the new concept the electrolyser produces hydrogen when demand for electricity is low, such as overnight. This hydrogen is then stored on site and converted into electricity through the fuel cell when needed. The system would be monitored, allowing for quick action when needed and reducing the need for engineers to travel to site.
The plan is for a modular design that can be scaled up to support a single home up to an entire village, and for periods up to several days. In this initial phase the team is looking at two module sizes, a 10kVA and 100kVA equivalent unit. They could be housed in a standard ISO containers or in the type of cubicles which are currently used for packaged distribution substations. The semi-permanent installation could be removed if additional electricity network development took place in the future.
David Francis, head of investment management and innovation at UK Power Networks, said: “SHARED gives us a chance to bring our rural customers the benefit of a more reliable power supply, and in a low carbon environmentally-friendly way. By using low cost hydrogen that can step in automatically during a power cut, we are exploring the potential to restore power in seconds”.

Ofgem to administer scheme to give bill discounts for houses near new high-power lines

New Power — Tue, 26 May 2026 11:26:21 +0000

Ofgem has been named as the administrator for the Bill Discount Scheme, which will give households that live near new electricity transmission infrastructure electricity bill discounts of up to £250 per year.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) aims to lay regulations to implement the scheme in Summer 2026, with first payments due to households in early 2027. Ofgem’s role is to ensure the payments reach eligible households within the scheme timescales. Ofgem has said that an Administration Consultation on the delivery of the scheme will be published by July and will run for six weeks. It will seek views on key aspects of Ofgem’s plans, including identifying eligibility of households and setting up delivery mechanisms and compliance arrangements.
The government intends for this scheme to offer the electricity bill discounts, of up to £250 a year for 10 years, to households living within 500m of new or significantly upgraded electricity transmission network infrastructure. It will be funded by an obligation on electricity suppliers who can pass the costs on via customer bills.
In a consultation response in March, DESNZ said “We are conscious that this is a novel scheme; we plan to hold 2 review points within the first 5 years of delivery to gain a detailed understanding of the scheme’s roll-out, which will be informed by monitoring and evaluation activity”.
DESNZ declined to exclude second homes from the discount, saying it was “too administratively complex to exclude them” and they could not be identified. However, it said “we intend to continue exploring the feasibility of developing and introducing an exclusion once the scheme has launched”.

GBE-N appoints companies to provide data to support new nuclear at Oldbury

New Power — Tue, 26 May 2026 11:03:08 +0000

Great British Energy -Nuclear has signed up Jacobs to develop environmental baseline data for the Oldbury site in South Gloucestershire.
Oldbury, on the south bank of the Severn river, had two Magnox reactors totalling over 400MW that began operation in 1967 and 1968 and were closed in 2011 and 2012. The government bought the site back from Hitachi in 2024, along with another nuclear site at Wylfa, after Hitachi abandoned plans to build reactors there.
With AtkinsRealis and AECOM as subconsultants, the three companies will form a “multidisciplinary team to support environmental surveys, impact assessments and regulatory approvals,” said Jacobs “ to inform future potential planning, design and permitting decisions”.
Oldbury Great British Energy – Nuclear Chief Executive Simon Roddy added: “As part of our role to position Oldbury for nuclear development, it’s important we continue to deepen our understanding of the site with various packages of work, such as ground investigations and archaeological surveys…”
The contract builds on initial site characterisation activities and will help assess the suitability of the Oldbury site for potential nuclear development.

DESNZ steps back from proposal to require solar over car parks

New Power — Tue, 26 May 2026 10:46:54 +0000

DESNZ has said it will not take forward plans to require car parks to install PV canopies.
A DESNZ spokesperson said: “After careful consideration and close engagement with industry, we have decided against mandating solar panels on new car parks. Solar remains central to our clean power mission, and we continue to support solar panels on new buildings – including in carparks – through the Future Buildings Standard.”
The proposal was the subject of a call for evidence from 7 May to 18 June last year, alongside planning for EV chargers. The consultation sought evidence and feedback on a proposal to mandate the introduction of solar canopies on new outdoor car parks and explore opportunities for deployment on existing car parks, above a certain size. It included car parks in both public and private ownership.
However, responses suggested that there was a risk that the benefits of solar canopies in car parks would not outweigh the upfront costs.
However the option for new non-domestic buildings to install PV canopies remains open via the Future Buildings Standard. Under this standard new non-domestic buildings are expected to install solar equivalent to 40% of the building’s ground floor area, which could be met either through rooftop solar or car park canopies.

Collaboration aims to decarbonise constriction sites

New Power — Tue, 26 May 2026 10:46:07 +0000

Hitachi Energy and Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on developing end-to-end approaches for zero-emission construction sites.
The collaboration brings together electric construction equipment with clean power supply, energy management, and system integration capabilities.
The companies say that while electrification, automation, and efficient resource and asset planning offer clear pathways to reduce emissions, transitioning from individual electric machines to fully functioning zero emission construction sites requires a coordinated ecosystem of solutions and effective system integration across equipment, power infrastructure, and energy management systems.
They will work on a non-exclusive basis to assess potential technical and commercial concepts for zero-emission construction and manufacturing operations, with a focus on system integration and site-level operational execution. The scope includes joint work on business models, go to market approaches, and aftermarket and support considerations.
“Electrification is a game changer in the decarbonization puzzle, particularly for hard to abate environments such as construction sites,” said Niklas Persson, CEO of Grid Integration at Hitachi Energy. “As construction operations become more electric and more complex, success depends less on individual technologies and more on system level integration, strong execution, and close collaboration with partners like Volvo CE who share our ambition to enable zero emission construction at scale.”
The initial focus is business and go to market oriented, emphasizing practical, plug and play approaches to help customers simplify the transition to zero emission construction sites.