An emergency Capacity Market auction will be held in January for delivery in winter 2017/18, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) said in a consultation on changes to the CM intended to improve security of supply and bring…
Author Archive for New Power
New auto-switch services launch: will they change the game for energy customers?
by New Power • • 4 Comments
Fine ambitions on increasing customer switching run into one problem: it’s a tedious business, and one that can leave you uncertain, on switching sites, whether you really have got a better deal. Janet Wood spoke to Flipper and Swuto, both hoping to take the pressure off domestic consumers – and EnergyConnect which is hoping to get small businesses more active.
Engie’s new focus: low-carbon, regulated businesses and ‘customer solutions’
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Engie has announced a three-year transformation plan intended to refocus the company on low-carbon activities (which will provide 90% of pre-tax earnings by 2018), regulated activities (expected to be more than 85% of pre-tax profit by 2018) and “integrated customer…
What is the future for distribution networks?
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What is the future for distribution networks? The European description of them as distribution system operators (DSOs) illustrates the issue: should they be active players in electricity supply and system management, or should they be independent facilitators for other market…
Ofgem tells National Grid: ‘We are not “Going Green” ’
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Ofgem has sent National Grid back to the drawing board in the way it assesses options for future network development, saying the system operator (SO) was too ready to assume its ‘Gone Green’ scenario would come to pass. The regulator…
Gas ‘cannot bridge the gap to low-carbon’ without CCS; government strategies ‘at odds’, says UKERC
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Without carbon capture and storage (CCS) gas cannot act as a ‘bridging’ technology to meet 2050 greenhouse gas targets. Instead, it must be phased out over the next 35 years and largely removed by 2050, according to new modeling by…
Dong Energy to start construction of ‘waste to gas to power’ plant in Cheshire
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Construction work is about to start on a waste to energy plant in Northwich that will use a new enzyme-based process to convert waste to gas. The gas will be used to generate electricity and the site should produce 5MW.…
EDF Energy announces longer lifetime for four nuclear plants
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EDF Energy has announced life extensions for four of its nuclear power stations, claiming the highest nuclear output for ten years in 2015 at 60.5TWh. Scheduled closure dates for Heysham 1 (1155MW) and Hartlepool (1180MW) have been extended by five…
European utilities’ credit ratings may fall, warns Moody’s
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Rating agency Moody’s has warned it may downgrade ten European energy utilities, mostly because of their exposure to falling commodity and power prices. Among those on review for downgrade are ratings related to Centrica, Dong Energy, EDF, E.On, Engie, RWE…
The hydropower industry has been hit by a double whammy from Westminster and Holyrood
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Simon Hamlyn, chief executive of the British Hydropower Association (BHA), says Scottish politicians are undermining its hydro industry Scottish Government first minister Nicola Sturgeon is guilty of blatant hypocrisy. She launched a ferocious attack on the cuts being made by…