The Treasury wants to know how to encourage innovation in regulated utilities – electricity, gas, water and telecoms – and it has launched a consultation to ask for ideas. The consultation says, “When regulators were first set up, lowering costs…
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Budget 2018: ‘Carbon Emissions Tax’ to replace EU ETS in event of ‘no-deal’ Brexit
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Plans for a Carbon Emissions Tax (CET) to take effect in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit were set out in Budget 2018. HM Treasury said the aim is to maintain a stable carbon price, provide stability for businesses and replace…
Budget 2018: the industry responds
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Will Gardiner, chief executive, Drax Group: “I strongly support the Chancellor’s decision to strengthen the total carbon price until at least 2021 – it provides investors with certainty and is a critical factor in ensuring an end to the use…
BEIS seeks grant applications for projects to use industrial waste heat: £18 million on offer
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BEIS has opened a competition offering up to £18 million of grant funding for projects that will recover and make use of heat from industry. A study by Element Energy of eight industrial sectors found that in 2014 11TWh/year of industrial heat could…
Vertiv links with Upside Energy to give UPS owners flexibility market access
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Energy management company Vertiv is to use Upside Energy’s cloud-based flexibility platform to allow UK customers with uninterrupted power systems (UPSs), to offer unutilised capacity to the electricity grid. Devrim Celal, chief executive of Upside Energy, said, “Customers invest in UPS…
Sussex opens subsidy-free solar/battery project
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The UK’s second subsidy-free solar farm, and the first by a local authority using battery storage, has been completed by West Sussex County Council. Westhampnett solar farm near Chichester is the council’s second solar farm, built on a closed landfill next…
Supply chain says onshore wind CfDs would give £1.6B ‘consumer payback’
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Fourteen major renewable energy companies have written a joint letter to Greg Clark, secretary of state at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, asking him to give onshore wind an opportunity to take part in Contracts for Difference auctions. Developers ScottishPower Renewables, SSE,…
National Grid Gas signals new products to improve system operability
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National Grid Gas (NGG) has said it will consider introducing new products – and being stricter on users – to manage growing operability issues. NGG has to meet strict pressure limits on the National Transmission System and that is now…
UKPN to trial Faraday Grid self-balancing network
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Faraday Grid is to partner with UK Power Networks to trial its autonomous, self-balancing network, which can be installed within an existing electricity grid. Comprising a network of independent Faraday Exchangers, it is designed to automatically smooth the intermittency and…
Comment by 26 October: how should the new Electricity System Operator be funded and incentivised?
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National Grid’s Electricity System Operator (ESO) is seeking comment on its funding model for the future. The ESO is being spun out of National Grid and will have a separate regulatory framework. Unlike the remaining pipes and wires business, the…