Utility Week articles from June 2005

Utility Week archives from June 2005

WATER; Profits at Anglian outstrip analyst's expectations.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Anglian Water upped its year-end operating profits ahead of expectations, boosted by a mix of cost controls and increased revenue. Operating income at the Huntingdon-based firm increased 6 per cent to [pounds sterling]339.3 million on...

TELECOMS; Ofcom wants new "layer" of BT reporting.(British Telecom)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Communications regulator Ofcom has proposed that BT reports a "new layer" of regulatory financial information so it can set and monitor the effectiveness of price controls to avoid anti-competitive behaviour. In a consultation issued last...

WATER; Bristol fashions focus on core.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... South west of England water company Bristol Water has almost completed its withdrawal from non-regulated business. The company now plans to return [pounds sterling]30 million to shareholders. In the year to March 31, operating profits fell...

TELECOMS; C&W improves profits as cost cuts pay off.(Cable & Wireless )(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Alternative telecoms network operator Cable & Wireless said its future performance improvement would come from efficiencies and cost cutting, as well as a shift in sales towards broadband, internet protocol technology and mobile. In its...

ELECTRICITY ; CEZ plans to up coal plant investment.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Czech power giant CEZ has announced plans to spend up to 100 billion koruna (e3.31 billion) renewing ageing coal-fired power plants, which represent almost half of current capacity, by 2015. The renovated Tusimice and Prunerov plants will...

ENERGY; Centrica goes Dutch in supplier deal.(acquisitions)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Centrica has bought a Dutch energy supplier with over half-a-million electricity and gas customers in the residential and small business sectors. The UK energy giant paid [pounds sterling]93 million for the Dutch company Oxxio, which is...

TELECOMS; Kurth predicts 1m DT customer drop.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... German telecoms regulator Matthias Kurth expects incumbent operator Deutsche Telekom to lose more than a million customers to rival operators this year. Kurth, head of regulatory authority RegTP, said last week that Deutsche Telekom shed...

ENERGY ; Vattenfall concludes its Dong asset swap.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... by Gerard O'Dwyer Swedish energy giant Vattenfall has concluded a preliminary asset swap agreement with Danish utility Dong over Energi E2, and Elsam. Vattenfall will take over power production plants in Dong-controlled Elsam and Energi...

ENERGY ; Netherlands government to ditch target.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... The Dutch government is set to abandon its target for renewable energy to secure a 10 per cent domestic market share by 2020. According to reports, the 10 per cent target will not feature in the government's four-yearly survey of energy...

ENVIRONMENT; Brussels urges 20 per cent cut in energy use.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Brussels wants European Union states to cut current energy consumption by 20 per cent over the next 15 years, according to a draft green paper on energy efficiency due shortly. The European Commission has calculated that energy savings of...

ELECTRICITY; Norway renewable funding under scrutiny.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... The Norwegian state's funding of wind and solar power projects may breach European Union competition rules. The Brussels-based EFTA Surveillance Authority - which polices trade agreements in the European Free Trade Association member...

TELECOMS; Eircom in court over local loop unbundling.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... by Zoe Grainge A High Court row between Irish telecoms incumbent Eircom and the country's communications regulator ComReg drew to a close last week. The row - essentially over the unbundling of Eircom's local loop - has been ongoing...

ELECTRICITY ; Belgian utilities plan electricity flotation.
June 10, 2005... Power utilities Electrabel and SPE, the majority shareholders in Belgian electricity transmission grid operator Elia, aim to make e150 million from Elia's partial float on 9 June. The two companies said they would reduce their 70 per cent...

A case of bank holiday candour.
June 10, 2005... Jaw-dropping it certainly was. Disconnector refers to the incident that has closed down Thorp, sparked a flurry of diplomatic angst and placed a rather big question-mark over the fate of the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield. It...

Russell under attack.(Ian Russell)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... ScottishPower's decision to sell its US acquisition Pacificorp understandably made waves and generated column inches, not all of which was complementary about chief executive Ian Russell. Will the sale trigger a takeover of Russell's...

GAS; Pollution fears dog Irish gas supply scheme.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Work on the gas terminal site that will be crucial to the exploitation of Ireland's future indigenous gas supplies has been halted because of pollution fears. Shell E&P Ireland has stopped peat excavation at its Corrib terminal site in...

ENVIRONMENT; Record prices as Italian deal lifts C02 trades.(national allocation plan)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... The price of European Union carbon allowances has peaked, following trading in the wake of an agreement on Italy's national allocation plan (NAP). The price reached nearly e20 a tonne of carbon dioxide as trading under the EU's emissions...

WATER; Savings lift Yorkshire but US slide takes off shine.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Cost savings have boosted profits for Yorkshire Water by almost 17 per cent to [pounds sterling]223.7 million in the year to 1 March 2005. Exceptional items of [pounds sterling]5.8 million at Yorkshire, however, and [pounds sterling]5.4...

Serious about skills.
June 10, 2005... Open letter to: Phil Hope Department for Education and Skills Dear Minister, Many congratulations on your recent appointment. As skills and vocational education minister, you will no doubt be made aware of the skills shortages at...

MPs rap prepay meter costs.
June 10, 2005... MPs have urged Ofgem to ensure households are better informed about the true costs of prepayment meters (PPMs) after complaining that the energy market works against vulnerable domestic energy consumers because too many are being "forced"...

GAS; Ofgem squares up for row over sub-terminal information.(Office of Gas and Electricity Markets)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Ofgem has given the strongest hint yet that it will accept a controversial network code modification about nearly real-time data from gas sub-terminals which threatens a rift with some offshore producers. The modification has been proposed...

MULTI UTILITY; United forecasts [pounds sterling]130m boost from gas division.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Multi-utility United Utilities (UU) said last week that growth from its infrastructure management division would increase by around [pounds sterling]130 million over three years to around [pounds sterling]670 million. The newly-transferred gas...

ELECTRICITY; Wave station 'relies on hub'.(Ocean Prospect )(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Ocean Prospect has committed to install the UK's first pre-commercial wave farm off Cornwall, provided a connection, now in planning, is in place. "We are reliant on wavehub happening," said Ocean Prospect's Colin Palmer. Wavehub, a common...

TELECOMS; Post Office tactics may breach selling rules.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Post Office staff have been pressed to sign up quotas of customers each week for the firm's residential telecoms service, HomePhone, Utility Week has learned. The details emerged after reports last week that the Post Office had received a...

ENERGY; Retailers snub prepay blast in MP's report.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... by Roger Milne Domestic energy retailers and the industry regulator have played down parliamentary criticism of bills for prepayment meter users after a Commons select committee complained that consumers were often unaware they faced...

WATER; Pennon buoyed by waste surge.(company sales and earnings)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... South West Water's owner Pennon was buoyed by soaring profits at its Viridor Waste arm last year. Viridor reported a 31.3 per cent hike in operating profit to [pounds sterling]29.8 million on sales up 35.6 per cent to [pounds...

GAS; Watchdog barks over Phoenix sale.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... The Northern Ireland energy regulator has voiced serious misgivings over the proposed sale of the province's gas supply and distribution company Phoenix Natural Gas, currently a wholly owned subsidiary of East Surrey Holdings (ESH). This...

ENERGY; RWE set to strengthen Gazprom relationship.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... by Zoe Grainge German multi-utility giant RWE looks set to clinch a market-sharing deal with Russian gas company Gazprom after a meeting between the companies at the start of this month. The move follows the collapse of negotiations in May...

Electricity; Saltend joins International Power group.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... The Saltend power plant near Hull is to be sold for [pounds sterling]500 million to a consortium of Mitsui and International Power (IP). The plant was seller Calpine's last asset outside North America. Calpine paid $810 million ([pounds...

ENERGY; Government urged to up training incentives.(Council for Science and Technology)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... by Roger Milne Government advisers have urged ministers to consider incentives to improve the supply and training of skilled workers for the electricity supply sector. A report prepared by the Council for Science and Technology (CST)...

ENERGY; Switchers heat energy market.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Great Britain is the world's hottest retail energy market, according to a recent report. The World Retail Energy Market Rankings compared customer switching rates in markets worldwide, rating them as hot, active, slow or dormant. With...

WATER; Billing bonus from on-line buyers reports.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Thames Water expects to "significantly exceed" [pounds sterling]1.4 million in extra revenue from previously unbilled properties, thanks to new software. The program has replaced manual procedures for researching conveyancing reports, and...

WATER; Bill gripes double as firms raise prices.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... by Trevor Loveday Despite a drop in overall complaints, gripes over water and sewerage bills more than doubled last year, according to customer champion WaterVoice. The total number of complaints to the watchdog in the year to 31 March...

ENERGY; NGT talks up supply problem.(National Grid Transco)
June 10, 2005... by Roger Milne A combination of a severe winter and a supply position at the lower end of current forecasts would require a "significant" volume of demand-side response through half or most of next winter, according to the latest...

WATER; Severn Trent blushes as bill system fails.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... by Steve Hobson Severn Trent Water has apologised to almost 50,000 direct debit customers who were billed twice in June as a result of a new computer system. The company has almost finished installing a sophisticated billing system...

ELECTRICITY; Child leukaemia link for homes near lines.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... by Trevor Loveday Scientists, including a NationalGrid Transco advisor, have found increased incidences of childhood leukaemia in children living up to 600m from high-voltage power lines. But the study did not find that anything related to...

ENERGY; Price hikes strip [pounds sterling]1bn from UK businesses.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... by Trevor Loveday As UK wholesale electricity winter forward prices peaked at a record [pounds sterling]51.80 per MWh last week, a survey of top UK firms has shown that [pounds sterling]1 billion is lost due to poor energy buying...

electricity; Carbon capture gets a boost.
June 17, 2005... by Roger Milne Early next year the government hopes to attract bids from the generation industry for a 150-200MW prototype fossil-fuelled power station that would demonstrate carbon capture technology. That is in prospect now Whitehall...

TELECOMS; DT to build own network in France.(Deutsche Telekom)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom is set to make inroads in the French internet market with a e500 million investment to build its own broadband network infrastructure in France. The company is already present in France through its...

TELECOMS; BT demands action on doorstep mis-selling.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... by Zoe Grainge The telecoms sector should follow the lead of the energy industry and adopt a single code of practice and an accreditation system for all sales people to stamp out doorstep selling abuses. The call came from BT as it...

ENERGY; UK wrong to ignore nuclear and coal.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... The UK's energy market has "fundamental weaknesses around diversity", according to a new report from Ernst & Young. It said the sector discriminates against clean coal and nuclear investment, both of which could help the UK meet its targets on...

GAS ; Eon and Gazprom bow to EC pressure.(European Commission)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Germany's Eon and Russian gas producer Gazprom have made significant concessions to the European Commission after an investigation into their gas supply contract. The Commission last week finished its probe into territorial sales...

electricity; ETS will 'inflate prices 20%'.(Emissions Trading Scheme)
June 17, 2005... by Roger Milne Emissions trading is set to raise wholesale European electricity prices by between 18 and 23 per cent in 2006, a leading investment bank has warned. According to investment research just published by UBS, carbon dioxide...

TELECOMS; Energis profits fall despite contract wins.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Corporate telecoms provider Energis reported a fall in revenue and underlying profit for 2004/05, yet the company claimed it had its "most successful year ever" for contract wins. Energis blamed the fall in key figures on the decline of its...

ENERGY; Eon enters Dutch supply market.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... German energy giant Eon's Benelux unit has signed an agreement to acquire Dutch energy group NRE Energie from the city of Eindhoven and 11 local authorities. NRE Energie is the country's fifth biggest supplier, with 275,000 power and gas...

Festival a wee problem for river.
June 17, 2005... Disconnector was intrigued to learn that the arrangements for this year's Glastonbury Festival include special extra monitoring of the River Whitelake, the nearest stretch of waterway to the site in Somerset. Remote monitoring equipment...

gas; Part-float of GDF to go ahead in the summer.(Gaz de France )(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... by Zoe Grainge The part-privatisation of French gas utility Gaz de France (GDF) was kick-started last week with a surprise announcement by the French government that the sale would take place this summer. It had been planned for the...

ENERGY; Londoners may get tax refunds for going green.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... London householders could receive council tax or stamp duty rebates in exchange for joining green energy initiatives, according to deputy mayor Nicky Gavron. Gavron said cities such as London could drive the energy agenda and take a more...

ENERGY ; German energy law passed.
June 17, 2005... by Simon Jones and Roger Milne A last-minute compromise deal has cleared the way for Germany's Energy Supply Industry Law to come into force by 1 July. The government agreed several concessions in a marathon session of the German...

energy; APX makes first quarterly net profit.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Despite falling revenue from its UK power exchange, electronic energy exchange group APX reported its first quarterly net profit for the first three months of 2005. It made [pounds sterling]200,000 compared with a loss of [pounds...

ELECTRICITY ; Irish power firms seek compensation over link.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Power companies affected by problems on the electricity interconnector between the Republic of Ireland and Ulster have threatened to seek compensation. The republic's transmission network operator, ESBNational Grid, has warned that...

Uncertain times.(Energy industries)
June 17, 2005... One thing for sure came out of the conference on future energy sources Utility Week co-organised last week - there are still more questions than answers. Although power generation has been privatised for more than a decade, the government...

electricity; Microgen manufacturers hit out at grant hiatus.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Manufacturers of domestic-scale renewables and microgeneration have voiced concern that the new support scheme due to replace the Major PV Demonstration Programme and Clear Skies will not be in place when the existing schemes end in April....

ELECTRICITY ; Endesa will win out from Spain's regulatory review.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Spain's largest electricity company, Endesa, has been tipped as a winner of a proposed regulatory review of the Spanish power industry this year. Endesa is described by investment bank Merrill Lynch as "overly penalised" because it was...

gas; NAO probes network sale.(National Audit Office)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... The National Audit Office has launched an investigation into Ofgem's performance over National Grid Transco's sale of four gas distribution networks. The deal was signed off at the start of this month, yielding [pounds sterling]5.8 billion...

ScottishPower.
June 17, 2005... by Trevor Loveday When ScottishPower sold off its US arm at the end of last month it sparked a mixed set of responses. The [pounds sterling]5.2 billion disposal of PacifiCorp for a loss of about [pounds sterling]550 million was seen by...

gas; Not-for-profit group eyes Irish pipeline.
June 17, 2005... A Northern Ireland infrastructure acquisition group has declared its interest in buying the natural gas transmission business of Phoenix Natural Gas, the Ulster gas company currently subject to takeover proceedings. Infrastructure...

electricity; Thorp could close for six months over leak.(Nuclear Decommissioning Authority )(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... by Janet Wood The Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant could be closed for six months, which would cost the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) up to [pounds sterling]300 million in lost revenue, according to British Nuclear Group (BNG)....

ELECTRICITY; Nord Pool slammed for unfair pricing.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... by Gerard O'Dwyer The present system employed by Nord Pool to set electricity prices does not satisfy the demands of today's Nordic marketplace and an inquiry into Nord Pool's role within electricity price setting on the Nordic power...

water; Interims lift Northumbrian.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Price hikes agreed with water regulator Ofwat enabled Northumbrian Water to boost turnover [pounds sterling]54 million to [pounds sterling]508.2 million and operating profit [pounds sterling]49 million to [pounds sterling]201.8 million for the...

ELECTRICITY; Report warns of power prices rise.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... A report from Norway's Department of Energy (DoE) is predicting that continuing dry weather, low hydro reservoir levels and rising costs attached to carbon dioxide trading could result in a doubling of electricity prices in Norway during the...

ELECTRICITY; Report clears nuclear plant as cancer cause.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... by Roger Milne Living near a nuclear power station does not increase the rate of childhood cancers, a high-level team of independent scientists has reported. That was the conclusion of the biggest study so far into the possibility...

ENVIRONMENT; Radioactive waste sites revealed.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Seven sites in England - including land next to the Bradwell Magnox power station in Essex - and five in Scotland were named last week as potential locations for the UK's deep underground radioactive waste repository. The identity of all...

PAN-UTILITY; PayPoint share increases as profits rise.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... PayPoint has recorded a 34 per cent increase in profit before tax, depreciation and amortisation to [pounds sterling]8 million for the year to 31 March. Turnover rose by one-third to [pounds sterling]89 million. The company said it had...

WATER; EIB promises Portugal e1bn for investment.(European Investment Bank)(Aguas de Portugal)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... The European Investment Bank (EIB) has drawn up plans to lend water utility Aguas de Portugal (AdP) E1.05 billion to expand and improve its water supply and wastewater collection services throughout its home country. The money would be...

pan-utility; Knighthoods among honours for utility stalwarts.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Two prominent utility figures were highlighted in the Queen's birthday honours, which saw Callum McCarthy and David Arculus knighted. The former was chief executive and chairman of Ofgem before taking over the helm at the Financial Services...

ENERGY ; RWE launches assault on Swiss market.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... German multi-utility RWE has launched the first sustained attempt by a foreign supplier to win network access to customers in Switzerland. The German company wants to supply StWW, the municipal utility for the city of Winterthur, via the...

pan-utility; Morley: smart metering the way to go.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Environment minister Elliot Morley has voiced concern over the glacially slow take-up of smart metering systems and the lack of detailed billing information on energy use. Such measures would promote conservation of energy, he told a seminar...

PAN-UTILITY; EU state aid review prompts fears.(European Union )(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Lawyers have warned that European Union plans to overhaul state aid rules could generate a flood of challenges, particularly in respect of incumbent telecoms companies in poorer member states. The European Commission had hoped the reforms,...

electricity; ScottishPower leads legal challenge to Betta levies.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... A legal challenge to a key part of the new UK-wide electricity trading and transmission regime has surfaced as a result of concern voiced by ScottishPower. A week-long High Court case is scheduled for September. At issue are the new zonal...

MULTI-UTILITY; Telecom Plus profits hit by high gas prices.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... by Zoe Grainge Multi-utility supplier Telecom Plus posted a full-year fall in pre-tax profit for the first time in the four years since it gained a gas licence, as the firm's gas business incurred a gross loss of more than [pounds...

electricity; Trees endangering network.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Whitehall has begun consulting on new measures that would require electricity transmission and distribution companies to do more to safeguard the power network from faults caused by contact from trees and branches. The government has...

WATER; Extra Welsh Water profits double customer payout.(Brief Article)
June 17, 2005... Welsh Water customers will again be the main beneficiaries of parent Glas Cymru's unique corporate structure this year, with each receiving an [pounds sterling]18 "dividend" - double the payout in the previous two years. As a company...

WATER; Scots industry to wait three years to switch.(Scottish Water )(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... by Steve Hobson Scottish industrial and commercial users will have to wait three years to be able to switch water supplier, despite the formal introduction of retail competition for the sector in 2006. Scottish Water will remain the sole...

GAS; BGups Italian LNG stake to full ownership.(liquefied natural gas)(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... Oil and gas group BG has agreed to extend its ownership of a liquefied natural gas regasification terminal under development in southern Italy to 100 per cent, acquiring the interest held by Italian energy giant Enel in a deal worth up to...

ENVIRONMENT; Climate change strategy rethink set to drag on.(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... A cross-Whitehall review of the government's climate change programme has proved tougher than anticipated and will take months longer to complete, environment minister Elliot Morley has admitted in parliament. The review was meant to be...

WATER; Young plans metering; drive in scarce areas.(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... by Roger Milne Baroness Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency, wants all housing in areas of water scarcity to be fitted with water meters and has announced plans for a major campaign to achieve this objective. Young...

TELECOMS; Eircom in court over local access.(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... Irish incumbent telecoms operator Eircom has been taken to court by smaller rival Smart Telecom over "restrictions" Eircom has allegedly placed on local loop unbundling. Smart Telecom said it had suffered "commercial damage" because of...

ENERGY ; Eon sells meter arm for e1.2 billion.(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... German energy giant Eon has sold its meter manufacturing division, Ruhrgas Industries, to private equity house CVC Capital Partners for e1.2 billion plus e300 million in debt. The sale comes after Eon sold its property division Viterra for...

ELECTRICITY ; Eurelectric report calls for consistency.(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... Pan-European electricity lobby body Eurelectric has called for more consistency in European Union energy legislation after the release of a report showing a lack of coherence in EU directives and regulations. The Eurelectric report...

GAS; Ofgem poised to delay exit auctions.(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... Ofgem is poised to postpone controversial plans to bring in new offtake arrangements for customers with direct connections to the gas National Transmission Network. Plans to replace current arrangements with a complex auction system have...

Utilities too tight to mention.
June 24, 2005... Disconnector has been garnering some intriguing market intelligence vis-a-vis water companies and their relationships with contractors. It seems that the water boyos are perceived as being more adversarial than other utilities when it comes...

TELECOMS; France Telecom denies C&W bid.(Cable & Wireless)(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... France Telecom has denied it is on the verge of making a [pounds sterling]4 billion bid for UK telecoms provider Cable & Wireless (C&W). Reports in the British press suggested the French telecoms giant was planning the bid as part of a...

GAS ; Gas tariff row delays German Energy Bill.(Brief Article)
June 24, 2005... by Simon Jones The application next month of the gas sector provisions of Germany's new energy law is in doubt after gas industry opposition delayed agreement on the proposed entry/exit model for suppliers. Last-minute lobbying by gas...