Businesses underestimate the cost of electricity failures, according to Centrica Business Solutions. In a survey of UK and Irish businesses, senior energy decision-makers who had not experienced a serious energy failure predicted the cost to their business would be 7%…
Author Archive for New Power
OPINION: Top ten? Board-member checklist tests stakeholder engagement
by New Power • • Comments Off
How effective is your board in meeting ‘future customer’ and stakeholder needs? Sustainability First has developed a check-list for the boards of energy companies to use to assess that question. Within your corporate structure, is it clear where responsibility sits for…
Industry reacts to Helm review
by New Power • • 2 Comments
Michael Grubb, Professor of International Energy and Climate Change Policy, UCL: “There is a lot to agree with here – and much to chew on. But it would help if Helm acknowledged that the dramatic technology cost reductions he highlights were largely…
Open Utility wins funding to develop local flexibility trading
by New Power • • Comments Off
Open Utility has won £412,500 in funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Energy Entrepreneurs Fund (EEF) to develop an online marketplace for local electricity flexibility trading. The marketplace will help distribution network operators (DNOs) play an active…
Invitation to tender imminent for smart meter comms fix
by New Power • • Comments Off
An invitation to tender (ITT) is due for publication this week for for Alternative Home Area Network technologies and solutions. The Alt HAN procurement is part of the smart meter rollout. It is needed to address 3.5% of buildings where…
Energy future: forget security of supply, the trilemma and regulation, says think-tank
by New Power • • Comments Off
The energy sectors being held back by outdated policy obsessions that have dominated and distorted policy making and regulation for too long, says a new report by Challenging Ideas and Imperial College Business School. The group wants to sweep away easy…
Shell invites low-carbon innovators to apply for funding
by New Power • • Comments Off
Low carbon enterprises have until 6 November to apply for funding from Shell’s ‘Springboard’ competition. Up for grans is a national prize of £150,000, plus a further five regional awards worth £40,000 each. Shell UK country chair Sinead Lynch said:…
BEIS opens £10 million funding competition for energy entrepreneurs
by New Power • • Comments Off
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has opened Phase 6 of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund for applications. The fund is a competition that supports development and demonstration of state of the art technologies, products and processes in…
Industry ‘must rethink IT strategy’ to get value for money, says Xoserve chief
by New Power • • Comments Off
The energy industry could get more value for money from its big technology programmes by copying the approach of other sectors and “bleeding dry” its existing systems. That is the view of Xoserve chief executive Sian Baldwin, who has joined…
OPINION: Future Energy Scenarios reveal looming failures over security of supply
by New Power • • Comments Off
Mark Howitt argues that the government’s measures are failing to provide secure power over the long term National Grid’s 2017 Future Energy Scenarios, which set out four ways energy could evolve to 2050, only has one scenario – Two Degrees…