tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69167495719565017322009-07-03T10:41:09.986+01:00Business Cost Consultants utilities news.Keithnoreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-73470301730184545812009-07-03T10:37:00.001+01:002009-07-03T10:41:09.995+01:00

The startling spike in oil prices to their highest level this year on Tuesday was caused by a rogue broker who placed a massive bet in the Brent oil market, triggering almost $10m (€7m) of losses for his company.PVM Oil Associates, the world’s largest over-the-counter oil brokerage, said on Thursday it had been the “victim of unauthorised trading”. The privately owned company said that as a

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EXECUTIVES from Britain’s top companies will warn the Big Six utilities next week that draconian contract terms, imposed to insulate them against the failure of business clients, will lead to further job losses unless they are urgently reformed.The Major Energy Users’ Council (MEUC), a cross-industry group that includes the likes of Tesco, Rolls-Royce, BT and the NHS, has convened a crisis

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-66384416560036193652009-06-30T09:14:00.003+01:002009-06-30T09:42:53.456+01:00

Most consumers are unhappy with how suppliers deal with their complaintsEnergy regulator Ofgem has urged suppliers to up their game in complaint handling as consumer research found less than one in four customers were satisfied with the way gripes were dealt with.While an independent audit commissioned by Ofgem found that suppliers had made the necessary systems investments and updated their

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-41259852526659870752009-06-17T15:19:00.001+01:002009-06-17T15:21:26.376+01:00

Alexei Miller, Gazprom's chief executive, warned in a speech in Italy last week of a looming "supply crunch" in the oil market after 2012, caused by under-investment today, which could send oil and gas prices soaring.A few days later, he drove that warning home in the most vivid way possible, with Gazprom's investment cuts and production delays raising the spectre of a gas supply crunch in

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-72145981230221124812009-06-11T16:52:00.000+01:002009-06-17T16:54:06.082+01:00

VODAFONE is set to end a three-year dispute with Carphone Warehouse by resurrecting a sales agreement with the mobile-phone store chain. Talks between Charles Dunstone, the Carphone boss, and Vodafone’s senior management are believed to be at an advanced stage, with an announcement expected imminently.The deal would lead to Vodafone mobile contracts being sold in Carphone’s 800 UK stores for the

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-68589095930479938162009-06-10T16:58:00.000+01:002009-06-17T17:00:05.276+01:00

Residential landlords could be made liable for unpaid water bills left by departing tenants under a government review of water charges.Landlords described the proposal, which has been submitted to the forthcoming Walker review on the social, economic and environmental aspects of water charging, as an “alarming prospect”. They said that it would push up rents.The proposal comes amid plunging

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-45136935528453010082009-06-09T16:46:00.000+01:002009-06-17T16:48:34.359+01:00

Sellafield, Europe's most heavily contaminated industrial site, went under the hammer yesterday. Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant that owns ScottishPower, is expected to be among the bidders for a 250-hectare parcel of land adjoining the main site in West Cumbria where Britain mastered the technology to build the atomic bomb in the 1950s and later built the world's first commercial nuclear

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-83352996216161840772009-06-09T10:37:00.002+01:002009-06-09T10:41:26.557+01:00

The implementation of smart meters will be a huge challenge. There will need to be standards to support different types of meter and a national infrastructure to ensure that the data from the meters is available in the right place at the right time. Someone will have to finance this and a future generation will have to pay for it.Despite these risks, the scale of the challenges we face means that

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-9441235171625836532009-06-01T10:46:00.000+01:002009-06-09T10:50:32.733+01:00

The politically charged race to build a new natural gas pipeline into southern Europe is hotting up.An agreement this month by Gazprom and Italy’s Eni to double the capacity of their South Stream project to pipe Russian gas under the Black Sea would enable it to carry a 10th of annual European Union demand. Gazprom simultaneously signed deals with Bulgarian, Greek and Serbian partners to build

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-64493912614681515372009-05-25T09:36:00.000+01:002009-05-26T09:40:25.821+01:00

Britain's power infrastructure is on the brink of what may be its biggest transformation. Underinvestment in the network for decades mean that a big overhaul is long overdue, but the changes are being accelerated by a string of other influences.Tough new European Union pollution rules mean that nine of Britain's biggest coal and oil-fired power stations are due to be retired from service in 2015,

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-40497459610668006032009-05-21T09:46:00.003+01:002009-05-26T11:13:24.980+01:00

Global electricity consumption will fall this year for the first time since 1945, according to the International Energy Agency.The watchdog for developed energy consuming countries will tell energy ministers from the Group of Eight leading economies on Sunday that electricity demand will fall 3.5 per cent in 2009.n China, where power use is seen as a more reliable barometer of economic activity

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-23387736447547283222009-05-20T11:07:00.000+01:002009-05-26T11:11:12.482+01:00

Vodafone is planning fresh cost cuts as nearly £6 billion of writedowns and the effects of recession led to its full-year profits being more than halved.The group, which has already cut 500 jobs in Britain, took a hit of £3.4 billion on its Spanish business and a fresh £500 million hit in Turkey as it struggled with the downturn and intense competition.Service revenue across the group’s European

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-79570022803479632462009-05-14T16:38:00.002+01:002009-05-14T16:42:14.243+01:00

MPs and others are now starting to recognise the potential of solar power technology in the UK, but we are still only scratching the surfaceApril 2010 could be a major milestone in the UK's attempts to deliver a low-carbon economy. Assuming all goes well, that is the date when the government will introduce new "feed-in tariffs", where a price premium is paid to homeowners, schools and businesses

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-25825139923467091342009-05-03T09:11:00.000+01:002009-05-05T09:18:34.250+01:00

EDF, France’s state-controlled utility, is considering the benefits of selling its regulated electricity distribution business in the UK as it seeks disposals to help it cut the debt built after a year of costly foreign acquisitions.The question of whether EDF, which will spearhead Britain’s nuclear revival after its recent €15bn ($20bn) takeover of British Energy, should sell the UK’s largest

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-91206923877026102282009-04-30T16:30:00.001+01:002009-05-01T16:36:42.752+01:00

A revolution in the way you think about and use energy in your home is about to get underway.The government is poised to announce how it intends to roll out electricity and gas smart meters to every household in the UK by 2020.Calling this a revolution may seem overly dramatic.However, this will be the impact of the transfer from existing "dumb" meters to new, smarter alternatives.Quite simply,

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-17306175580630223352009-04-30T15:24:00.000+01:002009-05-01T15:26:12.825+01:00

Stormwater in urban areas can have negative effects on both the quantity and quality of surface- and ground-waters. Biofiltration systems are a popular form of water treatment, but information on their performance with stormwater is limited to laboratory studies.This research is the first to evaluate three biofiltration systems in practice. Biofiltration systems (otherwise known as biofilters,

Keithnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-14226454794484781332009-04-30T13:48:00.001+01:002009-04-30T13:51:08.092+01:00

National Grid said it was considering its legal options after failing to overturn a record fine for breaching competition rules in its UK gas metering business.The Competition Appeal Tribunal yesterday shaved more than a quarter off the company's original penalty of £41.6m, ruling that £30m was a more appropriate fine level.However, it backed an earlier regulatory finding that National Grid's

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-625171970455025272009-04-30T12:23:00.001+01:002009-05-01T12:33:05.476+01:00

An ambitious US plan to develop what is being dubbed the world's first totally solar-powered city has run into immediate problems.Florida's Republican controlled legislature is playing hardball with a comprehensive energy bill that utility firm Florida Power and Light (FPL) says is required for it to start work on a 75MW solar farm array at Babcock Ranch in the south west of the state.The

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-16116590581165195842009-04-29T11:25:00.001+01:002009-04-29T11:29:57.786+01:00

More than eight out of ten businesses say Government targets to reduce CO2 emissions are unrealistic, while significant numbers do not see the benefit of a small carbon footprint and are relegating carbon reduction measures to concentrate on managing costs.These are among the findings of npower’s Business Energy Index (nBEI), an annual report tracking business opinion on energy use and carbon

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-88863463346560466272009-04-26T09:29:00.000+01:002009-04-27T09:32:18.512+01:00

THREE of Britain’s biggest water companies have received emergency cash injections from their buyout backers to keep them from breaching debt agreements. Southern Water, Anglian Water and South East Water were bought in debt-fuelled deals totalling more than £7 billion at the top of the private equity boom in 2006.The economy’s slowdown put them at risk of breaching loan terms as the value of

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-22141878778235933102009-04-26T09:08:00.000+01:002009-04-27T09:13:10.792+01:00

CENTRICA could be drawn into a billion-pound bidding war for the North Sea’s biggest independent gas group after it emerged that three continental utilities are in talks with Venture Production about potential spoiler offers.Venture’s bankers at Rothschild have been trying to attract a white knight since Centrica bought 22% of the company in a stock-market raid last month.It is understood that

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-57232990999684139962009-04-25T11:43:00.000+01:002009-04-29T11:55:49.354+01:00

A proposed £4.7bn ($6.7bn) investment in the electricity grid to connect up new wind farms and nuclear power stations has been backed by the government, which hailed the plan as a big opportunity that would support employment.The proposals include two large new undersea cables running off the east and west coasts to bring electricity from Scotland to England.But most of the money will not be

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-61398416198983237142009-04-23T10:34:00.004+01:002009-04-23T10:44:17.811+01:00

A radical shake-up of the water industry could be set in motion if government accepts recommendations to overhaul the distribution, regulation and consumption of water in the UK, writes William MacNamara .The government- commissioned Cave Report targets the UK's 21 regional water monopolies, claiming they will meet the demands of the population only if competition is introduced.The report calls

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-11606632662245908792009-04-23T09:14:00.000+01:002009-04-27T09:21:08.327+01:00

Britain gave a green light to the construction of up to four coal-fired power stations, but insisted that developers offer a guarantee to bury some of their carbon emissions underground. The scheme, which will be paid for through a levy of up to 2 per cent on the household bills paid by all 26 million households in the UK, represents a significant shot in the arm for British hopes of mastering

BCC Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511451643042345932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6916749571956501732.post-78688005534901595992009-04-22T13:43:00.000+01:002009-04-23T13:48:35.338+01:00

The renewable power industry has been given a shot in the arm after Alistair Darling's budget announced over £5bn worth of new funding to hasten an offshore wind revolution and kick-start solar.But there are concerns that oil and even nuclear were being given help and the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) warned that other important obstacles, such as electrical grid connections and planning

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