26.06.09 Gadgets are ratcheting up our electricity bills
Many of us still think that turning off the lights upstairs when we’re watching the television downstairs is going to make a huge difference to our electricity bills and to the environment. It might make a tiny impact but it gets cancelled out pretty quickly when gadgets such as the plasma TV, the PC, the Blu-ray and all the other gizmos dotted around our homes, are sucking in energy like electronic sponges.
A new report by the non-profit advice group, The Energy Saving Trust, has shown just how expensive all of these gadgets are to run. Here in the UK we love our mobiles, TVs, PCs and anything that beeps, blinks and hums. 25% of our electric usage per year is accounted for by gadgets, and the people at the Energy Saving Trust fear this is going to soar by another 20% over the next ten years.
This would take the average annual electricity bill up to £237 from what it is now (£140). This is only if the electricity companies keep to the tariffs they are currently charging, which would be unlikely given the recent rises in prices. Who knows exactly how much it’ll have gone up to, come 2020.
What can we do? Well it’s more what the companies that manufacture these whirring machines can do. A much sterner attitude needs to be adopted towards building gadgets that are more energy efficient. In the meanwhile you can still turn off the lights, but maybe it’d be better if you didn’t invest in a third television or had your laptop on all day instead.
19.06.09 The hidden energy that powers the internet
There aren’t very many of us who think about how the internet actually works. In its relatively short life so far, the web has quickly become something we all take for granted. Gone are the days of making a cup of tea while the dial-up connection loads a webpage. But who has ever wondered what actually powers the internet? If you think of your time on the web as being like driving your car, then you are steering, changing gear and paying for the actual car itself but where is all the petrol coming from? In other words, what powers the internet?
The answer lies in Data centres. Data centres are probably the most inconspicuous yet vital buildings in the UK. You’ll find them hidden away, like nerdy teenagers, on industrial estates in places like Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. They aren’t down in the basements of the Ministry of Defence or anything glamorous like that. They are concrete warehouses full to the brim with wires, interfaces, computers and servers.
One of the companies that operate a Data centre is Telstra International. If you’ve ever booked a Eurostar journey or watched something on BBC iPlayer then when you clicked your mouse button the response was picked up at their Data centre near Cambridge.
The biggest concern when it comes to these secret centres is the sheer volume of energy they use every year. An average Data centre can use up to 25 Megawatts of power a year, which is the same as the total residential use for all the homes in Ipswich. There are currently 19 centres just in the area around Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk and that figure is set to rise.
The problem becomes obvious when you look at the carbon footprint. 3% of the UK’s annual electricity goes on powering these places. Over the next ten years that figure is expected to double. This will place the internet and our communications industry higher than our aviation industry in terms of carbon emissions.
15.06.09 Are you willing to pay a loyalty tax?
If you were asked by your electricity provider to pay an annual loyalty tax of £111, would you do it? The chances are that you would be outraged at the very thought but it has been suggested that this is, in effect, what many of us are doing by declining to change provider and sticking with our local company. By having some misplaced sense of loyalty towards our incumbent supplier we are throwing money away.
It may seem bizarre but electricity suppliers have been so keen to muscle in on other providers’ local areas, offering good prices to tempt customers away from their regional supplier, that they seem to have forgotten all about the customers in their own area. Instead they depend on people’s apathy and disinclination to switch provider.
In exactly 50% of regions the incumbent supplier is the most expensive and even where this is not the case it is never the cheapest. All providers have a regional pricing policy meaning that customers pay according to where they live and Ann Robinson, of uSwitch, advises that consumers should use the postcode lottery to their advantage and shop around for the cheapest provider. Savings vary according to individual circumstances but average out at £58, with the maximum saving being £111.
Customers can also save money by opting for a dual fuel deal, an online plan or using a direct debit.
Earlier this month, British Gas announced its plans to shake up competition in the industry and said it would be offering the lowest prices in every region in the country.
02.06.09 EDF may sell UK electricity business
EDF Energy has announced that it is likely to use the services of Deutsche Bank for auctioning the largest electricity distribution network in the United Kingdom. Speculation that EDF Energy would be forced to conduct the sale in an attempt to ease its debts had been rife for some time and the plan was confirmed last week, with Deutsche Bank likely to start looking for bidders over the coming months.
EDF Energy took on a significant amount of debt whilst negotiating its purchase of British Energy last year and has been looking for ways to ease the financial burden ever since. The electricity distribution network which is set to be sold is currently responsible for providing power to approximately eight million homes across the south and east of the country.
Whilst the sale of the network is far from ideal, particularly since it brings in a significant profit, it is a move viewed as relatively preferable to the hypothetical sale of any French network.
Officials at Deutsche Bank are likely to be happy that they are closing in on this deal with EDF Energy, particularly after Merrill Lynch provided them with advice about the deal with British Energy (Merrill Lynch sued Deutsche Bank earlier this year after the latter took several of the former's most senior bankers).
Official confirmation of Deutsche Bank's involvement is likely to come in the near future.
In related news, EDF Energy is planning on constructing four new nuclear reactors in Britain. Each reactor will cost approximately five billion euros.
22.05.09 British Gas slashes electricity bills
Frustration regarding the apparent unwillingness of energy companies to pass on savings to customers feeling the financial impacts of the credit crunch has been mounting for several months now. It is therefore nice, to say the least, to see British Gas announcing a ten per cent reduction for its customers in the United Kingdom.
This reduction represents the largest cut in energy prices so far this year and approximately one in every four households is set to benefit from the price decrease. British Gas currently provides electricity to 4.5 million customers and this latest news is likely to be music to their ears.
British Gas customers, until this latest move, had been provided with more reason than most to complain. Providers including E.ON, Scottish Power, NPower, and EDF Energy, had all introduced reductions of various degrees this year but British Gas had decided not to make a move with regards to its electricity prices until now (although the company did cut its gas charges by ten per cent in February).
The managing director of British Gas, Phil Bentley, stated that the company wishes to do what it can for its customers. He continued to reveal that the company is happy to be "able to cut an average 10 per cent" from their standard electricity prices and "continue to help" customers during the credit crunch.
British Gas has been quick to point out its view that this latest reduction makes it the cheapest supplier in Britain on average. There are some who still believe the reductions are not large enough but, at the moment, any price decrease is welcome to homeowners feeling the pinch.
