Smart meters should have displays
October 30, 2009 at 2:52 am
A study by the EST (Energy Saving Trust) has stated that the new smart meters to be installed in every home across the country should come with monitors that allow people to see how much they are spending on energy and how much CO2 they are releasing. It is claimed that this will lead to people saving more money on their fuel bills.
By 2020, all homes will have a smart meter installed which will send a signal to the energy companies showing how much energy is being used. The aim is to cut emissions by getting rid of the need for the companies to come out to read the meters and to increase the efficiency of energy companies.
Although the smart meters are sure to be a revolution in the way we use our energy, so far there are no plans for them to come with energy monitors. Research has shown that a monitor could save each household £130 per year because users could see how much fuel they are consuming at any one time.
Chief executive of the EST, Philip Sellwood, said that smart meters are a “unique chance” to “encourage more energy efficient behaviour”, urging the government to “stand by its preferred position” of having visual displays along with the smart meters.
The digital monitors would be separate from the smart meters, and would function wirelessly so that they could be put anywhere within the home. The energy companies have claimed that it would be pointless to send out displays because people would not be able to understand them. But EST says that actually it is the energy bills that are a lot harder to understand.
Energy bills could soar by 60% by 2016
October 23, 2009 at 4:26 am
Household bills could go up by a crippling 60% by as early as 2016, according to the worst-case scenario forecast from Ofgem. The price hikes will mainly come as a result of the extra £200 billion that will be needed to restore ageing nuclear power plants and to secure future energy supplies.
The claims were made in the Ofgem review ‘Project Discovery’. This looked into a number of possible scenarios for the energy market over the coming 15 years. But whereas some scenarios were worse than others, the best-case scenario would still see a 14% rise in bills by 2020.
A lot of investment is going to be needed to meet strict climate targets over the coming decade. On top of that, the global gas market is becoming more and more volatile, threatening consumer supplies. Ofgem said that these had to be protected, and also called on the energy industry to help with the cost of developing reliable energy sources.
The report also found that electricity capacity will drop over the next few years as nuclear plants and other power stations close down. This will make the country more reliant on gas imports, which opens up the possibility of energy being used as a political weapon.
The worst-case scenario would see the average household paying about £2,000 per year on their fuel bills. The chief executive of Ofgem, Alistair Buchanan, said that the country faces “a tough challenge in maintaining secure supplies while at the same time meeting its climate change targets”. But he also claimed that “there is still time to act”.
Russian presence in UK nuclear industry could grow
October 15, 2009 at 10:59 am
A report in The Guardian has found that the Russians might be starting to make inroads into the UK nuclear energy industry. This has led to fears that energy could be used politically, just as it was a few years ago when Russian state-owned company Gazprom cut supplies to Ukraine.
The company in question is the vast Atomenergoprom, which is owned by the Russian state. It is a huge company employing 200,000 people and is currently involved in the construction of 14 atomic plants across the world.
It was reported that the company recently signed a deal with Toshiba, which already manages the nuclear plant at Springfields through its Westinghouse subsidiary. It is also apparently keen to sign a deal with Siemens, which has confirmed its interest in becoming a supplier for new reactors in the UK.
It has also made contact with Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, and Rolls-Royce. Both companies are likely to become big players in the nuclear power industry in the near future.
Kirill Komarov, the executive director of Atomenergoprom, said that there have been some contracts with British companies, but claimed that “nothing specific has been arranged now”.
As well as nuclear power being used politically, there are also fears surrounding the safety of Russian nuclear plants, following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Komarov said that it was unfair to link Atomenergoprom with Chernobyl because the company did not even exist at the time. He also said that “we are just businessmen” and had no interest in politics.
It remains to be seen just how much involvement the Russians will have in the UK nuclear power industry, but expect to hear a lot more about this in the near future if Atomenergoprom starts to make further inroads.
Britain to face power cuts by 2017
October 9, 2009 at 4:06 am
Anyone who lived through the miners’ strikes of the ’70s will remember the days of power cuts, having to use candles for reasons of practicality rather than romance and sitting wrapped up in thick woolly jumpers and blankets to keep warm. Now for the first time since then, Britain is facing the prospect of widespread power cuts by 2017, due to the demand for energy outstripping its production.
It is estimated that the shortfall or “energy unserved” level will be 3000 megawatt hours per annum, equivalent to a city the size of Nottingham being without electricity for a day. By 2025 it is estimated that that level will be around 7000 megawatts per annum. In practical terms it will probably mean that 16 million of us at a time will face a power cut in the winter evenings when demand is at its highest.
The revelation came in the government report, Low Carbon Transition Plan, published online in July, which sets out a 40% target by 2020 for clean energy such as wind, wave and solar power. As part of the strategy various oil, coal and nuclear plants will be shut down to cut back on pollution and acid rain.
There are fears that energy prices will rocket as Britain is held to ransom by countries such as Russia. Some have gone so far as to suggest that the situation could be serious enough to spark civil unrest.
The Tory party has accused the Government of “burying its head in the sand” and has said that the next government has an ”urgent task” ahead of it with regards to Britain’s energy policy.
Customers paying £100 too much for bills
October 1, 2009 at 1:29 am
There are further claims that energy companies are not passing on cheaper wholesale prices to their customers, costing an extra £100 per household per year. The claims arose again following the latest research carried out by ICIS Heren, which has revealed that more could be done to reduce bills.
The research found that the wholesale price of gas averaged 25.5p per therm between April and August, compared to 58.47p per therm for the same period last year. But despite this, bill prices haven’t gone down by the same margin, with companies only reducing fees by such amounts as 4% (Scottish and Southern) and 10% (British Gas). This has led a spokeswoman for the company to suggest that “companies should be revising downward their household prices”.
This follows the recent dispute between government watchdog Consumer Focus and the power companies. Consumer Focus recently said that households were being charged up to £100 too much per year. Heren has questioned the £100 claim, but says that power companies are capable of cutting prices further.
But the ERA (Energy Retail Association) says the pricing is right. Garry Felgate, the chief executive of ERA, said that “prices are still volatile going into this winter”, and blamed a “time lag” between the price changes on the wholesale market and when consumers get to benefit from those changes. He also highlighted that wholesale price is not the only factor involved, and that higher charges and metering costs also contributed to the higher bills.
It has been suggested that energy firms may be making an extra £2.2 billion by not passing on these savings. If they did reduce prices in line with wholesale prices then we could be getting an extra 10% off our gas bills and 3.5% off our electricity bills. The energy companies are now going to have to explain their pricing more clearly to industry regulator Ofgem following the claims.
