Utility Week articles from March 2006

Utility Week archives from March 2006

News.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... ELECTRICITY Outages slow British Energy Unplanned shutdowns of plant continued to impede British Energy during the first nine months of the financial year, with production below the company's expectations. But the group's financial...

News.(Scottish and Southern Energy appointments)(Pollution Prevention and Control)(Eon to build a windfarm)
March 3, 2006... Sustainable option Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy, has succeeded John Roberts, chief executive of United Utilities, as chairman of the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy. The council was formed in...

ENERGY British Gas slides into [pounds sterling]75m six-month loss.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... By Roger Milne Centrica, Britain's biggest domestic energy company, has highlighted worsening operating conditions for its retail arm British Gas. Operating profit there fell 63 per cent to [pounds sterling]90 million last year after...

Trust me.(outsourcing electric utilities)
March 3, 2006... Capgemini took the pulse of the utility industry in a survey last week. It found that executives thought that deregulation and the need to gain market share would drive mergers and acquisitions in Europe, a feeling confirmed by Eon's bid for...

ELECTRICITY Live connections begin countrywide roll-out.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Live working trials for independent power connections providers are being rolled out across the country after a successful pilot at SP Manweb last year. However, Martin Kane, director of engineering at Severn Trent Water, told a meeting...

Water watchdog should go monitor itself [degrees] Ofwat.(Office of Water Services)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Water regulator Ofwat has called on the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) to come up with ways to measure how happy customers are with the way the consumer body deals with complaints. In its response to CCWater's draft programme, Ofwat...

ENERGY EDF doubles up profits but UK income slips.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... French state-controlled energy company Electricite de France (EDF) more than doubled its net profit to [euro]3.2 billion in 2005, on sales 10.6 per cent higher than last year at [euro]51.1 billion. Spending on fuel and energy purchases in...

MULTI-UTILITY French merger draws Italy ire.
March 3, 2006... by Trevor Loveday French utilities Suez and Gaz de France (GDF) unveiled a merger deal this week to create a European gas sector giant with sales [euro]64 billion. The move sparked retaliatory manoeuvres elsewhere in the European Union and...

Energy efficiency starts at home.
March 3, 2006... You've got to admire their chuptzah. Just when you would have expected British Gas to keep its head down after announcing record price rises and record profits in the space of only six days, it goes big (and public) on a series of thermal...

Staying on track.(radioactive material tracking system)
March 3, 2006... The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has radioactive material of many different types to be handled, used and stored, in different forms, at its sites up and down the country. Some sources are physically small but potentially very harmful, so...

ENERGY Endesa bid to top [euro]30.
March 3, 2006... Spain's gas market leader, Gas Natural, was widely expected to increase its offer for compatriot Endesa following a counter bid by German giant Eon. As Utility Week went to press, a new bid of up to [euro]30 a share was anticipated with a...

Seamless change.(Premier Transmission Limited billing management through acquisition)
March 3, 2006... Premier Transmission Limited (PTL) is the owner and operator of the Scotland to Northern Ireland gas transmission pipeline. The pipe transports gas to Ballylumford and Coolkeeragh power stations, which together generate up to 75 per cent of...

GAS German market heading for consolidation.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Germany's new gas network access model will trigger mergers among regional suppliers and municipal utilities, according to Federal Cartel Office (FCO) president Ulf Boge. The reforms agreed in January "will call time on regional gas...

WATER Folkestone & Dover to get water scarcity status.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Environment minister Elliot Morley was expected to approve Folkestone & Dover Water Service's (FDWS) application for water scarcity status as Utility Week went to press this week. This will allow the company to compulsorily meter and charge...

WATER Kelda quits US with [pounds sterling]491m Aquarion sale.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... by Steve Hobson Yorkshire Water's parent, Kelda, pulled out of the US last week with the sale of its New England subsidiary Aquarion. It sold the company to Australian bank Macquarie for [pounds sterling]491 million, an 11 per cent premium...

ENERGY National Grid doubles its US arm with Keyspan win.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... National Grid this week doubled the size of its US operation with the acquisition of gas distribution company Keyspan for [pounds sterling]4.2 billion cash. New York-based Keyspan is the biggest gas distributor in the northeast US, serving...

GAS LNG/storage combo planned for Irish Sea.
March 3, 2006... by Roger Milne Proposals for what would be Britain's first combined offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and gas storage project has begun to take shape in the Irish Sea. The [pounds sterling]500 million scheme is being...

WATER New player slams water sector as 'uncooperative'.(Satec Limited applies for licence )(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... A new entrant into the competitive water supply market has this week slated the incumbents for undermining its efforts. Reading-based Satec was the fifth company to apply to water regulator Ofwat to enter the market. It applied for a...

Features.
March 3, 2006... WATER The first day of AMP4 saw 4Delivery take on Southern Water's entire [pounds sterling]655 million asset delivery programme [degrees] and much of the risk. Steve Hobson talks to COO Graham Keegan. GAS All change for Germany's gas...

ELECTRICITY Generators angry over carbon block.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... UK generators were angered this week by the European Commission's refusal to accede to the UK government's proposals for extra carbon dioxide allowances during the first phase of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Last...

Land-based storage plan blocked by councillors.(Star Energy appeals against Lincolnshire County Council )(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Star Energy has announced that it is appealing against last week's decision by Lincolnshire County Council to refuse planning permission for a gas storage project at a depleted oilfield at Sudbrooke. Councillors went against the advice of their...

multi-utility New year switchers flocking to Npower.
March 3, 2006... by Vic Wyman Energy supplier Npower has picked up 180,000 new electricity and gas customers in the UK this year, on top of 200,000 in 2005, according to its German parent company RWE. At the end of 2005, Npower said that it had 3.9...

On the line.
March 3, 2006... Increasing regulation and competition mean that utilities face an intensifying battle to increase profitability by reducing their costs. The need to cut costs will encourage utilities to review their customer service delivery models. Many of...

WATER Ofwat looks to the future.(Office of Water Services)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Water industry regulator Ofwat has launched a consultation on its duty to contribute to the "sustainable development" of the water industry. Addressing the 2006 Oracle Summit, Ofwat director general Philip Fletcher said the new duty covered...

News.(power crisis management)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... gas Power crisis puts new gas plan at risk A looming power crisis is posing a threat to a Norwegian project that later this decade is scheduled to meet up to 20 per cent of the UK's gas demand. At risk is Norsk Hydro's ambitious...

GAS Power crisis threatens new UK supply plan.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... A looming power crisis is posing a threat to a Norwegian project which is scheduled to meet up to 20 per cent of the UK's gas demand later this decade. At risk is Norsk Hydro's ambitious Ormen Lange scheme, gas from which is due to be...

News.(Energy Networks Association)
March 3, 2006... Two years ago, the Energy Networks Association (ENA) hosted a seminar attended by industry professionals and government that was designed to alert the Department of Trade and Industry to the skills shortage. Today, the ENA's Alan Claxton...

Scottish fall out over new nuclear.(nuclear energy usage)
March 3, 2006... Energy minister Malcolm Wicks ruffled some feathers last week north of the Border where Scottish Nationalists and Green MSPs were piqued at his comments about the energy review and the need for a "mature debate" on the nuclear issue. The...

energy Powergen ups energy prices.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Powergen this week became the sixth major energy supplier this year to raise prices for residential customers, with increases of 24.4 per cent and 18.4 per cent respectively for gas and electricity. In line with its rivals, it blamed...

Eon and RWE insist they have nothing to hide.(cross-border power trading)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... RWE and Eon have insisted they have nothing to fear from the European Commission's inquiry into anti-competitive practices in the energy sector. Eon chief executive Wulf Bernotat denied his company was a likely target of the probe, and RWE...

ELECTRICITY Renewables certificates up 44%.(Renewables Obligation Certificates statistics)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Generators received nearly 10.9 million Renewables Obligation Certificates (Rocs) in 2004/05, 44 per cent up on the previous year and corresponding to the production of 10.8TWh of renewable electricity. The number of Rocs was 95 per cent...

ENERGY DTI reviews energy rules.(Department of Trade and Industry)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... The Department of Trade and Industry has set up a team in its energy group which has started a rapid, root and branch review of all government energy regulations in a bid to streamline them [degrees] and abolish measures if appropriate. ...

ENVIRONMENT Emissions scheme will last beyond 2012.(Emissions Trading Scheme )(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... The European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will continue beyond 2012, when the second phase is due to end, the European Commission has insisted. The message was underlined by the Environment Directorate's Peter Zapfel. He insisted...

All for one: Europe should have a single voice.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... Czech Republic prime minister Jiri Paroubek has called on the European Union to come up with a single energy policy. "One big whole acts more efficiently than 25 independent countries," Paroubek said during a Nato forum on energy safety and...

Features.(water industry seeks alliances for asset management)
March 3, 2006... In the past century, success for water companies relied on investing in the best physical infrastructure. However, with increasing demands to control costs and growing regulatory burdens, the focus is turning to achieving the best value from...

pan-utility Road dig permits scheme delayed again until 2007.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... A dispute between the Department for Transport (DfT) and utilities over the new charging regime for streetwork permits looks likely to delay the introduction of charges until at least 2007. The National Joint Utilities Group (NJUG) argued...

ENERGY Full price hike impact 'yet to hit consumers'.(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... by Vic Wyman Consumers have yet to suffer the full impact of rising wholesale gas prices because gas and power suppliers lost up to [pounds sterling]571 million in 2005 by selling energy for less than the prices at which they bought gas,...

Features.(Company overview)
March 3, 2006... It is no surprise that utilities have outsourced functions to increase efficiency and boost profits. According to Accenture, a typical utility company will spend 40-60 per cent of its operations and maintenance budgets on third party services....

Centrica on the spot.(price rises)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... A week after British Gas announced re cord price rises for domestic customers, its parent Centrica reported record profits. Cue a kicking from the media? Well, yes and no. Predictably the tabloids let fly with a vengeance, but the...

News.(Severomoravske Vodovody a Kanalizace is on sale)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... ENERGY Penta ponders sale of stake in Czech water firm Czech-Slovak financial group Penta is considering selling a stake in Czech water and wastewater company Severomoravske Vodovody a Kanalizace (SmVaK) to help it expand in the...

Virtual reality.
March 3, 2006... Dwr Cymru Welsh Water adopted a heavily outsourced strategy from the moment it was set up under its parent, Glas Cymru, in 2000/01. There were a number of reasons, says finance director Chris Jones, but chief among them was that "our job as Dwr...

eNERGY Micro plant to be 'iPod of the energy world'.(small scale energy generation to meet the demand)(Brief article)
March 3, 2006... The government wants micro-generation to become the "iPod of the energy world", trade and industry secretary Alan Johnson said this week. Small-scale energy sources [degrees] heat pumps, domestic-scale cogeneration, photovoltaics and wind...

ELECTRICITY Windfarm goes into spin ahead of schedule.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Revenue-generating electricity has begun flowing from the 14.5MW Mynydd Clogau windfarm in Wales ahead of the original April date, owner Novera Macquarie Renewable Energy (NMRE) said this week. Australian-owned NMRE, which also has landfill...

News.
March 10, 2006... Yes please: councillors on Anglesey have voted to support the building of a second nuclear power station on the island if there is a new atomic programme. The existing Magnox Wylfa station is due to close in 2010.

Life in colour.(public utilities to improve the their bills )
March 10, 2006... Cost has always been a key driver for utility companies when making decisions about the design, print and mailing of bills. However, external pressures and the high profile given to "confusing" billing in the media is shifting the focus from...

News.
March 10, 2006... Hideaway and flight: Northumbrian Water has built two new hides for bird watchers at its Kielder Water and Whittle Dene reservoirs. The hides, which cost more than [pounds sterling]6,000 each, join six others in the company's region.

Features.(Eon threatens Spain government in Endesa bid)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... ENERGY Eon will sue' if Spain hinders Endesa bid by Ivan Castano German energy giant Eon has threatened to sue Spain's government in the European court if it vetoes the company's [euro]29 billion takeover bid for Endesa, Spain's...

Most no worse off [degrees] but some will be losers.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Contrary to a statement in Folkestone & Dover's price control final determination, the company's flat tariffs based on metered volume will not be restructured in the current review period. The firm estimated that of the 30 per cent of customers...

WATER Consumers should be on WFD panels.(Water Framework Directive)(Consumer Council for Water panels)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) is pressing for consumer representation on the planned 11 River Basin District Liaison Panels to be set up in England and Wales to implement the Water Framework Directive (WFD). In its response to the...

Features.
March 10, 2006... THE 13-14 March IEA's energy in central Europe and eastern Europe conference, Prague 14 March Commons Welsh Affairs committee investigation in energy takes evidence from FoE Cymru, CPRE and the Ramblers' Association 15 March...

WATER Industry shuns call for more metering.(Folkestone and Dover Water)
March 10, 2006... by Janet Wood and Steve Hobson Folkestone & Dover Water is the only water company in the south east to have sought powers to impose metering [degrees] despite a call from the Environment Agency for water companies in the region to...

ENERGY EDF Energy in venture to green capital's power.(London Climate Change Agency joint venture)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... The public sector London Climate Change Agency (LCCA) and EDF Energy are to form a joint venture to build and run sustainable energy projects in the capital. The agency already has about 40 potential projects suggested by developers, said...

Ve hav vays of making you vote.
March 10, 2006... Red faces are in order at Eon UK, the British subsidiary of the German utility. Staff there tried to influence a poll about the company's plans for a windfarm on moorland at Denshaw near Oldham in greater Manchester. A local newspaper invited...

German ministers call for energetic foreign policy.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... German ministers have called on the government to steer foreign policy to improve security of the country's energy supplies. In a paper prepared ahead of next month's national energy summit in Berlin, the ministers argued that German...

German market under pressure.
March 10, 2006... Germany's gas suppliers are under pressure. The recent warning from European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes that she will act against anti-competitive practices by energy firms caps a difficult six months for the industry. Big...

Power versus water.(nuclear power station water consumption puts pressure on resource availability)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... British Energy's Dungeness nuclear power station is one of seven major users that together account for 15 per cent of the demand for water in Folkestone & Dover's region. The power station was an important factor in the water company's...

PAN-UTILITY Mergers stir national angst.
March 10, 2006... With only two months of the year gone, there have already been dramatic developments in Europe's energy sector as national responses to proposed huge cross-border deals have sparked allegations of protectionism. The bid by Germany's Eon...

ELECTRICITY International Power pledges more growth.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... by Vic Wyman Higher electricity prices and takeovers helped International Power to boost pre-tax profit by 225 per cent in 2005 to [pounds sterling]419 million. Turnover was up 152 per cent at [pounds sterling]1.9 billion International...

electricity Eleven plants opt out of tighter pollution rules.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... The owners of 11 UK fossil-fuel power plants have formally decided to "opt-out" of new stricter European Union controls over pollution. The move will restrict their operation before they are forced to close in 2015. In some cases, only...

Features.(water meters for water conservation)(planning consent for winfarms conspiracy)
March 10, 2006... The underlying assumption behind compulsory water metering is that when consumers have to pay for what they use, they will use less. Other than the much-quoted Isle of Wight pilot, Folkestone & Dover will be the first UK water company to...

PAN-UTILITY Enel may become UK player.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... The UK could soon see its first Italian utility owner because there is a strong possibility that Italian energy company Enel could buy German firm RWE, which owns the UK's Npower, according to investment bank BNP Paribas. But the bank's...

Green fund payouts dwindle.(Renewables Obligation statistics)
March 10, 2006... The amount of money redistributed to English and Welsh electricity suppliers from the Renewables Obligation buyout fund fell during its third year, Ofgem has reported. However, the reverse was true in Scotland where payouts from the fund rose...

ELECTRICITY Ulster unveils price rises.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) last week followed the industry trend with increases in its electricity tariffs for householders of nearly 11 per cent. Like its mainland counterparts, the Ulster supplier said rising wholesale gas costs were...

Features.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... EUROPE Eon and Suez have taken the industry by surprise recently with major merger proposals. We examine the likely prey and predators in the utility market over the coming year. WATER Northern Ireland's water industry embraces public-...

News.(combined heat and power plant to include Emissions Trading Scheme)(Centrica pays British Petroleum subsidary for its stake)(windfarms gets approval)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Place for CHP The government has proposed a separate sector for high- efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) plant under the second phase of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, which runs from 2008. The move was welcomed as "a...

electricity Green adviser rejects nuclear as solution.(nuclear power plant report)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... by Roger Milne A new-build nuclear power programme is not the way to tackle climate change or security of supply, the government's chief "green advisor" has told the administration's energy policy review. The thumbs-down for nuclear...

Features.(United Utilities John Roberts resigns)
March 10, 2006... On 31 March, one of the last remaining chief executives with an engineering background will leave the utility industry. Does the retirement of John Roberts, chief executive of United Utilities, mark an end to the tradition that people get to...

Banging the drum for cleaner coal.(sustainable development and climate change control)
March 10, 2006... Rightly or wrongly, the energy review is largely viewed as an attempt to rehabilitate fission. It is also seen as more about generation than energy per se. Intriguingly, having let nuclear out of the bottle (so to speak) ministers have...

Buyer beware.(procurement regulation for utilities)
March 10, 2006... In September, Utility Week reported on the key changes under the new European Utilities Procurement Directive 2004/17. Implementation of the directive into UK legislation came into force on 31 January this year. In general, reforms to the...

gas Putin seeks to reassure Europe.(Turkey Blue Stream gas pipeline project)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... by Keith Nuthall Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has sought to shore up his country's damaged reputation as a reliable energy partner for eastern Europe by suggesting Hungary take part in the trans-Turkey Blue Stream gas pipeline...

ELECTRICITY Restart of atom fuel plant 'a reasonable prospect'.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... It would cost "several hundred million pounds" if the Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield did not restart, according to its owner, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), and there was a "reasonable prospect" that the NDA's conditions...

GAS Fire damage puts Rough out of action until May.(Centrica maintenance work)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Centrica has warned that its Rough offshore gas storage facility is likely to be out of action until at least May. Continuing bad weather has hampered assessment of the damage to the facility'splatform, crippled by an explosion and fire...

MULTI-UTILITY Shetland trial proposed for smart meter.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Shetland has been proposed as the location for a large-scale trial of domestic smart meters, an Ofgem conference heard last week. Paul Isgar, director of procurement and contracts with Scottish and Southern Energy, revealed that his company...

ELECTRICITY Falling margin could mean blackouts.
March 10, 2006... In the week the government turned down a proposal to build England's biggest windfarm, National Grid reported that failure to build new power plant would take the UK's electricity generation margin below the widely accepted 20 per cent by 2007....

Can you keep a secret?
March 10, 2006... Legal pressures, not to mention the moral obligation to assist unwitting victims, means that you should never delay when disclosing IT security incidents. The results of doing so can be calamitous. In November 2005, a laptop belonging to an...

WATER Severn Trent did overcharge.(Severn Trent Water Ltd financial misreporting)
March 10, 2006... by Steve Hobson Severn Trent Water has apologised to customers and Ofwat after the regulator published a damning interim report finding the company guilty of false reporting ahead of the 2004 periodic review. "We apologise unreservedly...

Features.
March 10, 2006... If someone who speaks three languages is tri-lingual, someone who speaks two, bi-lingual, what do you call someone who speaks one language? English. Now, be honest. Not only did you get the joke, I suspect you allowed yourself a little...

Next in line: the City picks Union Fenosa.(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Shares in Union Fenosa, Spains third-largest energy player [degrees] jumped 3 per cent to nearly [euro]33 last week on fresh speculation that Italy's Enel would launch a takeover bid for the firm. And construction company ACS closed the...

Turbine turbulence.(windfarms approval)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... The government's decision to block plans for a windfarm in spitting distance of the Lake District National Park ruffled feathers (metaphorically) and garnered considerable column inches. The Guardian suggested the ministers' decision was...

News.(environmental assessment for tidal and wave power usage)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Scotland the wave: the Scottish Executive has commissioned a strategic environmental assessment of moves to boost tidal and wave power. The focus of the study by consultants Faber Maunsell will consider the impact on Scotland's western...

GAS Millions rest on contamination case.(gasworks sites cleanup investigation)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Contamination clean-up costs totalling hundreds of millions of pounds rest on the outcome of a High Court test case involving a housing estate on a former gasworks in Bawtry, Doncaster. The judge in the case is being asked to rule on...

ELECTRICITY Wind shun sparks anger.(windfarms environmental impact study )(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... The government has insisted that it is committed to green energy despite its rejection last week of plans for England's biggest onshore windfarm on a Cumbrian hillside overlooking the M6 motorway. The government was responsible for...

ENVIRONMENT Abandon ETS, say Czechs.(Emissions Trading Scheme)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... The Czech anti-monopoly office has called on the European Commission to scrap the European Union's carbon dioxide Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Chairman Martin Pecina said that the scheme was anti-competitive and ineffective. He said it...

ELECTRICITY Norway 'faces power cuts'.(power demand mangement)(Brief article)
March 10, 2006... Government ministries must work together to accelerate the pace at which new-build gas-fired power station applications are processed to avoid a major electricity supply crisis in central Norway, the country's power transmission system operator...