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Octopus

A green energy business says a “substantial” number of the 1,000 new jobs it is creating will be in Leicester. Sustainable power firm Octopus Energy said it is planning 1,000 new jobs across England including a new technology, data science and artificial intelligence centre in Manchester. Octopus Energy says moves like theirs will mean the UK will become “the Silicon Valley of energy”. The Leicester firm’s announcement was welcomed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson who said it will create “exciting opportunities across the country for those who want to be at the cutting edge of the global green revolution”.

Leicester Mercury 5th Oct 2020 read more »

Ecotricity

Green energy provider Ecotricity has signed an offtake agreement that will see it purchase Renewable Obligation Certificates linked to a portfolio of operational solar projects owned by UK energy company Solar Growth Limited for 15 years. The deal, which was facilitated and tendered by Bristol-based energy marketplace Renewable Exchange, involves a number of solar farms owned by Armstrong Capital, the London-based asset manager that owns Solar Growth Limited, spread across the south west, south, and East Midlands regions of England.

Business Green 21st Oct 2020 read more »

Energy Bills

Millions of energy customers have been handed a lifeline to help keep the lights on, after the regulator said firms must offer flexible repayments and emergency credit. Ofgem today confirmed plans to bolster protections for people who are struggling to pay their energy bills in the winter and require companies to support their customers. This could include giving prepayment customers emergency credit if they are unable to top up their meters, possibly because they temporarily cannot afford to pay or they cannot get to a shop because they are self-isolating.

Telegraph 19th Oct 2020 read more »

Companies

Britain’s biggest gas network has come under fire for taking taxpayer support despite paying a £135m dividend to owners, including the Chinese state, as the country went into lockdown. The parent company of Cadent Gas, which supplies 11 million homes and business across the country, handed its shareholders the sum on March 26 — three days after Boris Johnson ordered the shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Times 18th Oct 2020 read more »

EDF

EDF aims to unveil a new, cheaper-to-build version of its EPR nuclear reactor by mid-2021, the French power company said on Thursday. EDF has faced costly delays in the construction of some plants, including its Flamanville 3 nuclear project in France which is more than a decade behind schedule. The French state last year called on the company to improve its record. EDF, which is majority-owned by the government, said in a presentation that next generation EPR reactors would benefit from a reduction in necessary preparatory studies. The group said it was also planning on bringing in new oversight measures for its major projects, after a government audit last year highlighted planning deficiencies and poor coordination at some sites. EDF added in its presentation that it would introduce more of a results-driven relationship with suppliers. The government has put off a decision on whether or not to build new nuclear reactors until after the Flamanville 3 project is operating, which is now expected at the end of 2022.

Reuters 15th Oct 2020 read more »

SSE

SCOTTISH Hydroelectric owner SSE is raising around £1 billion to invest in favoured renewable energy assets such as windfarms by selling stakes in big facilities that generate power from waste. The Perth-based energy giant has agreed to sell its 50 per cent stakes in the plants in Yorkshire to an infrastructure Investment fund for £995 million cash. The company said it will use the proceeds to support its plans to invest £7.5bn in low-carbon energy infrastructure over the next five years and to reduce its debts.

Herald 14th Oct 2020 read more »

Telegraph 13th Oct 2020 read more »

Times 14th Oct 2020 read more »

EDF

French auditors have delivered a stinging blow to the French nuclear industry with a withering report on the “failure” of EDF’s under construction Flamanville plant. They could have called it “How not to build a nuclear power plant”. Instead, magistrates at France’s Cours des Comptes, the country’s supreme public spending watchdog, went for the anodyne title “The EPR sector: thematic public report”. Yet the 148-page probe from the state auditors, focusing on EDF’s under construction European pressurised reactor (EPR) at Flamanville, pulls no punches. The newbuild plant is a “failure” with “huge” financial consequences and implications for the French nuclear industry and beyond, it says. Released in July, the report charts the steps that have led EDF and former reactor builder Areva (now Framatome), into a costly mire: from a far too hasty launch, through mismanagement and a striking lack of oversight to a string of costly setbacks. “It is not only an exceptional documentation of the failures and mishaps of project management, engineering and huge financial consequences, it is foremost an unprecedented illustration of the total absence of state oversight,” writes nuclear industry critic and independent consultant Mycle Schneider in the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2020, published in September. EDF alone cannot finance the building of new reactors without some sort of public guarantee, the auditors say. But the estimated costs of power generated by new units would have to be competitive to justify asking consumers and taxpayers to cough up, it adds. And given that nuclear costs are rising while those of renewables are falling, “it doesn’t make sense at all for EDF to go ahead with more EPRs in France compared with pulling their weight towards renewables”,

Montel News 12th Oct 2020 read more »

Utilities

ScottishPower has taken on the customers of Tonik Energy following the latter going bust last week. Ofgem chose the supplier to take on the 130,000 domestic customers after a competitive process, the regulator said, with these customers switched on Saturday 10 October.

Current 12th Oct 2020 read more »

EDF

The European Commission, according to a document obtained by Reporterre, intends to impose on the French State the disintegration of the EDF group in the name of respect for competition rules. The “reform” of Brussels goes even further than the government project Hercules, which wants to dismember EDF .

Reporterre 8th Oct 2020 read more »

Utilities

Tonik Energy has become the latest small supplier to go bust just weeks after failing to pay its Renewable Obligation (RO) fees. The supplier – which has around 130,000 domestic customers – is now ceasing to trade. It was named as one of six suppliers to have missed the deadline for paying RO fees, with Ofgem stating they also hadn’t provided “adequate assurances” they will make the payments by the late payment deadline of 31 October.

Current News 6th Oct 2020 read more »

Utility Week 6th Oct 2020 read more »

At least half a dozen energy suppliers have collapsed this year as the pandemic amplified the strain of a highly competitive market and razor-thin margins. There is growing concern among suppliers that some customers will not be able to pay for their gas and electricity in the coming months if they are made redundant once the Government’s furlough scheme ends. A number of firms have said some customers are cancelling direct debits – an early indication they are struggling to make payments.

Telegraph 6th Oct 2020 read more »

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