Utility news
On this page you will find industry news about electricity, renewable energy, gas, water, fixed and mobile telecoms, and other stories. Our news is updated once per month. We cover items such as developing technologies, price changes in the utility markets, takeovers and company collapses, changes in tariffs, the results of investigations by the regulators and market trends.
Please take time also to visit our Business Cost Consultants news page, where we will keep you up to date with developments in Business Cost Consultants, and coverage we have had in news and trade press.
If you would like to be kept up-to-date with utility news, you can join our list of free monthly newsletter subscribers; just go to the Newsletter sign-up page. You can unsubscribe at any time.
- See the Newsletter sign-up page.
Industry news
Minister leads push for faster broadband
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Britain can't afford to lag behind, Timms warns
Summit to discuss who pays £7bn fibre-optic bill
Telecoms executives have been summoned to a meeting today with the government and the regulator, Ofcom, to thrash out a plan to stop Britain slipping behind in the global broadband league.
The summit, organised by Stephen Timms, the competitiveness minister and former e-commerce minister, will tackle how to increase internet access speeds, paving the way for services such as high-definition internet TV, and who will pay the £7bn or so for the infrastructure.
The creation of a next-generation access network could mean Britain dumping the traditional copper phone lines in favour of fibre-optic cabling.
As well as BT's chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, and the firm's retail and Openreach network divisions, Virgin Media, Cable & Wireless, Sky and Carphone Warehouse are expected to be represented.
In September, Timms, a former telecoms industry analyst, warned that the UK risked being left behind as other countries such as France, Germany, the US, Japan and South Korea built home broadband networks far faster than anything available in Britain. He said: "We need timely deployment of technology. We can't afford to lag behind. We need the right conditions for the market to operate effectively."
Ofcom is consulting on next-generation access networks, with industry given until December 5 to make its views known. Ed Richards, Ofcom's chief executive, said: "Today's access network, at some point in the future, will run out of steam ... Consumers will demand faster and faster access. Very few people agree on exactly when this is going to happen but many people do agree it is only a matter of time."
Already internet TV services such as the BBC's iPlayer, 4oD from Channel 4 and ITV.com have raised fears that the UK network could become congested. The types of services being accessed online are only going to put more pressure on broadband speeds and network capacity.
The meeting comes as new research, published today, shows that consumers are increasingly using their broadband connections to stream or download TV programmes and movies.
Downloading copyrighted video material over peer-to-peer sharing networks already makes up much of the world's internet traffic. While anti-piracy groups have made headlines with moves such as the closure of the tv-links.co.uk site, which helped file sharers locate material, traffic is still increasing. Some sites now allow users to stream rather than download movies, which uses more capacity.
According to the latest annual Olswang Convergence Consumer Survey, compiled by YouGov, 63% of internet users view user-generated video clips, such as those posted on YouTube, at least once a month. A third stream or download TV programmes or movies every month.
The poll - of more than 1,500 18-55 year old British consumers - found 14% admitted illegally downloading music, 6% had illegally downloaded a film and 5% a TV programme. Most were aged 18 to 24.
The survey also shows that people are less willing to pay for content with about three times as many using free content as use paid-for content.
Courtesy of Guardian Unlimited
Permanent link for this article
Campaigners slam aviation emissions trading
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Protestors interrupted a summit on aviation emissions trading to protest that the scheme will allow the aviation industry to continue emitting carbon while claiming they are being green.
Members of campaign group London Rising Tide made an impromptu speech to delegates at Emissions Trading Aviation 2007 at Selfridges Hotel, in London, on Wednesday, to highlight their fears that emissions trading will not have a significant impact on curbing aviation emissions.
The conference had been organised to help the carbon trading and aviation industries to understand more about plans to include aviation in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2011.
However, London Rising Tide argued that airport expansion needed to be stopped and the number of flights needed to be reduced to significantly cut aviation's impact on climate change.
A London Rising Tide spokesman - who did not want to be identified - told Edie: "The EU Emissions Trading Scheme and any carbon trading scheme is just something to enable business as usual to continue and that is not good enough.
"We are certainly not going to get out of the mess we are in if business continues as usual."
The conference followed a vote in the European Parliament earlier this month which saw MEPs overwhelmingly back the Commission's plan to include the aviation sector in the ETS.
However, MEPs have introduced significant changes to the draft law, including capping ETS allowances for carbon emissions at 90% of average levels during 2004-06, instead of the proposed 100%.
Speakers at the conference had urged the aviation and tourism sectors to get on board as soon as possible, help to develop the scheme and ensure they were preparing for the impact to their businesses when it is introduced from 2011.
Niels Ladefoged, policy officer for the Clean Air and Transport Unit in the European Commission's Environment Directorate, said: "I would strongly recommend you to work with us to get these guidelines right."
Courtesy of Kate Martin @ Edie News
Permanent link for this article
Severn Trent to face prosecution from Serious Fraud Office
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
It has been announced that water supplier Severn Trent will face criminal charges after the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) judged that the evidence against the company was sufficient for it to answer allegations of three counts of providing false information to the sector regulator, Ofwat.
While no specific individual will face action, the company as a whole will face three counts relating to the provision of false leakage information to Ofwat in 2000, 2001 and 2002, such information being incorporated into the prices that water companies are ultimately allowed to levy on end users.
While Ofwat said that it viewed this development as "unprecedented", Severn Trent chief executive Tony Wray indicated that his company had cooperated fully with both the SFO and Ofwat during the course of their initial investigation, with the alleged reporting breaches occurring before the current management team took charge.
"We will now study carefully the details of the charges which relate to the responsibilities of a previous regime. Until that process is completed and we have taken legal advice, we cannot comment further on our response to the charges," Wray said in a statement, "What I can say is that this new Board and management team has taken, and will continue to take, all actions we think appropriate to ensure the maintenance of both high ethical and professional standards and resilient and effective controls throughout our organisation."
Ofwat's own investigation into this matter began more than three years ago after claims made by an ex-employee of Severn Trent, while the SFO's own probe began in October 2005 following a referral by the water regulator. Ofwat's investigation concluded in March 2006 - an outcome that led to an apology by Severn Trent to its customers and a return of more than £40 million to the company's 3.5 million customers with the regulator indicating that the company's leakage data "was either deliberately miscalculated or poorly supported" in its report on the
matter.
However, at the time Ofwat said that further financial penalties could be demanded depending upon the outcome of the SFO's investigation, an outcome that remains a distinct possibility given these latest developments. The timing of the legal case has yet to be agreed, with the SFO stating that a date for initial court hearings has yet to be set.
Courtesy of Energy Information Centre Ltd.
Permanent link for this article
UK's first gasification plant will reduce island's landfill
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Work has begun on a new £8m plant to convert waste into electricity on the Isle of Wight. The gasification plant - the first of its kind in the UK - will convert residual waste into gas rather than incinerating it and divert thousands of tonnes of rubbish from landfill.
It is expected to generate 2.3MW of electricity, which will power more than 2,000 homes on the island, when it begins operating next year.
Norwegian firm Energos is constructing the facility, which will be similar to six other plants it operates in Norway and Germany, and is investing £4m in the project.
Waste will be converted into gas at the plant using a thermal treatment process. The resulting heat energy is used to produce steam, which is then used to generate electricity.
"Sensible recycling is the backbone of any waste strategy, but there will always be some waste that can't be recovered and this is where gasification technology proves its worth," said Tony Grimshaw, project director at Energos.
He added: "When this small scale, local facility is operational it will cut out the need to use heavy vehicles to transport floc fuel to the mainland.
"Another benefit of this localised solution is that because the energy will be used on the island, there will be little wastage during the transmission process."
Bruce Gilmore, general manager of the island's waste contractor, said: "Waste currently sent to landfill will now be diverted for processing in the new facility.
"This will demonstrate the capability of the technology to divert post-recycling refuse from landfill, therefore extending the life of the landfill site and helping the Isle of Wight Council to meets its Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme targets."
The Isle of Wight's waste processing and recycling facility is also being upgraded to process the 60,000 tonnes of waste delivered to the site every year.
The project is part of the Government's New Technology Demonstrator Programme to promote innovative ways of reducing biodegradable waste and Defra has provided £2.7m of funding.
Courtesy of Energy Information Centre Ltd.
Permanent link for this article
British Energy eyes nuclear sites
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
British Energy has named eight of its sites as possible locations for next-generation nuclear plants. The firm earmarked Sizewell in Suffolk, Hinkley in Somerset, Bradwell in Essex and Dungeness in Kent for development.
It also named Heysham in Lancashire, Torness in East Lothian, Hunterston in Ayrshire and Hartlepool. The firm said flood defence and coast protection could make nuclear power possible at all eight sites. The UK is to define its nuclear policy in 2008.
The news was part of a review of site work needed to counter the impact of climate change. There have been concerns that rising sea water and increasingly heavy rains could threaten power stations on coastal sites. But the report, based on research by engineering consultancy, the Halcrow group, found "the key conclusion is that flood defence and coast protection measure can be deployed to make replacement build a feasible option at all sites".
"Relying solely on current engineering methods and knowledge, the sites can be made robust against climate change impacts for the expected lifetimes of the replacement stations," it added.
However, the firm said access to the grid is likely to be an important constraining factor in selecting sites. The firm has already embarked on transmission connection agreements with National Grid for each of the key sites it owns in the South of England at Sizewell, Hinkley, Dungeness and Bradwell, starting in 2016.
In October the firm took two reactors at Hartlepool and two at Heysham out of service after a routine inspection showed problems with the boiler units. Studies to assess the different locations would vary but would include examinations of flora and fauna, fisheries and other marine ecology, landscape, geology, noise and air quality. The firm said it remained "flexible" about how the sites would be developed and on the choice of reactor design.
Courtesy of news.bbc.co.uk
Permanent link for this article
