Utility Week articles from April 2002

Utility Week archives from April 2002

water; Bondholder fury over AWG 'costly' overhaul.(UK Office of Water Services invites views)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... by Paul Garrett A rebellion by bondholders could delay AWG's proposed financial restructuring. The bondholders' group, led by Aegon Asset Management, has condemned as too costly the move by AWG to separate the group into two...

WATER; Shape up, access price laggards told.(UK Office of Water Services)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Water companies dragging their feet in opening their networks to competition have been told to shape up by regulator Ofwat after complaints by potential new entrants of delaying tactics. Companies have been told to publish common carriage...

TELECOMS; BTto axe 2,200 call centre jobs in upgrade.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... BT is to slice 2,200 jobs in its call centres and close 53 of its smallest call centres over the next two years. The move is part of a restructuring and upgrading of its call centres to what the company has claimed will be a more...

ELECTRICITY; Bradwell nuclear station signs off.(British Nuclear Fuels PLC closes station)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Bradwell nuclear power station has come to the end of its working life after 40 years of generating electricity. After supplying nearly 60 billion units of electricity since the 1960s, the 230MW Magnox station operated by British Nuclear...

WATER; Capex down in 2001 but due to pick up in 2002.(capital spending)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 5, 2002... The water industry reined in its capital spending severely in 2001, but is expected to splash out in compensation this year, according to market analyst MBD. Spending on sewerage projects fell by 26 per cent last year to ?1.5 billion, 25...

ENERGY; Enron fallout scuppers Centrica deal.(Centrica PLC's proposed acquisition of NewPower Holdings Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... The fallout from the demise of former energy trading giant Enron has scuppered a bid by Centrica to buy US energy supplier NewPower Holdings. Britain's home services giant signalled plans to buy NewPower two months ago in a deal that would...

GAS; HSEsteps in to secure Transco safety role.(Health and Safety Executive exemption for Transco gas workers)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... The safety regulator has been forced to step in to ensure Transco can continue to provide an emergency service over the next six months. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued the pipeline operator with a certificate of exemption...

ENERGY; S&SEbags Dee customers at ?30 a head.(Scottish and Southern Energy PLC acquires Dee Valley Group)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Scottish & Southern Energy (S&SE) has bought Dee Valley Group's domestic and business energy operation for ?850,000. The 28,000 customers in North Wales and Yorkshire were acquired at just over ?30 a customer. The purchase follows German...

ELECTRICITY; Deeside output set to halve.(International Power PLC cuts generating capacity)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... International Power has mothballed half of its 500MW generating capacity at its Deeside power plant in north Wales, claiming falling wholesale prices have made it uneconomic to run the whole plant. The 250MW unit will be closed for the...

Web mania and a Roy own goal?(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... At the last count (and the great man is not claiming overwhelming numeracy here) there were well over 125 web addresses containing the word 'enron'. These range from the relatively benign 'allaboutenron.com', 'dailyenron.com' and...

Electricity; National Grid ahead despite writedowns.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Investors warmed to National Grid last week despite its warnings of exceptional costs of ?545 million related to Energis and other telecoms ventures. The company said year-end results would hit the top end of analysts' expectations at about...

Who owns our water?(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... The long-running saga of where Wessex Water would end up after its unhappy liaison with Enron was finally resolved last week with the news that the company is to be acquired by Malaysian company YTL. This triggered some discussion in the...

Telco gilt ; tarnished.(feature looks at failure of utilities in the telecommunications market in England)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... A couple of years ago Utility Week was carrying articles suggesting that the quickest way to add value was to add telecoms. From Energis to Thus, the evidence from all over the sector was that telecoms was the place to be. Our feature this...

PAN-UTILITY; Utility workforce set to grow, says survey.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... by Paul Garrett Job prospects in utilities are poised to catch a wave of growing confidence this year, according to the latest report from recruitment company Manpower. And flexible staffing will continue to play an important role. ...

Viridian.(Viridian Group PLC)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 5, 2002... by Sumi Sastri In a trading statement last week, Viridian Group warned investors that it expects to post pre-tax profits before exceptional items of some ?10 million under analysts' mid-line expectations of ?75 million. The main cause for...

TELECOMS; Cash runs low at NTL under debt burden.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... by Sumi Sastri Cable operator NTL is close to defaulting on its interest payments on some of its more risky debt-funded investments and has warned its bondholders that it will withhold payments on some high-yield bonds. The company has...

Unhappy ; returns.(New Electricity Trading Arrangements)
April 5, 2002... In the same way that players in a game cannot perform to the best of their ability until they know the rules instinctively, participants in the trading regime for wholesale electricity are only just beginning to know the score. So as its...

Don't publish and be damned.(Electricity Act 1989 failed to include rules for regulatory body)
April 5, 2002... Ignorance of the law is no excuse. It is one of the best-known maxims of a democratic society. But what happens when you cannot find the piece of law that you are supposed to be obeying because it was never published? This question arises...

ELECTRICITY; Viridian slides on price plans.(response to Ofreg's Northern Ireland Electricity price control proposals)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Both Investors and management have reacted frostily to Northern Ireland energy regulator Ofreg's latest proposals for price controls on Viridian's power business, Northern Ireland Electricity. Shares in the Belfast-based...

TELECOMS ; BToff hook in broadband price probe.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Telecoms regulator Oftel has cleared BT of predatory pricing of its broadband services. The regulator was investigating claims by Bulldog Communications that BT was undercutting competitors and behaving anti-competitively. Oftel said that...

I'd like to thank ; my fans?(utility industry)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Last week's dazzling, multi-million dollar Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles celebrating film industry success was in stark contrast to the state of the utility industry in California. While the Utility Week Industry Achievement Awards...

A strong case of watchdog blues.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Backbenchers have been pressing the government over the regulatory regime for telecommunications and broadcasting. MPs are concerned that the proposed new arrangements for a single watchdog may be too influenced by existing regulatory staff...

MULTI-UTILITIES; Thames boosts RWE's profits by 20 per cent.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... by Sumi Sastri Thames Water put a 20 per cent boost into RWE's profits in its first year as part of the German giant. The Essen-based multi-utility's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose by 33.2 per cent to...

WATER; Scottish Water debut sparks political row.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... by Karma Ockenden As Scottish Water, Scotland's new, single water authority, kicked off this week, its creator, the Scottish Executive, was accused of pushing privatisation by the backdoor, failing customers and doing a U-turn on its...

WATER; Oestrogen debate must be full-blown.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... The water industry has called for the government to take a wide-ranging approach to tackling oestrogens in sewage effluent. Following the discovery of evidence of hormone disruption in fish, the Environment Agency has called for a risk...

ENVIRONMENT; Warning sounded as emissions rise.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Energy minister Brian Wilson last week warned that the UK's environmental targets remained 'a tough challenge' after official statistics showed an increase in carbon dioxide emissions over the past two years, following substantial cuts in the...

ELECTRICITY; Grid rule moves threaten security.(United Kingdom's Office of Gas and Electricity Markets)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... Plans by energy regulator Ofgem to overhaul the way generators gain access to the transmission network may jeopardise security of supply and could add to the woes of small generators already struggling under the new electricity trading...

ScotPower hits the right note.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... The utilities' Easter egg was of the curate's variety - good in parts - with a number issuing trading statements that ranged from the dull to the dire. ScottishPower produced the tastiest surprise, while the water sector produced a mixed...

Going concerns.(public utilities)
April 5, 2002... A process of continuing change has swept utilities along since privatisation at the end of the 1980s. At the time, Britain was pioneering what has since become a worldwide trend to transfer the ownership of essential public services into...

MULTI-UTILITies; Cost cuts and non-core lift United.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... United Utilities has presented the City with an upbeat progress report, with costs down and sales escalating in its asset management business. In a trading statement issued last week on its performance for the year to 31 March 2002, United...

WATER; What next after Wessex sale?(Wessex Water PLC, YTL Power International)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2002... by Paul Garrett So the Royal Bank of Scotland has been pipped at the post and Wessex Water's ownership goes not northwards to Edinburgh, but eastwards to Malaysia. The company taking Wessex off Enron's hands is YTL Power...

WATER; AWGin crunch meetings to quell rebellion.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... AWG will hold a series of one-to-one meetings over the next few weeks with bondholders who have objected to its restructuring plans, in an attempt to prevent a rebellion that could delay the separation of its business. A bondholders' group...

PAN-UTILITY; NAO says regulation has done its job.
April 12, 2002... by Roger Milne Existing network regulation has delivered the goods in terms of lower prices and better services, one of the most exhaustive assessments of the present regime concluded this week. However, the current inflation related...

ELECTRICITY; BE target up in post-Neta recovery.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... The Output of Edinburgh-based British Energy's nuclear power stations is heading for an 8 per cent year-on-year increase. If achieved, it will be the company's second-highest total. So far this year British Energy has generated 67.57TWh....

WATER; Sampling row brews in North West.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... A regional arm of Friends of the Earth has implied the Environment Agency could skew bathing water quality monitoring results to push up the UK's compliance rate in Brussels. The group discovered that the Environment Agency had taken more...

TELECOMS; BTtakes axe to costs and targets growth.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... by Sumi Sastri In his first strategy statement since taking the hot seat as chief executive of BT, Ben Verwaayen pledged to reduce costs through an aggressive disposal gambit and job cuts. He also promised to reinstate a dividend this year...

WATER; Welsh Assembly urged to hook up to water grid.
April 12, 2002... Wales will lose out if it fails to link the principality's canals to the water grid planned for England, first minister Rhodri Morgan was warned last week. In a letter to Morgan, the Independent Wales Party (IWP) urged the National...

ENVIRONMENT; Whitehall says emissions money was not wasted.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... The government has hit back at critics of its emissions trading scheme who have claimed that up to ?100 million of public money is being allocated to companies in incentive payments for reductions in pollution that would have happened whether...

TELECOMS; Energis ready to sacrifice Swiss arm.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Energis, the debt-ridden alternative telecoms operator, has withdrawn funding from its Swiss operation, pushing the unit close to insolvency. The company has defaulted on quarterly interest payments of ?13 million and has decided to sell...

WATER; Independent Wales party slams Glas.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Welsh nationalists have accused not-for-profit Glas Cymru of putting at risk the customer promises that helped secure political support for its purchase of Welsh Water. The Independent Wales Party said that Glas's promised 16p-a-week price...

Vodafone facing a write-down.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... 'Vodafone is expected to announce record losses next month,' reported the Mail on Sunday. The telecoms giant has been forced to make huge write-downs in the value of recent acquisitions. According to the newspaper, these could run into billions...

Network opportunity.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... There has been much talk of consolidation in electricity distribution and electricity supply businesses, but the imminent sale of Seeboard provides an opportunity for some radical reshaping ofBritain's electricity map. Three companies have...

Ofgem has nothing to hide.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Sir: With reference to John Cooper's article 'Don't publish and be damned' (Utility Week, 5 April), Ofgem is fully aware of the importance of the powers it has to make statutory instruments - and the corresponding need to publish these...

Gas production slows in 2001.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 12, 2002... Total indigenous UK production of natural gas in 2001 was 2.2 per cent lower than in 2000, the first time there has not been a year-on-year increase for many years, according to the latest government statistics. The current issue of the...

Wessex Water.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... by Sumi Sastri After months of uncertainty YTL, a Malaysian conglomerate with interests in power generation, property, rail and education, has taken over Wessex Water for ?1.2 billion. The deal could seal the fate of Wessex in two months,...

Logica.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 12, 2002... by James Ockenden Some 100 billion text messages will be sent every month by the end of this year, according to information technology company Logica, with the biggest growth set to be in the Americas and eastern Europe. Logica reckons...

TELECOMS; NTL close to rescue deal.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... NTL was close to agreeing a debt-for-equity swap with its bondholders which could save the the troubled cable company from bankruptcy, as Utility Week went to press. Credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's downgraded the UK-based...

TELECOMS; One2One axes stores with 100 jobs to go.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... One2One, the Deutsche Telekom-owned UKmobile telecoms operator, has unveiled plans to close 30 retail outlets as the German owner rebrands it under the group T-mobile name. Nearly 100 jobs will be lost across the UK, in addition to the 900...

The government's legislative proposals to bring UK competition and consumer protection up to date have surfaced.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Enterprise Bill enters the lists Parliament is back in earnest this week after the Easter break. Next week the big news will clearly be the detail of next Wednesday's Budget announcement. Backbenchers are already gearing themselves up...

ENERGY; Seeboard bucks price hikes trend.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Seeboard Energy announced this week that its freeze on residential energy tariffs will continue, bucking the trend of rising prices set by most of the major and medium-sized suppliers. Npower has announced that its domestic gas customers...

WATER; Severn Trent ; signs latest in run of insets.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Severn Trent Water has clinched the first of up to 35 out-of-area supply deals with Northern Foods. The so-called 'inset appointment' is to supply Northern Foods' Bowyers site in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. The deal will save Northern 10...

WATER; Crypto tests first Scottish inspector.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Scotland's attempt to bolster confidence in the quality of its drinking water by appointing its first dedicated drinking water quality regulator was overshadowed last week by reports of cryptosporidiosis in Aberdeen and poor performance in a...

ENERGY; S&SE emerges as sole UK Seeboard bid.(Scottish & Southern Energy)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Scottish & Southern Energy has emerged as the only British-owned utility in the running to buy Seeboard. The front-runner is Electricit? de France, owner of neighbouring London Electricity. With the Crawley-based company up for sale by...

ELECTRICITY; DTI's Neta response angers small players.
April 12, 2002... by Trevor Dooley A howl of dismay from operators of small power plant greeted the Department of Trade and Industry's response to a study of their prospects under the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (Neta). Officials at the department...

Know the score.(electric utilities use of sports marketing)
April 12, 2002... Over the past year or so, utility companies have taken an increasing interest in sports sponsorship. Npower has taken out a multi-million-pound sponsorship of the England cricket team's home Test matches, giving them a tremendous amount of...

ELECTRICITY; Thousands of sites not being billed.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Dozens of commercial customers with thousands of sites are waiting up to seven months for their first electricity bill after switching supplier, according to users' group the Energy Information Centre (EIC). While the speed of registration...

City nervous about telecoms.(BT strategy awaited by analysts)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 12, 2002... by Trevor Dooley A day of reckoning approached this week for BT's new and generally accepted chief as he dotted and crossed the company's strategy announcement. Elsewhere, an upbeat forecast and takeover talk gave two old energy warhorses...

Out of controls.(criticisms for Oftel's plan to reduce some price controls on British Telecommunications)
April 12, 2002... Competition, what competition? That was the reaction from some alternative operators on hearing that Oftel is considering removing some of BT's price controls because, according to Oftel director general David Edmonds, 'competition has begun to...

TELECOMS; Vodafone considers ?9bn writedown.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Vodafone could write down assets worth ?9 billion after its acquisition of Mannesmann and other mobile assets two years ago, for which it paid more than ?100 billion at the height of the telecoms boom. Vodafone's market capitalisation is...

WATER; New Wessex owner on asset hunt.(YTL, having acquired Wessex Water, looks for new acquisitions)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... The new Malaysian owner of Wessex Water is on the hunt for more utility assets in mainland Europe and Britain. Kuala Lumpur-based YTL is ambitious to extend its interests in electricity generation and distribution and in water. The...

Water - it's the tip of the iceberg.(company plans to bottle and sell iceberg melt)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2002... Strange but apparently true. The latest bottled water fad involves the liquid stuff being culled from icebergs. It seems the confusingly monikered Canadian Iceberg Corporation of America has plans to carve out a slice of the market here...

pan-utility; Enterprise Bill gives more power to the people.
April 12, 2002... by Roger Barnard The Enterprise Bill, published just before Easter, includes examples of the government's changing strategy towards the utilities. It is a huge piece of legislation, and of its 270 clauses, only a couple of dozen are...

WATER; AWG split green light could spur gearing.(AWG to become debt-financed water business, infrastructure management group)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... by Karma Ockenden Water companies eager to base their financing on high borrowings were encouraged last week when regulator Ofwat gave the all-clear to AWG's refinancing plan. Ofwat has decided not to object to AWG's plan to split into...

ENVIRONMENT; BP out in front as emissions trading kick in.(1,000 carbon credits sold to IMERYS)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... Energy giant BP emerged last week as the first company to take advantage of the UK's fledgling emissions trading scheme with the sale of 1,000 carbon credits to IMERYS, the international minerals processing group formerly known as English China...

TELECOMS; BT in airtime team-up with MMO2.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... BT has signed an airtime deal with its former stablemate, mobile operator MMO2 to provide high-speed wireless Local Area Network (LAN)services for large corporate clients. BT has also targeted small and medium-sized corporate customers with an...

I will survive.(broadband services)
April 19, 2002... Broadband is dead, the doom mongers say. The queue at the bankruptcy court is growing alarming. Those that invested heavily in content - like ITV Digital and the Kirsch Group - have collapsed. Those that invested in infrastructure, like...

ELECTRICITY; UK market scores top for customer gains.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... by Martha Grace With power industry and consumer disquiet at the National Audit Office's endorsement of the new power trading regime, leading consultant Accenture has cheered the UK market for delivering the best deal to domestic and...

WATER; Poisoned water probe 'will be a cover-up'.(Camelford)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... A meeting last week between the team investigating the Camelford water poisoning incident and local residents has left the latter expecting little more than a 'cover-up' from the inquiry. The accusation came from Bridget Pentecost, a victim...

ELECTRICITY; Competition threat to supply, says EdF chief.(Electricite de France, Loic Caperon)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... by Paul Garrett As Electricit? de France looked set to increase its grip on the UK energy market with a bid for Seeboard, a senior executive at the acquisitive state-owned giant has slammed the UK commodity-based power market for putting...

TELECOMS; Bidders lining up for Energis.(Credit Suisse First Boston may purchase assets)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... As telecoms carrier Energis defaulted on a ?13 million interest payment this week, investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has joined the list of companies believed to be interested in purchasing its assets. Energis defaulted on...

A problem shared.(environmental risk)
April 19, 2002... Imagine a scenario where a major utility company is looking to divest itself of a site it no longer requires. Subsequent due diligence work, undertaken by developers interested in purchasing the site, reveals significant land quality issues and...

WATER; Treatment kit suppliers fail customers.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... Suppliers of water and wastewater treatment equipment have been slammed by their customers for deficient service, uncompetitive pricing and lengthy lead times. Researcher Frost & Sullivan (F&S) conducted over 100 interviews with plant...

BT lost time, taps and inaction.(industry briefs)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... Thanks BT, time really stood still courtesy of the lumbering giant recently. Things got so bad that time had to be imported from the US as a result. Depending on your proclivities, you can blame BT or the good ole Department of Trade...

WATER; Firms must help the poor.(developing countries)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... The water industry has come under renewed pressure to help with water and sanitation services in the developing world. Speaking at the International Water Association's annual conference, Thames Water chief executive executive Bill...

PAN-UTILITy; Hewitt backs away from merger role.(Patricia Hewitt, UK government will not be involved in EU-regulated cross-border mergers)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... by Roger Milne In a surprise move, the government has signalled it no longer plans to intervene in cross-border mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies when such cases are being considered by the European Commission under Brussels'...

WATER; Customers demand green costings.(Ofwat National Customer Council )(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... Water customers have called on the government to ensure that sustainable development actions taken by the Environment Agency are worth what they cost. Responding to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' review of the...

Electricity 'rip off'; According to the Daily Mail,.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 19, 2002... 'greedy electricity companies' have been accused of failing to pass on savings worth ?400 million to customers. The Sunday Express reported it had 'established' that Ofgem would examine claims that the companies concerned were failing to pass...

Regulation vindicated.(National Audit Office looks at RPI-X regulatory regime)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... Our main feature this week is the National Audit Office's (NAO's) take on Britain's RPI-X regulatory regime, which it vindicates as one that seems to be working well. The NAO says that it regards many of the concerns raised about the RPI-X...

Severn Trent inset mystery.
April 19, 2002... Sir: I write in response to the news story about Severn Trent winning an inset appointment with Northern Foods (Utility Week, 12 April). You report that Severn Trent's inset appointment to supply Northern Foods at its Bowyers site in Wiltshire...

TELECOMS; MMO2 signs up IBM for IT services deal.(information technology contract)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... Computing giant IBM has signed a ten-year agreement with mobile operator MMO2 to design, build and manage information technology systems to support MMO2's voice, text and mobile internet services. The first phase of the deal is worth ?50...

ENERGY; Households lose 400m under Neta.(New Electricity Trading Arrangements; wholesale prices drop, consumers not benefiting)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... Consumer watchdog Energywatch has slammed the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (Neta) for not delivering price cuts to domestic customers despite claims by energy regulator Ofgem that wholesale prices have fallen by 18 per cent under the...

Electricity services on the up.(in UK)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... Payments to electricity customers to compensate for company failures to meet guaranteed service levels fell dramatically last year, Ofgem reported last week. The total value of payments made under the standards during 2000/01 totalled...

Slough Heat and Power.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 19, 2002... by James Ockenden Since the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (Neta) were introduced, power exports from small generators in the UK have fallen by 44 per cent and power export prices have plummeted. Among the small Combined Heat and...

Kingston Communications.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2002... By Sumi Sastri Hull-based Kingston Group, has kept its focus narrow. Telecoms network service provider, Kingston offers internet access and telephone services to 185,000 residential and business customers in east Yorkshire. Its national...