Utility Week articles from October 2004

Utility Week archives from October 2004

TELECOMS; Vodafone rolls out 3G as MMO2 'waits and sees'.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The race to launch third generation (3G) mobile telecoms services has divided two big players in the market. Vodafone reaffirmed last week its commitment to the launch of ten 3G handsets this winter, while MMO2 maintained its 'wait and see'...

WATER; Aquavitae states case for Albion role.(Aquavitae UK Ltd)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The Competition Appeal Tribunal gave would-be water retailer Aquavitae until Tuesday, when Utility Week went to press, to file a statement of the issues on which it wished to intervene in Albion Water's case against Ofwat over wholesale...

ENERGY; Spanish group targets green market.(Appa)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Spanish renewables power association Appa has announced that it will launch its own national renewables company in January to exploit the boom in Spain. The yet-to-be-named entity will be owned by Appa's 250 members. They will each have a...

GAS; BG boosts LNG business with Egyptian deal.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Exploration and production group BG has boosted its expanding Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business with deals that consolidate its position as Egypt's largest LNG buyer. The company has signed agreements with Egyptian companies for the...

ELECTRICITY; British Energy delists to fight off rebellion.
October 1, 2004... by Trevor Dooley The ferocity of the battle between beleaguered nuclear generator British Energy and shareholders seeking to derail a government-backed rescue restructuring that will crush the value of their stakes peaked last week with...

ELECTRICITY; CHP needs aid, government report claims.(Combined Heat and Power )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... A government-commissioned report has called for measures to bolster the faltering Combined Heat and Power (CHP) sector. According to the AEATechnology study, the government's target of doubling the use of CHP by 2010 will be missed if...

TELECOMS; Ofcom probe into customer transfer row.(United Kingdom Office of Communications )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Communications regulator Ofcom has opened an investigation into dominant telecoms operator BTafter rivals claimed it was unfairly cancelling orders from its customers to switch to an alternative fixed-line reseller. Ofcom's decision...

ELECTRICITY; Industry pans Ofgem review.
October 1, 2004... by Trevor Dooley Electricity distribution companies have accused energy regulator Ofgem of undermining future investment in networks despite the watchdog's recent concessions in its proposals for the next five-year price control period....

TELECOMS; RegTP rules on network fees.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Germany's telecoms regulator, RegTP, has given Deutsche Telekom's rivals the go-ahead to raise their network termination charges. RegTP president Matthias Kurth said he was complying with a 'European standard' on termination fees. Under...

Watch for the green man.(Dale Vince, managing director of Ecotricity)
October 1, 2004... He may have just picked up his OBE from the Queen, but Dale Vince, managing director of leading independent energy company Ecotricity, is still as outspoken as ever. One of his particular beefs is the way suppliers talk about green energy....

ELECTRICITY; Model answer for border congestion.(EuropeanTransmission System Operators)(Association of European Power Exchanges)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Transmission network operators and power exchanges have agreed a system to deal with cross-border congestion arising from the integration of European markets. The European Transmission System Operators group and the Association of European...

ENERGY; Danish energy firms in formal merger talks.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Danish energy companies Elsam and Dong have entered into formal 'merger dialogue'. If fruitful, it would create Denmark's largest electricity supplier and an electricity group capitalised at e8 billion. Elsam had for months resisted...

electricity; Endesa plans to boost Snet capacity.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Spanish energy giant Endesa has announced plans to triple operating profits at recently acquired French utility Snet and expand its generation capacity to gain a greater share of Europe's growing energy market. Endesa chief executive...

electricity; Eon ready to deal for network fees.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... German energy giant Eon was last week ready to abandon planned increases in its power network access fees in return for government action to speed-up the licensing system for building new power plant. The idea was set to be discussed in a...

Survey finds staff are proud to work for Eon.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... by Zoe Grainge In the past few years, German utility giant Eon has gone from being a broadly diversified conglomerate to being a focused energy provider. The company has had to communicate its new identity to its employees, and motivate...

OAP demands lesser explanation.(Old Age Pensioner)
October 1, 2004... Is Ofgem on the same planet as the rest of us? Disconnector has seen recent correspondence between a pensioner and the regulator which certainly makes you wonder. The pensioner wrote to Ofgem voicing concern about recent increases in...

WATER; Fluoride rules have more than teething problems.(WaterVoice)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Customers have condemned the public consultation provisions in the regulations that will govern water fluoridation. Customer representative WaterVoice said there were too few specific requirements on how Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs)...

WATER; France loses battle over eutrophication.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... France has been found in breach of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive after losing a long-running battle with the European Commission over the definition of eutrophication. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) last week settled on a...

Rewarding experience.
October 1, 2004... Environmental awards schemes provide recognition for socially responsible organisations, and utilities should take advantage of them . By Elaine Coles. Over the past decade environmental awards have become an established part of business...

ELECTRICITY; Viridian plans second Irish station.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Northern Ireland energy group Viridian has announced a [pounds sterling]250 million scheme to build a second combined cycle gas-fired power station at its Huntstown site in the Republic of Ireland near Dublin. The 400MW plant has been...

Centrica telecoms.(Telco Holdings )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Centrica Telecommunications (owner of the One.Tel and British Gas Communications brands) announced last week, in what the Financial Times described as a reaffirmation of its 'commitment to the UK market', that it had purchased Telco Holdings...

energy; Suppliers warn MPs over savings shortfall.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... by Roger Milne Power suppliers this week warned the government that they faced major problems meeting the energy saving targets expected under the next phase of the Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC). The warning was delivered at a...

The vision thing.
October 1, 2004... The political party conferences are likely to be watched especially keenly by utility companies this year. Utilities are going to have to use a keen political ear to distinguish between the usual vote-appealing rhetoric and any indication of...

Wet appetite.(British offshore and underwater energy industry)
October 1, 2004... If marine renewables live up to their promise, the UK could end up an exporter of green power . Benoit Dal Ferro reports. Renewable power generation in the UK has been transformed in just a few years from being alternative and marginal to...

Online up, fixed line decline.(Monitor)
October 1, 2004... UK consumers are increasingly spending more time using digital media, according to a major study commissioned by communications regulator Ofcom. A recent article in Oxera's monthly journal made the point that increased usage and adoption...

Colt Telecom.
October 1, 2004... by Trevor Dooley When corporate telecoms provider Colt Telecom unveiled its new structure last week it was greeted with a welcome lift in its share price. The company has had a number of let-downs in recent months after issuing...

GAS; Work to start on new UK-Dutch pipeline.(BBL)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... by Roger Milne Engineering work for a gas import infrastructure scheme crucial for ensuring the UK's energy security was due to start this month (October). The project involves a 213km-long undersea pipeline from the Netherlands which...

environment; Carbon price rise fears overstated.(European Union Emissions Trading Scheme )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Fears that the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme will result in a massive rise in electricity prices are unfounded, a report commissioned by the Nordic council of ministers has concluded. The assessment, by consultancy Econ Analysis,...

A change of air.
October 1, 2004... In the early 1990s, several research projects were implemented to evaluate the issues associated with installing utility-scale wind turbines offshore. In Blyth, Northumberland, 300kW Windmaster turbines were installed on the harbour wall in...

TELECOMS; One.Tel grabs rival in telecoms expansion.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... by Zoe Grainge Residential telecoms carrier Centrica Telecoms, which owns the One.Tel brand, has acquired Telco Global for [pounds sterling]43 million in a push for a bigger presence in the fixed-line voice market. The acquisition will...

PAN-UTILITY ; Top UK bill handler floats.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Payments company PayPoint, which handles millions of utility bills and was initially bankrolled by a number of key sector players, floated last week. PayPoint shares were placed at 192p, valuing the firm at just under [pounds sterling]130...

Labour defends green record.
October 1, 2004... The conference season is in full swing. By the time you read this Labour will be packing their bags after their Brighton extravaganza while Bournemouth will be poised to welcome the Conservatives. Last week the Dorset resort hosted the...

Green fingers?
October 1, 2004... The government's target is that renewables should account for 10 per cent of the UK's electricity by 2010. If that is to be achieved, output needs to grow by about 25 per cent each year. But the overall rated renewable capacity of UK power...

electricity; Spain's grid chairman calls for Enagas ties.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... by Ivan Castano and Zoe Grainge The chairman of Spanish electricity transmission company Red Electrica de Espana (REE) has called for closer ties with gas transporter Enagas. REE's new chairman, Luis Atienza, said last week the two...

ELECTRICITY; Npower sells power store project.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... RWE Npower has licensed its fledgling power station battery technology and sold the accompanying assets in a deal worth [pounds sterling]720 million. Npower sold its Regenesys electricity storage technology to Canadian company VRB Power....

ELECTRICITY; Supplier bids to boost value of Rocs.(Good Energy)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Green electricity supplier Good Energy has claimed it is the first power company to delete some of its green generation certificates in a bid to inflate their market value to increase the demand for energy certificated as renewable. Good...

energy; Fuel price rises could lead to fall in demand.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... by Trevor Dooley Rising fuel prices could lead to reduced demand from industrial users and escalating non-payment from domestic customers, warned credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) in a recent report. However, market control by...

WATER; Viridor leads fine trio with [pounds sterling]78k hit.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Pennon subsidiary Viridor Waste has been hit with fines and costs of [pounds sterling]78,000 for seven waste offences at one of Devon's largest landfill sites. Viridor was prosecuted for illegally depositing waste and for allowing landfill...

WATER; Customers left in the dark by unclear drafts.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Customer priorities may not be met by Ofwat's draft decisions on the 2005-10 capital programme, but it is too baffling to tell, according to WaterVoice. The customer champion said that although it had started out well, the latter stages of...

ELECTRICITY; Norway beefs up plant outage restrictions.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Norway's electricity transmission system operator, Statnett, has introduced restrictions on power plant outages in the country over the coming winter. Statnett has the final authority to approve or reject outages, and under the new regime...

telecoms; End of debt cutting to bring e100bn growth.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... by Zoe Grainge Shareholders in European telecoms companies could be in for a collective return of up to e100 billion over the next three years, as a period of debt cutting and debt swapping in the industry draws to a close. A report...

TELECOMS; Thus warns as market remains tough.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Telecoms provider Thus issued a profit warning last week after tough competition in the corporate market took its toll. Shares in the company plunged nearly 30 per cent on the news to 12.25p. Thus said first-half-year underlying profit for...

Universities aim to tackle power shortfall.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Manchester university UMIST has teamed up with the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) to help tackle the shortfall in the number of power engineers in the UK. UMIST, together with the universities of Strathclyde and Southampton, has...

MULTI-UTILITY; Veolia to raise dividends after return to profit.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Veolia Environnement has told its shareholders to look forward to bigger dividends next year on the back of a strong first half this year. Results for the six months to 30 June 2004 showed a net profit of e181 million compared with a net...

ENERGY; Austrian supply alliance waits on price probe.(EnergyAllianz)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The launch of a controversial Austrian supply consortium called EnergyAllianz has been postponed by its leading member, Austrian energy giant Verbund. The delay was prompted by an announcement by the country's electricity regulator, E-Control,...

WATER; Climate fears reignite Saving Trust potential.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... WATER Climate fears reignite Saving Trust potential by Karma Ockenden Fears over the impact climate change will have on water resources has prompted the first tentative steps to be taken towards setting up a long awaited Water...

Glas Cymru director goes the distance for WaterAid.(Nigel Annett)
October 1, 2004... Nigel Annett, executive director of Welsh Water owner Glas Cymru, has raised [pounds sterling]10,000 for charity by taking part in the amateurs' stage of the Tour de France bicycle race. Annett was one of 7,500 cyclists who tackled the...

WATER; Ulster bill hike will push poor pensioners to poverty.(WaterVoice)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Charity Help the Aged has called for poor pensioners in Northern Ireland to be exempted from water charges when they are introduced in 2006. It said the extra bill would push many further into poverty. It criticised the proposal to help...

GAS; High-debt finance model; forecast for gas networks.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The UK gas transportation industry was likely to follow the water sector into high-debt financial structures based on securitised assets, according to a report by credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P). The forecast followed the...

ONE.(Kim Littlewood)(Interview)
October 1, 2004... minute interview Name Kim Littlewood Age 38 Company WRc Job title Part-time consultant civil engineer for WRc, carrying out research into toilets, sewers and drains. Also retained by Sustrans, the...

ELECTRICITY; British Energy makes loss as investor rebellion dies.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Having fought off a bid by investors to cash in on expected improved trading since being saved from bankruptcy, generator British Energy has reported a first quarter year loss with little benefit from escalating power prices. British...

BT experts get international recognition.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Thirty-three IT experts from BT have successfully completed the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam, an international standard for information security. The experts at BT Exact safeguard company data and advise...

TELECOMS; C&W mulls Japan operations sale.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Corporate telecoms provider Cable & Wireless was this week understood to be in talks about selling its Japanese operation. City observers suggested that the company's Japanese subsidiary was worth about [pounds sterling]60 million. The...

PAN-UTILITY; Utilities lag in customer win campaigns.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Utilities languish at the bottom of the league in terms of their ability to capitalise on responses to marketing campaigns, it emerged this week. A study by marketing group Ion found that utilities scored 8 per cent below the...

WATER; Firms drag their heels over capital spending.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... by Karma Ockenden Figures just out from water regulator Ofwat show the water industry is behind schedule on its 2000-05 capital programme. So far this period, [pounds sterling]13.4 billion has been spent, [pounds sterling]1.7 billion...

TELECOMS; Minnow seeks slice of the business.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Telecoms company Caudwell Communications, which owns the Phones 4U high street retail chain, last week unveiled a [pounds sterling]60 million plan to win 10-15 per cent of the business market in the next year. At the same time, Caudwell...

ENERGY; Kovacs says nuclear 'unavoidable'.(Laszlo Kovacs)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... The European commissioner-designate for energy has said nuclear power remains an 'unavoidable part of the energy mix', although the EU should intensify dialogue with countries such as Russia to improve security of supply. Laszlo Kovacs...

WATER; WaterVoice must speak up.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... WaterVoice needs to raise its profile when it becomes an independent Consumer Council for Water, research into what customers expect of the new body has advised. It found only a handful of respondents had heard of WaterVoice and so...

gas; Centrica buys on both sides of the Atlantic.(Dyno-Rod)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... by Roger Milne Centrica hit the acquisition trail twice within the space of three days last week as the home services giant snapped up drain maintenance specialist Dyno-Rod in the UK and a home services company in the US. Centrica's...

ELECTRICITY; EVN bags Bulgarian network pair.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Austrian electricity company EVN has bought 67 per cent of two Bulgarian power distributors for e271 million. The deal concluded the first stage of Bulgaria's privatisation of seven distribution companies. German energy giant Eon bought...

ENVIRONMENT; EnBW goes to court over EU carbon trade scheme.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... German utility EnBW's concern over the way the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme will affect its business has led to more legal action. Last week the energy company took the Commission to court over the its decision to approve in...

MULTI-UTILITY; Enel in line for e2 billion windfall.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Italian multi-utility Enel could be in line for a e2 billion payout for stranded costs, the Italian government said last week. Subject to approval from the EuropeanCommission, the company will be reimbursed for investments made as a...

ELECTRICITY; Coal burn by generators declines last quarter.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Coal use in power stations fell significantly in the second quarter of this year compared with 2003, according to the latest energy statistics from the Department of Trade and Industry. Power stations used 9.2 per cent less coal in the...

TELECOMS; BT Retail mulls going it alone.
October 8, 2004... by Zoe Grainge The retail division of BT was this week pondering a bid to increase competition at local loop level by procuring kit from outside the company for installation into telephone exchanges. This latest move by the telecoms...

Managers wanted for distribution network.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... by Zoe Grainge The new owner of National Grid Transco's Wales and West gas distribution network has said it would recruit up to 30 senior staff to manage the new business. Consortium Macquarie European Bank Group, which also owns South...

My celeb's bigger than your celeb.
October 8, 2004... In the past few weeks the pro-wind lobby has been wheeling out celebs and others to endorse turbines. Clearly, with Noel Edmonds, David Bellamy and the bluff Sir Bernard Ingham in the oppo camp, the British Wind Energy Association needs to...

TELECOMS; France takes lead in unbundled broadband.(European Competitive Telecoms Association)(ART)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... by Zoe Grainge France last week became the leading country in Europe in terms of unbundled broadband connections. It has more than 750,000 unbundled lines, due mainly to action taken by France's telecoms regulator and the European...

Gain on.
October 8, 2004... Kevin Genieser, an executive director based at Morgan Stanley's New York office, has plenty to ponder as he looks out from his eyrie 32 floors above Manhattan's Times Square. He is an investment banker specialising in utilities, a sector that...

GAS; GDF dodges dip at home with sales boom abroad.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... A slight fall in its domestic market share was more than offset by booming sales abroad, Gaz de France's six-monthly results showed last week. The value of GDF's net sales in France fell by 0.4 per cent during the first six months of 2004,...

GAS; Ofgem price probe will include Europe.
October 8, 2004... by Roger Milne Ofgem's probe into recent spiralling wholesale gas prices has shifted its focus to Europe, although the regulator revealed this week it was still investigating a series of legacy contracts that affect gas flows through two...

WATER; Customers are spared more green bill hikes.
October 8, 2004... by Karma Ockenden Contrary to consumer fears that the government would bulk up the environment programme for 2005-10 at the last minute, ministers' final guidance to Ofwat on the subject will add no further burden to bills. ...

ELECTRICITY; Billion dollar shortfall on wires, says IBM.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Europe's power distributors face 'billions of dollars in backlogged underinvestment', according to IBM Business Consulting. 'For years, capital spending at electricity distribution companies has failed to keep pace with annualised renewal,'...

BE endgame.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... After weeks of often acrimonious accusation and counter-accusation, the group of rebel shareholders in British Energy led by American hedge fund Polygon have given up the fight and conceded defeat. The shareholders have given up trying to block...

The pluck of; the Irish.
October 8, 2004... Is Northern Ireland's Water Service ready for brave reform? . Chief executive Katharine Bryan tells Karma Ockenden. The cab driver taking me from Belfast city centre to the offices of the Northern Ireland Water Service did not wait for an...

ELECTRICITY; Bankers say more mergers on the way.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Despite a quiet spell, Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity in European electricity is far from over, investment bankers believe. UScompanies shaken by the scandal and the collapse of wholesale power prices will pull out of overseas...

TELECOMS; Kingston buys broadband internet firm for [pounds sterling]12.5m.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Hull-based telecoms provider Kingston Communications has bagged business broadband internet service provider Eclipse Networking for [pounds sterling]12.5 million in a cash and shares deal. The takeover will increase Kingston's broadband...

Bottoms up to Centrica.
October 8, 2004... Cross-selling has become something of a dirty word for service providers. On paper, it's a great idea. Build a portfolio of businesses, grab the personal details of the householders on your various books and sell them a suite of integrated...

TELECOMS; Sales hike lifts MMO2 forecast.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Mobile telecoms operator MMO2 has raised its revenue projections for the full year after higher than expected growth in the first half. The company, which has yet to roll out third generation services, said in a trading statement last week...

ELECTRICITY; Merrill slams Ofgem's price review.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Investment bank Merrill Lynch has slammed energy regulator Ofgem. It described a key investment-governing proposal in the watchdog's update on its draft price controls for power distributors as 'unacceptably low' and forecast rejection by the...

International Power.
October 8, 2004... by Trevor Dooley It has been a busy 2004 for UK-based generator International Power. In a partnership with Japanese industrial giant Mitsui, the group bought the international power generation portfolio of US group Edison Mission Energy...

MULTI-UTILITY; NGT warns of dip in profits.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... National Grid Transco has warned this year's first-half operating profit will be lower than forecast because of the cost of its UK gas mains replacement programme and the weak USdollar. In its trading statement aheadof the interim results...

ELECTRICITY; Accession duo to get e1bn nuclear bailout.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... by Martha Grace The European Commission has proposed a cash handout of e1 billion to help fund the closure of four ageing nuclear power stations in two of the European Union's newest member states. The Commission has proposed to the...

Electioneering gets underway.
October 8, 2004... The Conservatives were due to flesh out their revamped energy policy at their party conference in Bournemouth this week. However, it is difficult to see them garnering the sort of attention swirling around Labour in the fall-out from the prime...

Call centre staff hit by 'repetitive voice injury'.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2004... Call centre workers are being hit by an industrial ailment called 'repetitive voice injury', according to new research. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists said increasing numbers of call centre workers were being referred...