Utility Week articles from April 2004

Utility Week archives from April 2004

ENVIRONMENT; Global emission cuts threat to wind.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Success in measures to reverse climate change could change wind patterns and jeopardise US$100 billion-worth of wind power investments, according to the findings of a recent study. US researchers have predicted that efforts to halt global...

TELECOMS; MMO2 backs out of BT business mobile race.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Mobile telecoms operator MMO2 has withdrawn from the bidding to be former owner BT's mobile partner for business customers, leaving the field open for rivals Vodafone and T-Mobile. MMO2 supplies BT with a business mobile telecoms service in...

TELECOMS; Rivals and users rage at BT tariff changes.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... by Zoe Grainge BT has infuriated rivals with a move to abolish its standard fixed line tariff for residential customers. The gambit has also angered consumer groups, who said the new tariffs would hit those customers who made fewest calls....

The ; melting point.
April 2, 2004... Scottish Water Solutions has its work cut out trying to get eight groups of people working together . By Karma Ockenden. It all started in a pub in Stirling. Jon Hargreaves, Scottish Water chief executive, scribbled the idea for Scottish...

ELECTRICITY; Czech minister pushes for CEZ float this year.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Czech finance minister Bohuslav Sobotka has asked the government to approve the sale of a 16 per cent stake in dominant power group CEZ by the end of this year, apparently because of dwindling public finances. The industry ministry...

electricity; Lights, camera, action.
April 2, 2004... The need to deliver a massive capital by Trevor Dooley Electricity networks have taken an uncharacteristically prominent place in public and political awareness. While not the focus of the spotlight, they now at least cast a shadow....

ENERGY; Elsam one step closer to closing Nesa deal.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... by Gerard O'Dwyer Danish power company Elsam has received 'conditional approval' from Denmark's competition authority for its e1.4 billion takeover of rival Nesa. The authority set a series of tough conditions for Elsam as the price of...

ENERGY; Bill faces yet more defeats.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Ministers were braced for more embarrassment in the House of Lords this week where the Energy Bill was having a stormy passage during report stage in the Upper Chamber. Peers were due to press for more safeguards to protect vulnerable...

ENERGY; Advisor calls for Nuon/Essent merger.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... The Dutch government's energy advisory council (Energieraad) has proposed the merger of leading suppliers Nuon and Essent. The Energieraad argued that the Netherlands needed a dominant national supplier to compete with neighbouring rivals...

ENERGY; Renewables joint venture under pressure.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... The renewable energy joint venture between Spain's third-largest energy company, Union Fenosa, and Italian energy giant Enel could be abandoned in a dispute over new investments. Union Fenosa wants to inject more capital to increase joint...

eNERGY; Gallagher named as watchdog chair.(Energywatch)(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Ed Gallagher, the first chief executive of the Environment Agency, has been named as the next chairman of Energywatch. Gallagher will spend an average of 1.5 days a week leading the consumer watchdog's council in the [pounds...

ELECTRICITY; Power groups slate green energy policy.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... by Keith Nuthall European power industry body Eurelectric and a heavy users' group have slammed Europe's policymakers for depending too heavily on renewable energy sources for future electricity supplies. In a joint statement,...

WATER; Industry expects price review appeals.
April 2, 2004... by Karma Ockenden Expect appeals against the outcome of the forthcoming price review, a survey of water experts has warned. Two-thirds of delegates quizzed at the IEA Water 2004 conference last month said at least one water company...

MP goes overboard on rivers.(Member of Parliament )
April 2, 2004... A little bit of passion goes a long way. Recently the House of Commons debated the European Commission's Water Framework Directive, a subject that did not prove much of a crowd-puller. There were a lot of empty seats in Westminster Hall, where...

GAS; Oil and bank duo up shares in Natural.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... In a move that tightens their grip on Spain's biggest gas company, Repsol-YPF and La Caixa have bought the 3 per cent stake owned by savings bank Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa (BBK) in Gas Natural for e276 million. BBK said Repsol, Spain's biggest...

GAS; Britain's dependency on gas imports starts.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... by Roger Milne Evidence of the start of the UK's dependency on gas imports has been highlighted in the latest energy statistics, just published by the government. According to data from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), gas...

ELECTRICITY; New problem for coal-fired generators.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... The government has signalled moves to change waste disposal rules, which could cripple bids to equip coal plant to meet tougher pollution standards so they can remain in service. Coal plant is being fitted with flue gas desulphurisation...

Happier ; birthday.(Scottish Water)
April 2, 2004... Heading Scottish Water has been something of a roller-coaster ride for Jon Hargreaves. 'The ups and downs have been very high and very low,' the chief executive reminisces when I catch up with him to discuss how things are going on Scottish...

ENERGY; Italian link-up could challenge Enel.
April 2, 2004... Italian utility ASM Brescia has proposed forming an alliance with fellow municipal supplier AEM Milano, together with Edison and Edison's holding company, Edipower. Such a link-up between Italy's second-biggest electricity supplier and the...

Just add telecoms.
April 2, 2004... Last week we looked at Severn Trent's plans to breathe life back into multi-utility retail with its forthcoming domestic telecoms offering. This week we look at energy and water utilities who have stuck with telecoms when, after an initial...

EDF strategy clarification.(Letter to the Editor)
April 2, 2004... Sir: We read with interest the story on EDF Group's results (Utility Week 19 March). The article correctly identifies that as a group, EDF regards Europe as its core market and that EDF Energy in the UK is making a valuable contribution to...

ENERGY; Micro-power set to thrive in Norway.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... A report by NVE, the Norwegian water resources and energy directorate, has forecast a strong increase in investment in household-size power plants by 2015. The report calculated that the total output from micro-power plants by that date...

ELECTRICITY; Military objects to latest offshore wind proposals.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... The Ministry of Defence has voiced initial objections to most of the second round of offshore wind projects currently under consideration by the government. A spokesman for the ministry said this week that it had concerns about 12 out of...

Charm offensive for clean power.
April 2, 2004... Lack of government long-term commitment to renewable energy is perceived by the investment community as the biggest hurdle to greater investment in the sector, according to a survey commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry. The...

Gaz de France.
April 2, 2004... by Zoe Grainge State-owned former gas monopoly Gaz de France (GDF) is looking to open up to private investment to benefit from the gradual liberalisation of the French energy market. At the company's results presentation this year, GDF...

WATER; MPs smell a rat over sewer flood progress.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... The Committee of Public Accounts has questioned Ofwat over whether water companies can make it look like they are making progress on tackling sewer flooding by playing with 'at risk' definitions while actually achieving very little. ...

ENVIRONMENT; Firms slow with carbon plans.
April 2, 2004... by Roger Milne Fewer than one in five of Europe's utility companies have implemented climate change strategies, according to a survey just released by consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report was published to coincide with...

Wind gets MPs; hot and bothered.
April 2, 2004... The House of Commons rises today for its fortnight-long Easter recess (the Lords breaks next week) with plenty of unfinished business cluttering up Palace of Westminster in-trays. The Energy Bill is still grinding through its report stage...

PAN-UTILITY; Good service equals good business.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Researchers at Cape Consulting have produced figures to back up the claim that good customer service makes financial sense. They found that poor service directly affected utility cost bases by pushing up call centre traffic. One in five...

WATER; Scots remain wedded to water public ownership.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Over two-thirds of Scottish customers support a publicly owned water sector, a survey has revealed. Research for the Scottish Consumer Council showed 70 per cent were in favour of keeping water in the public sector, although this was down...

PAN-UTILITY; Digging delay appeal win ends threat of [pounds sterling]100m fines.(Leicestershire County Council )(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... A last-ditch move to hold utilities responsible if they are involved in roadworks which are dragged out, has failed. The House of Lords has backed an Appeal Court ruling from last November, prompting a sigh of relief from utilities. In...

PAN-UTILITY; Romanian loan signals EBRD's confidence.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has awarded a e6 million loan to water utility Regia Autonoma Apa-Canal, signalling growing confidence in the ability of Romanian public authorities to handle complex large-scale...

WATER; AWG sells stake in Scottish PFI.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... AWG has sold its share in Catchment Tay, a [pounds sterling]100 million Private Finance Initiative (PFI) wastewater project in Scotland, to the PFIdivision of fund manger Henderson Private Capital, for [pounds sterling]12 million. John...

TELECOMS; Slovak profits squeezed by competition.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Dominant Slovakian fixed-line operator Slovak Telecom, which is controlled by Deutsche Telekom, has increased net profit for 2003 by 8.1 per cent to e92.9 million, although increasing competition squeezed revenues by 5.6 per cent to e440...

Red carpet treatment.
April 2, 2004... The new Spanish socialist government's energy policy has been given a positive reception so far . Ivan Castano reports. Spain has a new socialist government, and observers are optimistic that its energy policies will benefit one of Europe's...

WATER; Socialists will scrap Ebro transfer plan.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Spain's new socialist government intends to scrap the controversial Ebro water transfer project, a scheme to pipe water from the Ebro river to southern Spain, where supplies are scarce. The plan, supported by the ousted centre-right Popular...

TELECOMS; Second probe begins into 3G content rights.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... by Keith Nuthall The European Free Trade Area (EFTA) group of states has launched a probe into whether it should restrict the exclusive sale of key content - such as sports rights - to internet and third generation (3G) mobile telecoms...

WATER; Anglian staff suspend strike on pensions.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Anglian Water workers have called off the strike planned for Tuesday (30March) after unions and the company agreed to hold talks to resolve their pensions row. Preliminary discussions were held on Friday, unions Amicus, GMB, TGWU and...

Phone call.
April 2, 2004... Picture the scene: it is the mid-1990s and telecoms, media and technology stocks are flourishing. Utilities are moving into the telecoms sector, either as carriers or resellers and are developing their multi-utility strategies. Many...

TELECOMS; Telecom Italia dividend soars 10%.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Dominant Italian telecoms operator Telecom Italia posted full-year results with a dividend for 2003 up 10 per cent on the previous year, among the highest payouts in the sector. The dividend was e0.1041 per ordinary share and e0.1151 per...

TELECOMS; Telekom Austria profits rocket.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Dominant Austrian telecoms provider Telekom Austria has reported a net profit for 2003 up tenfold on 2002. An initial public offering was made earlier this year and it said it would be paying a dividend. The company also announced a share...

eNERGY; Flatline on a deadline.
April 2, 2004... by Roger Milne Last week the European Commission praised Britain's preparations for implementing the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme. This week it may want to rethink its appraisal as the UK joined a list of member states falling...

WATER; Lead tops list of child health threats.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Preventable risks from water are posing a greater threat to the health of European children than previously reported, according to research by the World Health Organisation and the University of Udine in Italy. Lead, which was traced to...

Q&A.(Three Valleys Water Co.)(Helen Clay-Chapman)(Interview)
April 2, 2004... What's the best part of your job and why? I enjoy getting things right - that means influencing others within the business to take due care and attention on all aspects of water quality. I also enjoy working with the many Health & Local...

Northern Ireland trade and industry minister Ian Pearson has demanded a report from the Province's energy regulator by Wednesday (31 March) on a 20 per cent price rise announced by supplier Phoenix Natural Gas.(Brief Article)
April 2, 2004... Northern Ireland trade and industry minister Ian Pearson has demanded a report from the Province's energy regulator by Wednesday (31 March) on a 20 per cent price rise announced by supplier Phoenix Natural Gas. Phoenix, meanwhile, is...

eNERGY; Ofgem sets up tie-in trials.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Ofgem has said that the trial suspension of the 28-day rule, being made in a bid to boost the take-up of domestic energy services such as energy saving measures, will start later this year and last for two years. The exercise will be...

TELECOMS; Operators negative on 3G prospects.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Third generation (3G) mobile telecoms licence holders are pessimistic about the impact of 3G services this year, despite having confidence their company's profitability will increase. A survey on attendees of the annual telecoms industry...

WATER; WaterVoice outraged by abstraction payout plan.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Consumer watchdog WaterVoice has condemned the Environment Agency's suggestion that water customers should compensate other sectors when their abstraction licences are revoked on green grounds. WaterVoice called the plan unreasonable and in...

Give your assets a health check.
April 9, 2004... Many network operators accept and apply the principle of using asset condition to help determine their investment decisions. But in practice, collating relevant condition data and integrating it into a comprehensive risk assessment model is...

ENVIRONMENT; Brussels sees red over BNFL waste.(British Nuclear Fuel)(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... The UK has fallen foul of Brussels over its handling of nuclear waste and its clean-up plans for Sellafield, British Nuclear Fuel's nuclear site in Cumbria. The European Commission has become increasingly frustrated with the UK's lack of...

TELECOMS; BT and Ofcom at war over pricing changes.
April 9, 2004... by Zoe Grainge Telecoms regulator Ofcom and BT are locked in a war of words over the incumbent telecoms operator's plan to scrap its standard residential fixed-line tariff. Ofcom has launched an investigation under the Competition Act into...

PAN-UTILITY; Half of customers read bill inserts.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Customers like their utility providers and react positively to marketing messages included with bills, research has found. A study by the Henley Centre for Royal Mail revealed that 92 per cent of those interviewed were satisfied with their...

ENERGY; Capped tariffs hit right note.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Electricity price rises have motivated consumers to take up capped tariffs, according to market analyst Datamonitor. ScottishPower has signed up 275,000 customers to its capped tariff introduced last year, said Datamonitor. The...

ENERGY; People fail to switch despite competition.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... by Roger Milne Too many domestic energy customers have stayed with incumbent suppliers and have failed to take advantage of lower prices from rival suppliers, Energywatch said this week. The consumer watchdog's critical assessment of...

TELECOMS; Deutsche Telekom is set for big shake-up.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... by Simon Jones The chief executive of German telecoms operator Deutsche Telekom, Kai-Uwe Ricke, is planning a major shake-up of the group's four divisions. Ricke has indicated that he wants to end the strategy of basing the group on...

ELECTRICITY; Barriers to small plant links halved.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Small generators sited within distribution networks still faced 'significant barriers' to connection. The difficulties encountered by small-scale distributed generation featured in the second annual report of the Distributed Generation...

ENERGY; Dutch minister wants energy utilities split.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... by Zoe Grainge The Dutch economics minister last week said he wanted the country's energy companies split into separate distribution network companies and generation and supply companies by the beginning of 2007. Energy utilities...

Bridging the skills gap.(Letter to the Editor)
April 9, 2004... Sir: I write concerning the article you ran on the skills gap facing utilities (Utility Week, 26 March). You made reference to the new Sector Skills Council Energy and Utility Skills as succeeding Gwinto and the Electricity Training Association...

ENERGY; Foreign bidders circle Elsam after Nesa win.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... by Gerard O'Dwyer Danish municipalities holding a controlling interest in Elsam have reported increased merger interest from foreign power companies since Elsam secured approval for its e1.4 billion takeover of rival Nesa. Danish banks...

eLECTRICITY; Clean power aid hits hurdles.
April 9, 2004... by Roger Milne The government's plans to help renewable energy generators facing high transmission charges in outlying areas of Scotland have run into more trouble. Last week Parliament decided that the government must first publish a...

Madness of diet water. Becks txts.
April 9, 2004... Whacky or what? Disconnector is not sure whether to be amazed at the gullibility of some, the invention of others or the fact that some people clearly aren't always gainfully employed. Yes, it's that time of the year when hilarious spoofs...

ELECTRICITY; Finn industry in nuclear push.
April 9, 2004... by Gerard O'Dwyer The Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (TT) has urged the government not to dismiss the possibility of building a sixth nuclear power plant. The industry call came as it pressed for a broad debate...

TELECOMS; Orange chief walks as France Tel reorganises.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... State-controlled telecoms company France Telecom has reorganised into five divisions, as chief executive Thierry Breton attempts to bring the sprawling company under a tighter rein. At the same time, Sol Trujillo, chief executive of France...

ENERGY; Ofgem pinpoints fuel poor strategy.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Ofgem has decided to step up its surveillance of suppliers' diligence in informing low income families of their rights to priority services. The move by Ofgem to tighten up its assessment of suppliers' Priority Service Registers was listed...

WATER; Veolia snubbed again in bid for German stake.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... French water giant Veolia lost out this week for a second time in its bid to gain a hold on Germany's largest water firm, Gelsenwasser. Communal suppliers Emschergenossenschaft and Ruhrverband won equal shares in a 46 per cent stake in...

ELECTRICITY; Athens in lignite rights rap.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... The European Commission has warned Greece that the exclusive rights on lignite mining enjoyed by state-owned electricity company PPCmay breach European competition rules. A complaint sparked a probe by the European Commission into PPC's...

Guilty until proven innocent.
April 9, 2004... Brussels proposes to assume telecoms incumbents are guilty of market abuse, without probe or proof . By Peta Firth. Competition investigations may soon be a thing of the past for dominant telephone companies. But they are holding off on the...

GAS; IEG boosted by UK success.(International Energy Group)(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... A surge in UK profit at Guernsey-based gas transportation company International Energy Group (IEG) boosted its patchy performance in 2003. Group pre-tax profit was up 9.6 per cent to [pounds sterling]11.4 million on sales up 15 per cent to...

ELECTRICITY; International pulls out of Slovak bid.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Electricity group International Power has withdrawn from the privatisation of Slovak power company Slovenske Elektrarne over concerns about regulation. A company source told Utility Week: '[We] have decided not to take part in the process...

Competition stutters.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Competition in the domestic energy sector appears to have ground to a halt, according to figures produced by Ofgem. A report in the Financial Times said the statistics showed that the proportion of domestic customers who have switched from...

PAN-UTILITY; Hydro habitat threat lands Italy in court.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... The European Commission is to take Italy to court over a power scheme that jeopardises the environment. The Commission argued that the plan to build a hydro electric project in Lombardy would lead to the over-abstraction of the Schiesone...

Liquid asset.
April 9, 2004... Kelda Group has been pulling quite a few rabbits out of hats over the past couple of years. From being a relatively mediocre performer, its regulated business and main breadwinner Yorkshire Water has become one of the industry's pace-setters....

Breaking up is hard to do.
April 9, 2004... The endgame in what threatens to be the biggest shake-up for the gas industry since the break-up of British Gas is fast approaching. Later this month, the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority will decide in principle whether National Grid...

GAS; Industry counts cost of sell-off plans.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... The gas industry has finalised details of its research into the proposed sale of one or more of National Grid Transco's gas distribution networks. Energy consultancy Oxera will collate cost estimates of the three alternative models...

Keep off the rail tracks.
April 9, 2004... Our feature this week on the impending sale of some of National Grid Transco's local gas distribution networks (page 20) highlights the complexity and potential pitfalls of the process. The primary motivation for the sale seems as much about...

TELECOMS; MMO2 scores 6m in Germany.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Mobile operator MMO2 told analysts last week its German subsidiary would have almost six million subscribers by the end of the financial year, far exceeding expectations. In its pre-close trading statement, the company said it expected to...

Ofgem's take on cost of capital.
April 9, 2004... Ofgem has announced its thinking on the pre-tax cost of capital, a key element of the upcoming price control for the electricity distributors, the DNOs. Cost of capital is the level of return required by the financial markets, both debt...

ENVIRONMENT; Most state plans miss EUcarbon trading deadline.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Only one-third of existing European Union member states have submitted detailed plans setting out how they propose to allocate emissions allowances under the first phase of the greenhouse gas Emissions Trading Scheme. Most states failed to...

Kingston Communications.
April 9, 2004... by Zoe Grainge Kingston Communications has, at its heart, a sound strategy. The low-growth, but cash-generative, core operation in Hull (where Kingston is the local equivalent of BT) would supply the funds for the high-growth business...

Marriage licence.(customer relationship management (CRM) strategies to utilities)
April 9, 2004... The extent to which consumers require a relationship with their utility providers, the form this relationship should take, and the likely benefits and the capabilities required to deliver it are legitimate questions for suppliers to consider at...

WATER; Pennon bags RWE waste business.(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Pennon Group's waste arm, Viridor Waste Management, has bought RWE's Thames Waste Management for [pounds sterling]30.5 million. Surrey-based Thames Waste made a profit of [pounds sterling]4.3 million last year. It has landfill, power...

Morley defends emissions delay.
April 9, 2004... In the run-up to Parliament's Easter recess, the Energy Bill completed its report stage in House of Lords, while the Traffic Management Bill, with its new powers on streetworks, left the Commons and had its second reading in the Upper Chamber....

ELECTRICITY; Norway uncovers 'electricity crime'.(Financial Supervisory Authority)(Brief Article)
April 9, 2004... Norway's Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) has uncovered 'the first case of electricity crime' on Nord Pool. The FSA has reported the incident to Okokrim, the country's economic crime bureau. The FSA said it had evidence that a power...

You ; are ; not alone.
April 9, 2004... Power companies that want to spread their wings and work overseas don't have to go it alone - the government will help . James McGuire reports. Since the privatisation of the electricity industry over 15 years ago, the UK has amassed...