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.
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Industry news
Motorola taps Microsoft for Android apps
Thursday, March 11, 2010
All’s fair in love and war, and Motorola may owe its recent upswing to the Google-backed Android platform, but this week the resurgent handset vendor hopped into bed with Microsoft, to deploy Bing on Android devices.
Under a global alliance between Motorola and Microsoft, the US manufacturer will deploy Bing services on Motorola devices powered by Android, with the first offering launching in China before the month is out.
As part of the deal, Motorola users will get a pre-loaded Bing bookmark on their mobile browser and an enhanced search widget with Bing integration. There will also be a focus on Bing powered map functions on the Android-based devices. Devices that are already in market will be able to pick up the updates over the air.
Motorola said it is opening the doors for increased personalization and empowering its end users – a comment which may draw some fire in light of this week’s launch of the Android-powered AT&T Backflip in the US. The Backflip runs a crippled version of the Android-platform, which does not allow users to install unofficial applications. There are also a handful of AT&T specific apps installed on the device which cannot be removed by the user. Then again, the Backflip is not a Google-branded device so perhaps this is par for the course.
This news article was featured on Telecoms.com website.
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Oil falls below $82; China inflation spikes
Thursday, March 11, 2010
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil fell below $82 a barrel on Thursday, retreating from an eight-week high hit a day earlier as a spike in Chinese inflation had investors mulling prospects of monetary tightening in the heart of energy demand growth.
A smaller than expected drop in the number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits also weighed on sentiment, but falling gasoline inventories in the United States and the first signs of a recovery in demand in 18 months supported prices.
U.S. crude for April fell 45 cents to $81.64 a barrel by 1412 GMT, after touching $83.03 on Wednesday, the highest level since oil's 15-month high of $83.95 on January 11. London ICE pril Brent fell 48 cents to $80.00 a barrel.
"While we think crude prices will test their 2010 high, they are unlikely to substantially exceed it," MF Global analyst Edward Meir said.
"Instead, a potential double-top at $83.95 should provide a technical sell signal that could bring prices back below the $80 mark."
Consumer inflation has soared to a 16-month high in China, the world's second largest oil consumer, and a raft of economic data showed broad-based strength, providing fresh arguments for policy tightening in a bid to stop the economy overheating.
China's booming economy has seen oil imports soar, hitting their second highest ever monthly level in February. On Wednesday, OPEC said Chinese daily oil demand has jumped by almost 2 million barrels in just five years to stand around 8.6 million barrels per day.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which pumps at least one in every three barrels of oil , meets in Vienna on March 17 to discuss production policy. Officials have said they do not expect a change in targets while prices are within their desired range.
This story was featured on the Reuters News website.
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SSE extends fibre network with Atlas acquisition
Thursday, March 11, 2010
SCOTTISH Enterprise has sold Atlas, its controversial fibre telecommunications network, to Scottish & Southern Energy.
The price has not been disclosed due to "strict confidentiality agreements" but it is thought to be less than the £10 million Scottish Enterprise has invested in the network. The deal does not include Atlas's six data centres.
The deal boosts SSE
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's UK telcoms cable network to 7,600 kilometres. SSE claims its telecoms division, Scottish & Southern Energy Telecommunications, is now the fourth-largest operator of its kind in the UK. Scottish Enterprise's initial estimated project value for Atlas was £30m. As part of the acquisition, SSE has committed to investing a further £1m to complete the development and integration of the network.
Adrian Pike, group managing director of contracting, telecoms and utilities for SSE, said Atlas customers would benefit from being connected to SSE's fibre network.
The network, which spans 55km across six Scottish business parks, was the brainchild of former Scottish Enterprise chief executive Robert Crawford, Charlie Watt, who was at the time SE's senior head of e-business, and former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander.
The publicly-funded network, built in 2006, piqued the anger of a number telecoms firms and the project underwent scrutiny from the European Commission.
It links business parks in Aberdeen, Dundee, Riccarton outside Edinburgh, Strathclyde Business Park in Lanarkshire, West of Scotland Science Park in Glasgow and Crichton in Dumfries.
This story was featured in The Scotsman website.
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UK gas supplies tight on low Norwegian flow
Thursday, March 11, 2010
LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - UK gas supplies remained tight early on Thursday after a steep drop in flows from Norway on Wednesday, despite a recovery in imports from the Netherlands overnight, according to data from National Grid.
Supplies of Norwegian gas into Britain via the Langeled pipeline dropped from over 60 million cubic metres to around 40 mcm on Wednesday afternoon, after a power supply failure to the huge field.
National Grid data showed a small improvement in supplies since Wednesday evening and a spokesman for field operator Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) could not give an immediate update on the status of one of the North Sea's biggest gas fields on Thursday morning.
Power supply to the field has been restored, he said, but it was unclear how much gas the field was producing.
BBL BACK
An electrical fault at Britain's Bacton import terminal also stopped gas from flowing through the BBL pipeline from the Netherlands on Wednesday but flows into southern England through it returned to normal later that day, according National Grid.
The UK gas network was about 20 mcm short of gas on Thursday morning, with flows expected to fall well short of expected demand of around 373 mcm.
This story was featured on the Reuters News website.
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UK gas up on high exports to Belgium, heating need
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - British gas prices picked up early Wednesday due to high exports to Belgium increasing demand while cold weather was still pushing up gas needs for heating.
Gas for Thursday was 33.50 pence per therm ($4.998 per mmbtu) at 1112 GMT, rising 0.50 pence from day-ahead contracts on Tuesday.
Balance of the week contracts were up 0.35 pence at 32.50 pence, while April increased 0.40 pence to 29.95 pence.
"The prompt is strong as we're a bit short and the Interconnector is exporting out to Belgium. There's still quite high demand so we've got quite high Rough flows to fill that," one gas trader said.
The system was short early on Wednesday, with Rough storage adding 37 million cubic metres (mcm) a day, and medium-range Hornsea and Aldbrough flowing 8 mcm/day and 5 mcm/day overnight to meet demand, the National Grid website showed.
Demand for Wednesday was forecast at 398.7 mcm/day, 71 mcm/day above seasonal norms, and around 20 mcm/day higher than the end of last week.
Prices along the curve were little-changed, with summer 2010 contracts at 29.30 pence and winter 2010 at 40.10 pence.
In the over-the-counter power market, baseload electricity for Thursday was quoted at 35.35 pounds per megawatt hour, losing 10 pence compared with day-ahead contracts on Tuesday.
"Gas is up a bit, but flat from a power perspective. It looks like were heading to a period of warmer weather and lower gas prices," one power trader said.
This story was featured on the Reuters news website.
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Government plans environmental survey of wave and tidal power
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
The government has announced plans to carry out the first comprehensive environmental assessment of wave and tidal energy in England and Wales.
This so-called Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) exercise will also look at the conservation issues surrounding the storage of carbon dioxide around the coast and offshore wind and oil and gas activities.
This initiative was highlighted by energy and climate change minister David Kidney at a wave and tidal conference held in London. He told delegates: "I am keen that we get as much of our energy as we can from home-grown sources, and our seas are a fantastic asset that can help us do this - in a number of ways.The exercise I'm launching today will help us identify opportunities for new development, whilst taking into account any possible impacts on the marine environment.
"And by including wave and tidal in this assessment for the first time, we're laying the foundations for commercial deployment of these technologies. This SEA and our forthcoming Marine Action Plan, alongside our other support measures, will create the kind of investor certainty that will help us maintain our position as world leaders in marine energy technology."
This story was featured in the Utility Week website.
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Government signals review of Ofwat's duties and announces new water bill
Monday, March 01, 2010
Water minister Huw Irranca-Davies has said that he is "minded to take a review of Ofwat".
Talking at the Water UK City conference, he said: "There is a genuine question around whether a system of economic regulation that was set up to extract maximum efficiencies at the time of privatisation is still the right system twenty years on. Today we are faced with challenges such as climate change and water affordability that were not on the radar in 1989."
He said the key questions were: "Should Ofwat's remit be widened to include new social and environmental challenges? Or should it be pared back to focus only on economic regulation? Or is the middle-ground approach we have now with a hierarchy of duties the right approach?"
He said that "maintaining the credibility and predictability of the regulatory regime" would be a priority, in order to protect the sector's reputation in the City.
He told the conference that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is preparing a new Water Bill to be ready for introduction "at the next legislative opportunity". He said that this would deliver on proposals from the draft Flood and Water Management Bill that were dropped in the final bill (currently working its way through government) plus the recocommendations from the Cave review of competition and innovation and the Walker review of charging that required .
He said that he was "as confident as a minister can be" that the Flood and Water Management Bill would receive royal assent.
This story was featured on the Utility Week website.
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British Gas customers 'fleeced' for record profits
Monday, March 01, 2010
British Gas was accused last night of fleecing millions of poor and vulnerable customers as the company announced record-breaking profits of £595 million last year — more than £1.6 million a day.
The announcement from Britain’s biggest utility company, which supplies 15.7 million homes, prompted calls for a competition inquiry amid accusations that it had failed to pass on falls in wholesale gas and electricity prices to consumers last year.
“As British Gas fat cats celebrate huge profits, the most vulnerable people in society are being left out in the cold,” said Steve Bloomfield, national officer for business and environment at Unison, the trade union.
“Raw gas prices have fallen massively, so energy companies are piling on the profits, while fleecing customers. Fuel poverty is rising in the UK and those in most need should be on lower prices.”
As Scotland received further heavy snowfalls yesterday in Britain’s coldest winter in decades, Centrica, the owner of British Gas, said that profits generated by the division increased by 58 per cent last year to £595 million from £376 million in 2008.
But Sam Laidlaw, Centrica’s chief executive, rejected the allegations of profiteering. He said that at 7.6 per cent, profit margins at British Gas were lower than at other well-known British companies, such as 15 per cent at BT and 18 per cent at Vodafone.
“You draw your own conclusions,” he said. “We made £38 per average customer last year after tax . . . I think the market is working fine.” Mr Laidlaw also said that British Gas had cut its prices earlier this month by 7 per cent and was planning to invest £15 billion in new power generating equipment, including wind turbines and nuclear power stations, over the next ten years.
The announcement is unlikely, however, to tame consumer anger at Britain’s “Big Six” energy companies. Earlier this week Ofgem, the industry regulator, said that British Gas, EON, Npower, EDF, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern Energy were earning their highest profits for five years because of a widening gap between wholesale and consumer prices.
Since summer 2008 wholesale gas prices have fallen from a peak of more than £1 per therm to about 38p, while electricity has dropped from £90 per megawatt hour to around £37.
In contrast, household energy bills are as much as 35-40 per cent higher for gas and 10-15 per cent more for electricity than before the price rises in 2008.
Centrica said that such figures were misleading because it bought only a small amount of gas at “spot” prices. Most of its gas and electricity is purchased on long-term contracts — some lasting 20 years — at a range of different prices.
Philip Cullum, deputy chief executive of Consumer Focus, the customer group, said that the results offered new evidence that Britain’s energy markets should be investigated by competition authorities.
“For consumers, a combination of high prices and cold weather has exacted a heavy cost. Energy companies have taken advantage this winter, while more than six million UK households live in fuel poverty and face a desperate struggle to keep warm.”
Although profits at British Gas were strong last year, they were modestly lower across the Centrica group as the company suffered big falls in earnings from its wholesale energy businesses.
Profits across the group, which also includes a gas production business in the North and Irish seas, wholesale electricity generation and gas storage operations, were down 7 per cent last year at £1.86 billion, compared with more than £2 billion in 2008.
This story was featured on the Business Times website.
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Centrica says gas alternatives are vital
Monday, March 01, 2010
For the man in charge of British Gas, Sam Laidlaw has a strikingly cautious outlook on the fuel’s future.
The hot topic in the energy industry is the flood of previously uncommercial gas coming onto the market.
Technological advances have brought down the cost of extracting gas from difficult rocks such as shales, producing a boom in US production. Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, has described it as a “game changer”, transforming the outlook for energy in America.
Mr Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, is not convinced that it has the same significance for Britain.
“When you look at the UK, we are different from the US. We are running out of gas,” he says.
“While hypothetically we could import cheap spot market gas for a long time, for security of supply reasons it is hard to believe that politicians will willingly commit to a single source of supply which has had a very volatile price history.”
While shale gas is undoubtedly “a significant new phenomenon”, he says, Britain still needs investment in nuclear and wind power to meet its objectives for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and securing energy supplies.
Centrica is still investing in gas production, announcing a £246m deal on Thursday to buy assets in Trinidad and Tobago, a significant exporter of liquefied natural gas, from Suncor of Canada.
Following the £1.3bn ($1.98bn) acquisition last year of Venture Production, a North Sea oil and gas company, Centrica is also aiming to become the “leading consolidator of mature and orphaned assets in the UK continental shelf”.
However, nuclear and wind power will account for a significant proportion of its planned investment of £1.5bn a year on average over the coming decade, up from about £900m in 2009.
In wind power, Centrica last year gave the go-ahead to the Lincs offshore development, a 270 megawatt, £750m project off the Lincolnshire coast. It also took the largest single position in Round Three of the government’s award of offshore wind licences, taking exclusive rights to an area of the Irish Sea that could generate 4,200MW.
In nuclear, it is working closely with EDF, the French group that aims to be the first company to build a new nuclear power station in Britain for three decades. Centrica has an option to take a 20 per cent stake in the first plant, expected to cost about £5bn, and then 5-20 per cent in subsequent projects.
The question is whether it will be able to make a significant return on this power generation. Mr Laidlaw on Thursday set out an aspiration of consistent earnings growth from its investments, but this will depend on political support.
Nuclear and wind are attractive investments only with support mechanisms that add to consumers’ bills. Offshore wind is supported by the Renewables Obligation, and the cost of that support is set to rise. Nuclear is likely to need some new mechanism.
The weakness of the carbon price in the European Union’s emissions trading scheme has undermined the competitive advantage of low carbon electricity such as nuclear. “If the target of end 2017 for the first new nuclear plant is going to be met, [then] above all, the commercial framework – some form of carbon price support mechanism – needs to be in place by 2011,” Mr Laidlaw says.
Centrica hopes that improved energy efficiency, and hence reduced consumption, will ease the burden on consumers, but it may not fully offset the rise in prices.
This story was featured on the Financial Times website.
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Southern Water to raise charges in the summer
Friday, February 26, 2010
Southern Water is to be the first utility company to charge extra to supply its customers in the hot summer months.
Seven water companies are thought to be considering a move to so-called "seasonal tariffs", which has the blessing of industry regulator Ofwat. But Southern, which supplies more than a million customers in Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, will formally announce the decision today.
The change will mean from June 1 through to the end of September, Southern customers who have the new range of automated water meters installed in their homes will then be charged a higher rate of 99.9p per thousand litres, against a winter charge of 92.2p. Customers with the old meters will continue to be charged 94.9p throughout the year.
Southern is accelerating the introduction of the new meters and expects to install them in almost 500,000 homes over the next five years.
The company insists that there will be no increase in the typical customer's annual bill and the measure is not designed to increase charges but to discourage "non-essential use" at times when water resources are under particular stress. Southern will monitor the use of water after the introduction of the tariff to see if it has any effect.
However consumer groups have already expressed concern that the introduction of seasonal tariffs might hit households that are heavy water users, such as large families with gardens.
This story was featured on the Business Times website.
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Ministers pledge £18.5m for offshore wind energy site
Friday, February 26, 2010
More than £18m of government cash has been pledged for the development of an offshore wind energy testing site off the Northumberland coast.
The grant will help built 20 "pod" structures off the New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Blyth.
Firms and researchers will be able to use the site to test prototype turbines and their foundations.
Regional development agency One North East last week announced £10m towards a new onshore facility at Blyth.
Andy Williamson, Narec director for business development, said: "This is wonderful news for Narec, the region and for the engineering supply chain here in the North East.
Mitsubishi deal
"This is a facility which will be an extension to the onshore component test capability that we have."
Business secretary Lord Mandelson announced the grant together with news that Mitsubishi intends to invest £100m in an offshore wind turbine project in the UK.
Mitsubishi Chief Executive Akio Fukui said the firm was looking at a number of locations in the UK where a factory will be built for the research to be carried out.
He said a prototype turbine would be built within three years and the first full-scale production would start after four years.
The government is supporting the development with grants of up to £30m and has signed a deal with Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe Ltd (MPSE).
Up to 200 skilled jobs would be created over the next few years, which Business Secretary Lord Mandelson believes could grow to 1,500.
This story was featured on the BBC News website.
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Green energy labels launched by Ofgem
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
The power regulator Ofgem is bringing in a new scheme designed to show if a supplier is making real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Its "green energy certified" label is designed to give users a real guide to who is doing most to source renewable power.
The idea is to reassure householders and small businesses that paying for green energy is actually worth it.
Energy companies are committed to using more renewable power.
Before the introduction of this new labelling plan, a supplier could claim to be helping the environment, but in fact simply be meeting its existing promise to use renewable energy.
'Go green'
Now, suppliers will have to demonstrate to an independent panel of experts that they are taking extra steps to cut their use of non-renewable power in order to merit the "green" label.
The panel's chairwoman, Solitaire Townsend, said: "Only 2% of Britons currently buy green energy, but I hope that a trustworthy label will convince many more to go green."
Keith Allott, head of climate change at WWF-UK, said: "For far too long, green tariffs have been a swamp of misleading and confusing claims - and have done little or nothing to drive forward new renewable energy schemes.
"We hope that the new guidelines and certification scheme will be implemented robustly."
This story was featured on the BBC News website.
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BG Group profits fall due to lower gas and oil prices
Monday, February 08, 2010
BG Group said its pre-tax profits fell to £857m ($1.4bn) in the three months to the end of December 2009 from £1.3bn in the same period a year ago.
Full year profits for the UK gas producer were down to £3.9bn in 2009, from £5.5bn in 2008, impacted by lower gas and oil prices, the company said.
Gas production rose 8% in the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2008, and was lower than expected.
BG Group shares were down 3.1% in early trading.
Chief executive Frank Chapman said BG would be producing 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2020, compared with 673,000 produced per day in the fourth quarter.
However, low demand for gas due to the weak global economy would mean only slight output growth this year, BG said.
This story was featured on the BBC News Website.
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Underground gas storage facility in Lancashire set to be stopped at planning stage
Monday, February 08, 2010
A huge gas storage scheme in Lancashire was set this week to be refused planning permission for a second time.
Lancashire County Council was expected to reject the project on safety grounds as well as concern about the visual impact of the development associated with an underground gas storage facility near the eastern bank of the Wyre River.
Canatxx wants to connect the facility to a liquefied natural gas unloading and regasification terminal in Amlwch, Anglesey, which already has consent.
The Preesall gas storage facility would involve the creation by "solution mining" (brining) of up to 36 new caverns in virgin salt deposits around the estuary about 300 to 400 metres below the surface to accommodate 360 million cubic metres of gas.
Lancashire county officials recommended the scheme be refused. Councillors were expected to agree when they decided the application on Wednesday, after Utility Week went to press.
Officials said the scale of the development - 5 sq km - would be detrimental to the open character of the countryside. The assessment also criticised the applicants for failing to demonstrate that the development "would not present an unacceptable risk of gas migration".
An earlier scheme was turned down on appeal in 2007.
This story was featured on the Utility News website.
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British Gas announces cut in domestic gas prices
Monday, February 08, 2010
Some eight million households are set to benefit from an immediate cut in the price they pay for gas after the country's biggest gas supplier, British Gas , announced a price cut.
The company said the reduction in standard gas prices would be around 7 per cent. It estimated that would save the average customer on a standard tariff £55 per year.
Announcing the gas price cut, British Gas managing director, Phil Bentley, said:
"At British Gas, we know household budgets are stretched, and that our customers are concerned about the effect the recent cold weather will have on their winter fuel bills.
"I'm pleased we're able to offer our customers some extra help with this gas price cut - and that we're able to do this while it's still winter, allowing our customers to really feel the benefit."
He added, "cutting prices is just part of the picture in helping our customers cut their fuel bills;... As well as cutting prices three times in the past year, we have been helping our customers improve their energy efficiency and cut their energy use by 7%."
This story was featured on the Utility Week website.
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