George Osbourne has pledged that the conservative government will be investing in energy infrastructure over the next four years during his spending review. However, he also confirmed that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will see a 22% cut to its budget, a move that has been strongly criticised.
Shale
Russian gas giant Gazprom has announced they have stopped all exports of gas to Ukraine because of Ukraine using up all of the gas they had paid for. However, Ukraine say that it was them who stopped the flow of gas from Russia because they could purchase it cheaper from other sources such as Europe.
npower have reported in their daily market report that the gas system in the UK is ‘slightly’ undersupplied and demand is higher than the seasonal norm. It is forecast that the linepack will be 6mcm short.
The UK has ramped up storage withdrawals to combat the higher demand and exports to Belgium via the IUK pipeline have been reduced to 7mcm a day, down from 17mcm a day. It is believed that the combination of these two actions will be enough to combat the slight undersupply and not affect prices.
The RAC has announced that there is a big chance that petrol prices will fall below £1 for the first time in 6 years. This comes after a recent drop in wholesale fuel prices which could pass on a 2p per litre saving to consumers.
Since 2009 the price of petrol has been above £1 per litre and it actually rose to record prices of £1.41 in April 2012. The price of petrol is something which affects consumers and businesses throughout the country, with fuel being such a big expense in everyone’s budget.
The UK’s Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has announced that all remaining coal power plants will be phased out by 2025, instead shifting the focus onto gas power plants. Coal currently provides almost a third of the UK’s electricity supply, as seen in the diagram, however Mrs Rudd would like gas to play a much more important role.
Throughout ESOS, many companies have been very reluctant to commit the resources needed to complete the scheme on time. There has also been other problems with ESOS, such as a lack of Lead Assessors required to sign off the scheme, which has ultimately led to an extension of the deadline date.
The National Grid are to be questioned by The Energy and Climate Change Committee about how safe the UK’s energy security is. This comes after it was announced that the gap between peak demand and total power generating capacity will be the tightest for a decade.
This had been heavily criticised by the shadow energy and climate change secretary, Lisa Nandy, who blames the Conservative Government for the tight gap, stating it is because the Tory’s have attacked the UK’s renewable energy industry.
Scotland are set to announce that they will miss the target to generate 100% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The renewable energy industry in Scotland is a huge part of the economy accounting for around 21,000 jobs and delivering almost £1 billion of capital investment each year.
Diesel cars have had a really hard time in the media lately, with talks of increased taxes, city centre bans and extra congestion charges diesel drivers will be starting to worry. This recent criticism all began with the VW scandal where it was announced that their cars are not as eco friendly as they claim.
What’s wrong with diesel?
Financial giant Goldman Sachs has announced that it is planning on investing $150 billion in projects such as solar farms, wind farms and upgrading buildings so they are more energy efficient. The target for Goldman Sachs is to invest this money by 2025, which follows their previous target of investing $40 billion into clean energy by 2012.
This years National Grid Winter Outlook has revealed that supplies will be secure throughout the winter. The Winter Outlook is a report that is regarded as a key indicator for the UK’s energy supply and if there was any concerns regarding supply, it would show up in the report.
A fourth well is to be drilled at York Gas Field by Centrica, who have invested £80 million to extract gas from the field till 2020. The additional well will allow Centrica to access an additional 20 billion cubic feet of gas, which is enough to heat half a million homes throughout the year.
A 660MW offshore wind farm that will be located off the coast of Cumbria has been given a final investment decision. The wind farm will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world and will supply enough electricity to power 460,000 homes.
An investment totalling £132 million pound has been made to improve the North West’s power lines, underground electrical system and substations. The investment has came over the past 12 months and will benefit almost 5 million electricity users from Merseyside to Cumbria.
The improvements to the network included a £20 million fund dedicated to improving overhead power lines and pylons, as well as a £3.7 million investment to cut down trees that could cause a risk to the power lines.
Changes in environmental policies, increasing energy efficient technology and more affordable renewable energy will cause fossil fuel demand to drop significantly by 2040. That is according to an analysis by Carbon Tracker which challenges the major energy firms predictions that the fossil fuel industry will continue to rise.
The Energy Efficiency Financing (EEF) Scheme has revealed that SME’s in the UK are wasting more than £82 million on their energy bills each year. The analysis stated that the overspending on energy was due to SME’s having old energy efficiency technology fitted on their premises and using old equipment that would not be as energy efficient as newer models of the same equipment.
The announcement this week that China will be investing in the UK’s nuclear energy industry has been met by mixed reviews. Under the plans china will own around a third of the new nuclear power station that will open in Hinkley over the next decade.
China will also invest in other nuclear projects throughout the UK said to be worth billions of pounds, and supporters of the plans point to the strength of the Chinese economy and the fact that investment from such a strong economy will help build and strengthen the UK economy.
With news of the ESOS deadline extension sinking in, it has lead to some to question whether the extra time will be enough for some companies. Under the new guidelines companies will need to notify the Environmental Agency if they are going to miss the old deadline of December the 5th, which will then give them until January 29th.
With the extension falling over the Christmas period with factory shutdowns and holidays overlapping, many experts believe that despite the extension a large number of companies will still fail to comply.
The UK’s only planned gas power station is now in doubt after it emerged that Carlton Power, the company who was awarded a government subsidy to build the plant, had failed to secure financial backing. The plant was due to be built in Trafford, Manchester and was due to start producing electricity for the UK in 2018, however that now looks in doubt.
The Environment agency has announced that it will be extending the deadline to comply with ESOS and will not be sanctioning any businesses that miss the December the 5th deadline. Instead the deadline to comply will be moved to January 2016.
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