Business energy

The UK’s oil and gas industry has warned the Prime Minister that the cost of a hard Brexit on the industry could be £500 million a year. This would be if the UK found itself using World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, which would increase the cost of trading oil and gas from £600 million a year to £1.1 billion.

Ofgem has announced that it will be bringing in legislation which will prevent energy suppliers from back billing their customers by more than 12 months. Back billing is when an energy supplier charges a customer for energy when they discover a fault in previous bills. This usually happens when a supplier has charged a customer for an estimated read, when in reality they have used much more than that.

The UK Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the spring budget last week and with it a number of policies which effect the energy industry. The UK will be making a transition into a low carbon economy, which will cost around £12.6bn by 2020 and the government plans to recover this money by increasing environmental taxes.

It has been announced that the UK will double the amount of electricity it receives from France after plans to build a £1.1 billion cross channel cable was given the go ahead. The cable will be privately funded and will run from near Portsmouth in the UK to Le Havre in France.

The company behind the investment have said that the cable will come online in 2021 and will supply the UK with up to 2 gigawatts of electricity, the equivalent of the power for up to four million homes.

The National Grid has talked about a smart energy revolution in recent weeks, but what is smart energy and how will it have an affect on the UK’s energy system? In recent years technology advances in the energy industry have been accelerating dramatically and it is hoped that these advances will reduce the UK’s need to build more power stations.

What is smart energy?

Independent energy consultant, Square One Utilities has announced a contract with Jarrow-based electrical components manufacturer, HVR International Ltd to manage its energy supply services.

Square One Utilities acted for HVR International in 2015 and has now been put on a formal footing as a result of the relationship it has built with the firm.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have heard that the UK voted to leave the European Union in a historic referendum. The result of the referendum was quickly followed by the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron who said he did not want to be the leader that would take the UK down this path.

Throughout the referendum campaign trail we had heard a lot about the negative impacts Brexit would have on the UK economy and more specifically the UK’s energy industry. However, now the UK will definitely be leaving the EU, industry expects are reacting to the news.

The UK Government has said that they will be streamlining the energy tax landscape for businesses, which will include simplifying policy and regulation. When the Conservative Government was elected in 2015 they believed that the business energy tax landscape had become over complicated and had became a burden for businesses. Energy efficiency policy was also criticised with a number of schemes being very similar, using up a lot of administrative time within businesses.

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd will say that leaving the EU will cause a massive increase in energy prices. She will be citing a report by the National Grid which outlined what would happen if the UK was to leave the EU and loose access to the Internal Energy Market (IEM).

Energy industry stakeholders have stated that a lack of direction is costing the industry investment and also resulting in lost opportunities. The Government has said that they will address this and consult with experts from within the industry.