Utility Week articles from November 2005

Utility Week archives from November 2005

ENERGY; Commission stalls on Endesa inquiry.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The European Commission last week continued to stall on whether it would review the takeover of Spanish power group Endesa by gas counterpart Gas Natural. However, it rejected requests by Italy and Portugal to look into the impact of the bid....

ENERGY; Government accused of sidelining cogeneration.(Combined Heat and Power Association )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA) has claimed the government is sidelining the technology and killing investment. In a report, it claimed that combined heat and power (cogen) could make a far bigger contribution to efforts to...

GAS; Eon bends to pressure to open books.(Eon Hanse )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Hamburg-based Eon Hanse last week became the first German gas supplier to bow to regulatory pressure for greater transparency over access fees and tariffs in agreeing to reveal the cost basis for its gas tariffs. "We have nothing to hide,"...

ENERGY; Dong has no fear of Brussels review.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The European Commission's decision to review the acquisition of Denmark's Elsam by compatriot Dong, together with the subsequent asset-swap agreement with Vattenfall, should not threaten the deal, according to the state-owned gas group. ...

ELECTRICITY; Drax powers up for listing.(Drax Power )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Drax Power will make a [pounds sterling]284 million profit before interest and tax this year, according to its prospectus for a refinancing and stock market listing. Turnover was [pounds sterling]404 million in the first six months of...

PAN-UTILITY; Training centre launched to tackle skills shortages.(Sterling Power Training )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... A new training company for engineers and craftsmen in utilities was due to be launched this week with the aim of training "hundreds of highly skilled technicians and engineers" each year. Sterling Power Training was set to have its official...

ELECTRICITY; EDFearmarks e3bn for UK investment.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Almost e3 billion has been earmarked by Electricite de France (EDF) for investment in its UK arm in 2006-08. The announcement in London by chairman Pierre Gaddoneix came ahead of a roadshow for EDF's planned part-privatisation and dispelled...

ELECTRICITY; Enel mulls bids for Slovak wires stakes.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Italian energy giant Enel is considering bidding for a stake in one of Slovakia's three power distributors when further tranches of shares are released by the Slovak government, according to Marco Arcelli, Enel's manager for Slovakia. ...

ENERGY; Pollution fines may be waived 'in extremis'.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... by Roger Milne The government has confirmed that it will consider waiving pollution rules - and penalties - if industry and power generators are forced to switch to dirtier fuel in a bid to keep the lights on and maintain gas supplies to...

ENERGY; Balkan states strike first pan-region policy deal.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The first multilateral treaty covering the Balkans has been signed in Athens, creating a European Energy Community linking the gas and power policies of south-eastern Europe with those of the European Union. Under the treaty, Croatia,...

Indulge in some shadow boxing.
November 4, 2005... The great man is pleased to see that the relationship between energy minister Malcolm Wicks and his Tory shadow, Bernard Jenkin, is developing in fine, combative style. During a Commons debate last week, the latter revealed that his wife...

ENVIRONMENT; Policy a 'threat' to Finland.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... A report by the Finnish state-funded Institute for Economic Research (IER) has claimed that international trade and climate policies will create a "real and long-term threat" to the continued growth and overall stability of the Finnish economy....

ELECTRICITY; Finns unveil Russian plant and wires plan.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... by Gerard O'Dwyer State-owned Finnish power group Fortum is expected to reappraise the potential of investing in regional heat and power markets in Russia, after a meeting between the utility's chief executive, Mikael Lilius, and Russian...

ENERGY; Expert urges policy shift to encourage investment.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Energy regulation expert Dieter Helm has called for a new UK energy policy to stimulate investment rather than "sweating" existing assets to boost profits. Helm also called for an energy capacity market to ensure a security of supply...

Crisis? What crisis?(weather influences the power supply)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The newspapers have been full of the sound - and sometimes the fury - of contrasting views on the likelihood of major power cuts this winter. The Daily Express published a front-page lead story claiming the Met Office was forecasting the...

energy; Most customers oblivious to price rises.(customer survey on electricity price hike)
November 4, 2005... by Vic Wyman The loyalty of most domestic energy consumers is immune to price rises, according to the latest annual research by JD Power and Associates into customer satisfaction. Despite the flurry of energy price increases in recent...

GAS; Port safety 'seriously flawed', warns peer.
November 4, 2005... by Roger Milne A former Secretary of State for Wales last week called for a review of safety arrangements at UK ports with liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals after claiming the regime at Milford Haven was "seriously flawed". Lord...

Fuel poverty is an issue for government.
November 4, 2005... Energy suppliers this week have rightly received congratulations from all quarters for funding the Home Heat Helpline, the first national source of information for vulnerable consumers on the bewildering range of help available to keep their...

WATER; CCWater calls for action on Southern Water billing.(Consumer Council for Water)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) has called on regulator Ofwat to act urgently to ensure that Southern Water compensates customers affected by irregular billing, after the revelation of possible fraud within the firm. Southern has...

ENERGY; Helpline hopes to reverse cold death 'scandal'.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The numbers of people dying in British winters from cold-related illnesses remains "a scandal", according to energy minister Malcolm Wicks. Welcoming the launch of the Energy Retail Association-funded Home Heat Helpline this week, Wicks...

Energy saving is a taxing issue.(energy management methods)
November 4, 2005... The Energy Saving Trust has commissioned research to see which fiscal measures do the trick in terms of encouraging the uptake of sustainable energy measures. According to Accent Marketing & Research, the firm used, energy usage was not...

ENERGY; SSEaxes sales agent contract.(Universal Group)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) this week ended its tie-up with sales agent Universal Group in Scotland, and the utility's supply businesses south of the Border are "reviewing" their contracts with the company. The move followed the latest...

WATER; Severn Trent in Serious Fraud investigation.(Serious Fraud Office )(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... Severn Trent Water is being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in an escalation of a long-running investigation into allegations that inaccurate data was provided to water regulator Ofwat ahead of the 2004 price review. The...

Saving energy should be the priority.
November 4, 2005... With the announcement by the government of its second energy review in three years, the newspapers, predictably enough, have been filled with calls for the replacement of existing nuclear power stations as they are wound down and...

ENERGY; Blair urges unity on nuclear.
November 4, 2005... by Roger Milne UK prime minister Tony Blair has urged states in the European Union to adopt a unified stance on the development of nuclear power. His comments, which drew a mixed reception, came in a wide-ranging speech to MEPs last...

WATER; Ofwat names firms with supply problems.(United Kingdom. Office of Water Services)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... by Zoe Grainge Two water companies face "pressing" security of supply issues and need to improve their supply position to avoid increasing the gap between resources and demand, according to regulator Ofwat. Thames Water and Folkestone...

ELECTRICITY; Atom plan may wreck market.(political intervention in building nuclear power plant )
November 4, 2005... by Roger Milne The level of government intervention needed to start a new nuclear power plant building programme would undermine the wholesale market for electricity and almost certainly prompt a serious legal challenge, parliament was...

ELECTRICITY; Court rejects Scots' bid to block zonal wires charges.(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... ScottishPower's legal challenge to the regulator's decision to allow region-based charges for generators' use of the transmission network was dismissed in the High Court last week. The Glasgow-based firm had won a Judicial Review of Ofgem's...

ELECTRICITY; Norway rethinks divestment.
November 4, 2005... Norwegian state-owned power firm Statkraft may be allowed to keep generator Trondheim Energiverk (TEV) after the government decided to look again at the decision to force it to divest power stations in mid-Norway. The modernisation...

TELECOMS; Your worry about BT 'bureaucracy'.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Brief Article)
November 4, 2005... The new division of BT set up to facilitate access to the company's network could end up being "another level of bureaucracy", according to the managing director of United Utilities telecoms arm, Your Communications. Hugh Logan told...

ELECTRICITY; New nuclear 'is competitive'.
November 11, 2005... by Trevor Loveday Modern nuclear generation technology is "significantly competitive" compared with gas-fired plant and would not need government subsidy, a cross-party group of MPs heard last week. Presenting evidence to the Commons...

GAS; BG risks political storm with [pounds sterling]1bn share buyback.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Oil and gas group BG risked a political storm by announcing that it would return [pounds sterling]1 billion to shareholders after higher gas prices helped its third-quarter operating profit soar 44 per cent year on year to [pounds sterling]569...

ENERGY; Commission looks to Baltic for next link-up.(Baltic Sea Region Energy Co-operation)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... by Keith Nuthall Fresh from the European Commission's brokering of an energy accord for south-eastern Europe, energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs last week turned to the Baltics to support their efforts to increase co-operation. ...

ENERGY; Powergen messes up billing.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Consumer watchdog Energywatch has written to Eon UK chief executive Paul Golby demanding an explanation for recent major errors by its retail arm Powergen in domestic customer bills. Powergen was left red-faced after it received nearly 500...

ELECTRICITY; CEZ buoyed by overseas operations.(CEZ )(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Electricity price increases and higher dividends from subsidiary operations helped to almost double profit at Czech Republic power company CEZ for the first nine months of 2005 to e460 million. Net profit increased 94 per cent and revenue...

ENVIRONMENT; Eon starts first big carbon capture pilot.
November 11, 2005... Work has begun on what is said to be the UK's first large pilot for carbon capture - technology that promises to radically cut the emissions from using coal and other fossil fuels for power generation. Eon has begun converting a 1MW...

GAS; Centrica eyes Endesa power assets.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... The UK's Centrica may bid for some of Endesa's assets if Gas Natural's hostile e22.5 billion takeover succeeds. Such a move was "something we would study to expand in generation", a Centrica spokeswoman told Utility Week. To appease...

GAS; Centrica fitters in strike ballot.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Industrial action ballot papers are due to go out today to nearly 6,000 GMB members over British Gas's plan to exclude new gas fitters from its final salary pension scheme. GMB national secretary Brian Strutton said a strike or lesser...

WATER; Water trails energy in care of vulnerable.(Consumer Council for Water )(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... by Zoe Grainge Water companies are lagging behind their energy counterparts in registering old and disabled customers who require special attention, according to the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater). Last week, CCWater chair Dame...

WATER; Met Office casts shadow of drought.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Southeast England could face worse water shortages next year than those experienced this summer, if Met Office forecasts of a cold, dry winter prove correct, according to water industry association Water UK. "The rain of the past few days...

ELECTRICITY; Unions mull latest pay offers.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Industrial action by employees in EDF Energy's networks was still on the cards this week, despite improved pay offers of 4 per cent. The Amicus and GMB unions have recommended that members accept the 4 per cent offer, in ballots that were...

ELECTRICITY; Enel strikes Bulgarian deal.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Italian energy giant Enel and Russian state-controlled power group RAO UES have agreed to co-operate in the Bulgarian power plant market. RAO has invited Enel to part-own and operate its thermoelectric plant in Varna. The Russian firm...

GAS; Eni-Gazprom deal dropped.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... A contract dispute between Italian oil and gas group Eni and Russian gas giant Gazprom has led to the pair abandoning a distribution deal signed in spring. Eni described the e500 million-a-year deal as "outdated". The two companies have...

Sewage sympathy a fat lot of use.
November 11, 2005... Those of a squeamish or nervous disposition may prefer to shut their eyes at this point. Or maybe stop reading. A Devon couple are currently not having a lot of success persuading South West Water to take responsibility for a 3ft fountain...

GAS; Gas Natural profits slide despite surge in demand.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Spanish gas group Gas Natural saw underlying profit in gas supply for the first nine months of the year tumble despite a 20 per cent increase in demand. Gas supply earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for...

ELECTRICITY; Grid fee fall boosts German industry.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... German utility giants RWE and Eon have announced their first cut in power grid fees since liberalisation of the German market in the late 1990s. Neither company gave precise figures, but Eon said medium-sized and large commercial customers...

ELECTRICITY; Nuclear deal eludes Germany's coalition.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... by Simon Jones The latest round of coalition talks in Berlin has failed to reach agreement on the future role of nuclear power. The new conservative government under chancellor Angela Merkel wants to extend the working life of...

ELECTRICITY; Clean power aid disappoints.
November 11, 2005... by Roger Milne The government's latest aid package for domestic scale wind turbines, solar panels and other microgeneration technologies has been criticised by green energy companies as too small to give the sector the boost it needs. ...

ELECTRICITY; International Power's US operations back in profit.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... High electricity prices in Texas and high gas prices favouring efficient plant helped International Power's North American arm back to profit in the first nine months of the year. The [pounds sterling]28 million profit before tax and...

Cheating is much more serious than gaming.(Severn Trent)(Thames Water)
November 11, 2005... Last week's news that the Serious Fraud Office is looking into allegations that Severn Trent - one of the UK's largest water companies - had provided Ofwat with incorrect leakage figures ahead of the 2004 periodic review, was deeply worrying....

ELECTRICITY; DTI eases consents for sea power plans.(Department of Trade and Industry )(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... by Roger Milne Ministers have clarified aspects of the consents regime for wave and tidal power schemes, which should make it easier for demonstration projects to get under way. The government has decided that at this stage there will...

Media fears spark price rise.
November 11, 2005... The power of the press was demonstrated yet again in October, with some forward electricity prices responding to headlines warning of an impending energy crisis this winter, despite the fact that the market has been talking of little else but...

ELECTRICITY; Eon leads in green sales.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Figures just released by energy regulator Ofgem show that Eon UK sold the most renewable energy last year in England and Wales. As a result, Eon UK's retail operation received more than 25 per cent of the buyout fund, made up of payments...

WATER; RWE set to end world bid with Thames sale.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... by Steve Hobson German multi-utility giant RWE is to sell Thames Water and American Water Works by 2007 to focus on its more profitable and less capital-intensive core energy businesses. For RWE, the move signals the end of its project...

ENVIRONMENT; Norway mulls tax incentives.
November 11, 2005... by Gerard O'Dwyer The Norwegian government last week said it was ready to consider offering tax breaks and other financial incentives to encourage power companies to invest in gas-fired power stations using technologies to capture and...

ENERGY; SP shares up on bid rumours.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... ScottishPower's share price rose last week on the back of rumours that German energy giant Eon was about to make a cash bid for the company, two months after it said that it might. However, neither company has commented since Eon expressed...

ENERGY; Small users seek clarity.(Energywatch)(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... The Federation of Small Businesses has joined forces with customer champion Energywatch in a campaign for a fairer deal from energy suppliers for small firms and independent traders. The Make the Connection campaign, launched this week,...

WATER; Brighton sewerage plan starts to make headway.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Southern Water's controversial Brighton wastewater scheme has begun to make regulatory progress, with one set of local planners backing the [pounds sterling]200 million project. Last week, Brighton and Hove City Council's planning...

MULTI-UTILITY; Overseas arm lifts Suez in third quarter.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... Sales by expansionist French utility group Suez increased 8 per cent year on year to e29.7 billion for the nine months to the end of September, thanks in part to a 15.5 per cent increase to e4.3 billion in energy business outside Europe. ...

Merger mania.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... After a brief lull in utility mergers and acquisitions, the papers are once again full of speculation about potential deals. The [pounds sterling]2 billion Drax takeover or flotation story has been joined in the business pages by...

WATER; United beaches sink as Wales cleans up.(Brief Article)
November 11, 2005... by Zoe Grainge United Utilities Water trailed the pack in the 2005 bathing water quality results assessed by the Environment Agency, while Wales was the only country within the UK to achieve 100 per cent compliance with the European Union...

ELECTRICITY; Npower bags Great Yarmouth.
November 11, 2005... German-owned RWE Npower this week bought the owner of the 420MW Great Yarmouth combined cycle gas-fired power station in a [pounds sterling]155 million deal. RWE Npower's acquisition of Great Yarmouth Power came with no long-term gas...

Watered down competition.(Water Industry Commission )
November 11, 2005... Efforts by Members of the Scottish Parliament to make the water industry more competitive could be scuppered by their instinctive protectionism of Scottish Water. They are ostensibly trying to comply with UK and EU competition rules, but...

TELECOMS; BT catches the wave to stay afloat.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Booming demand for broadband and other "new wave" services at BT more than offset lower demand for traditional services in the three months to 30 September, boosting revenues by 5 per cent year on year to [pounds sterling]4.82 billion. ...

WATER; Users call for UK vacant property bill.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) has called for the introduction of a standard UK-wide charge on vacant properties to remove or reduce existing cross-subsidies. Water companies currently set their own vacant property charges, leading to...

GAS; Supply fears prompt demand-side tactics.
November 18, 2005... by Roger Milne The energy industry and its regulators announced moves this week to make it easier for customers to take demand-side action in the event of supply problems this winter. On Tuesday, National Grid launched a new website...

ELECTRICITY; Drax shareholders may be tempted by new offer.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Drax Power could be moving towards accepting a [pounds sterling]2.23 billion takeover bid instead of listing on the stock market. Drax Power owns the 4GW Drax coal-fired power station inWest Yorkshire. The BCHP consortium, led by US firm...

ELECTRICITY; Nuclear and wind win over public.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... There is strong public support for nuclear power along with firm backing for more wind power to fill any future energy gap, according to a survey by Ipsos Mori for EDF Energy. Of 1,931 people surveyed, 54 per cent said nuclear power should...

ENVIRONMENT; Move to auction-only carbon trade mooted.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... by Roger Milne From 2012, all the power sector's carbon dioxide allowances under the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS) should be auctioned, environmental group WWF has urged. The WWF made its call after warning that the...

ENERGY; Regulator slated for approving Natural bid.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... by Ivan Castano and Simon Jones Spanish energy company Endesa has accused the country's energy regulator, CNE, of "serious irregularities" in its conditional approval of Gas Natural's e22.5 billion hostile bid for Endesa. CNE endorsed...

eNERGY; Brussels probe finds 'serious' market flaws.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... by Roger Milne The European Commission's energy sector competition inquiry has uncovered "serious malfunctions", competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said this week. Her concern, voiced as Utility Week went to press, was accompanied...

GAS; Eon bids to prove its margins are 'modest'.(EON Corp.)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... by Simon Jones Eon has agreed to provide detailed gas price breakdowns to its domestic customers in Germany. "We want to prove to our customers that margins are not exorbitant, but rather very modest," said chairman Wolf Bernotat. ...

Inaccuracy finds new frontiers.
November 18, 2005... As launch issues go, it has not been the most auspicious of starts. Disconnector refers to the first edition of frontiers, the annoyingly lower case magazine produced by Trident Communications for British Nuclear Group. The cover sports an...

GAS; Prices boost Gaz de France.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Higher prices and increased demand helped French gas group Gaz de France (GDF) lift its third-quarter revenues by 33 per cent compared with the same period last year, to U3.4 billion. GDF's results could be boosted further this year by an...

eLECTRICITY; German grid stability at risk from turbines.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Utility giant Eon has warned that in ten years a combination of grid problems affecting older windfarms and the shutdown of conventional coal and nuclear generating plant could pose significant transmission problems for the electricity...

ELECTRICITY; Hafslund joins race for TEV.(Trondheim Energiverk )(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Hafslund Energi has joined the bidding contest for Trondheim Energiverk (TEV) as offers for the Statkraft-controlled utility were reported to have exceeded e1.2 billion. TronderEnergi, owned by the municipality of Trondheim, hinted that it...

ELECTRICITY; Wicks helps green power via Private Member's Bill.(Malcolm Wicks)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... The renewables and microgeneration sectors have welcomed government moves to help the deployment of "clean energy". The government is to back renewable generation on Scottish islands by extending the power to cap transmission charges from...

GAS; Italy watchdog probes blocks on switching.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Italian energy regulator AEEG has announced an inquiry into "the behaviour of gas distributors that put up possible obstacles to customers transferring from one supplier to another". The inquiry, which will be completed by August 2006,...

Regulating the regulators.
November 18, 2005... This magazine has posed the question of who regulates the regulators before. Ultimately, of course, it is the Competition Commission that decides if a particular price review is fair on individual companies. The last set of water industry...

PAN-UTILITY; Utilities fail to exploit brands.
November 18, 2005... Utilities are poor at exploiting their brands, according to a survey of the UK's top 1,000 companies carried out for database marketing company Total DM. Only 25.6 per cent of utility companies used brand loyalty to boost cross-selling...

ENVIRONMENT; Scientist urges atomic role to reduce carbon.
November 18, 2005... by Roger Milne The UK is risking its international authority on climate change because of its poor performance on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, a senior member of Britain's scientific establishment has warned. The warning...

ELECTRICITY; Latvia pushes Baltic plan.(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Latvia's prime minister, Aigars Kalvitis, has proposed an inter-state energy summit in Riga to discuss the feasibility of a pan-Baltic initiative to support Lithuania's plans to build a new nuclear power station. "The building of a new...

Environment Agency keeps Young.(appoints Baroness Young)(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Baroness Young has been re-appointed as chief executive of the Environment Agency (EA). This follows her initial five-year appointment as the EA's chief executive in 2000. Young has been a key figure behind the establishment of the Water...

CCC strengthens management team.(Climate Change Capital appoints Mark Bell, David Tepper and Mina Guli )(Brief Article)
November 18, 2005... Climate Change Capital, the specialist merchant banking group focused on companies and financial institutions affected by regulatory and capital market responses to climate change, has announced three senior appointments this month. Mark...