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Shell rumoured to be ‘keen’ on UK offshore wind

by with No Comment Brexit and Government Energy NewsBusiness Utilities NewsEnergy NewsNewsUtility Companies

Oil giant Shell are rumoured to be keen on entering the UK offshore wind market, according the the firm’s new energy president.

Mark Gainsborough, executive vice president of Shell New Energies, told Reuters during an interview last week that his firm intends to buy up UK seabed leases or buy up stakes in existing projects.

Shell recently bought a majority stake in a floating wind project planned for 2020

Originally investing 33% in the ‘TetraSpar’ floating foundation demonstrator turbine last year, Shell will now own 66% of the project.

Shell also pledged up to £1.4billion in new renewable energies last year.

Mr Gainsborough told Reuters: “We absolutely would like to get a position in the UK offshore (wind) market.

“To make sure we stay relevant in the energy transition, we need to look at how we can bring lower-carbon solutions.”

He added that Brexit was unlikely to “dampen” his firm’s intention to move into the UK offshore wind marketplace.

Mr Gainsborough said: “The thing that is more important is there continue to be supportive government policies.”

In December, Shell and renewables developer EDP Renewables joined forces to compete for offshore wind projects as Mayflower Wind Energy.

A 50/50 joint venture, the deal will see Mayflower compete in upcoming offshore wind auctions.

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BILL HIKE EDF Energy to hike gas and electricity bills by 7.2% from June – adding £78 a year

by with No Comment Brexit and Government Energy NewsEnergy NewsNews

It’s the second price rise in less than six months and it will add an average of £78 a year to bills for 1.5million customers

EDF ENERGY is pushing up prices by an average of 7.2 per cent from June – the SECOND price rise to hit millions of customers in less than six months.

Gas prices will increase by an average of 5.5 per cent and electricity prices will go up by 9 per cent, the firm said.

It means EDF’s 1.5 million dual fuel customers will pay an average of £78 a year more after the rise.

Customers on fixed deals or prepayment meters are unaffected by the increase.

In December, the firm announced that electricity prices would rise by 8.4 per cent from March 2017.

At the same time it announced a 5.2 per cent cut in gas prices in January.

The combined effect of the previously announced changes and today’s rise means a dual fuel direct debit customer will see their bills go up by an average of 8.5 per cent – adding £91 a year to bills.

The firm blamed the rising cost of wholesale energy as well as other long-term industry obligations, including the cost of rolling out smart meters.

EDF Energy CEO Vincent de Rivaz said: “I know that price rises are never welcome, but the industry is facing significant cost increases. To be a sustainable and responsible business, we aim to make a fair margin in supplying customers.

“This fair margin allows us to invest for the long term, in particular in good service, innovation and smart metering.”

Hannah Maundrell, editor in chief of money.co.uk said: “This is an insult for many already struggling families and a reminder that we all need to be tightening our purse strings to cope with rising prices.

“Everyone should shop around for gas and electricity at least once a year – there’s no point sticking with the same company when you could pay hundreds less for exactly the same service elsewhere.”

The latest hike comes after all of the ‘big six’ energy firms announced a slew of price changes earlier this year.

last month, E.ON announced it was pushing up prices by almost 14 per cent – adding £97 a year to bills from April 26.

Npower added £109 a year to bills – a rise of 9.8 per cent – from March 16.

Scottish Power pushed up bills by an average of 7.8 per cent – adding £86 a year to bills – from March 31.

Meanwhile British Gas announced a price freeze for its standard variable tariff customers until August.

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Hurricane Energy shares soar after it makes “largest undeveloped” UK oil find in waters west of Shetland

by with No Comment Brexit and Government Energy NewsEnergy NewsNewsUtility Companies

North Sea oil exploration company Hurricane Energy has made what it describes as the “largest undeveloped” oil find so far in the UK’s waters.

Hurricane has proven its Halifax prospect and nearby Lancaster field are part of the same huge reservoir that could contain 1bn barrels of recoverable oil.

The company’s shares whipped up a storm after the announcement, climbing throughout the day to close up 8.76 per cent at 59p, up from a closing price of 54.25p per share on Friday. This time last year, Hurricane’s stock was worth around 11p per share.

Read more: Open offer and £70m share placing whips up a storm for Hurricane Energy

In February, Hurricane said its initial 300m barrel estimate from the Lancaster field was too conservative and that it was expecting a “material uplift” in anticipated reserves.

An analysis of the Halifax well found a column of oil-bearing rock of at least 1,156m, which was described as “very significant”. The company had expected a prospect of a 700m oil column.

Production of the area, which is located around 60 miles west of Shetland, is expected to start in the first half of 2019.

Read more: The UK has awarded 25 oil exploration licenses in untapped North Sea areas

Hurricane’s next step will be to procure funding to help it pay for an early production system, which is expected to require several hundred million dollars.

This could take the form of equity fundraising, debt fundraising or a partnership agreement with an oil major – or a combination of these.

“This is a highly significant moment for Hurricane,” said chief executive Dr Robert Trice. “I am delighted that the Halifax Well results support the company’s view that its substantial Lancaster discovery has been extended to include the Halifax licence. We believe that the Greater Lancaster Area is a single hydrocarbon accumulation, making it the largest undeveloped discovery on the UK Continental Shelf.”

Read more: Oil prices edge up on Saudi promise to cut US exports

Shetland, Highlands and Islands Member of Scottish Parliament Maree Todd said Hurricane’s find was “a significant discovery and a welcome reminder of the huge untapped potential that remains in Scottish waters”.

“Perhaps this welcome news for the industry might, at long last, spur the UK government into action in providing long overdue support for Scotland’s energy sector,” Todd added.

SUEZ Announces Completion Of 3 UK Energy From Waste Plants

by with No Comment Brexit and Government Energy NewsEnergy NewsNewsUtility Companies

Waste management company, SUEZ, has announced the completion of four new energy from waste (EfW) plants. Three of which are in the UK.

The fourth is in Poland and, combined, boosts the group’s recovery capacity by an additional 1.2m tonnes of residual waste.

The UK plants are located in Wilton (near Newscastle), Severnside (near Bristol) and Cornwall.

In 2017, SUEZ will recover more than 9m tonnes of waste in 55 EfW plants in Europe, compared with 8.5m of tonnes recovered into energy in 2016.

Seven TWh of energy will be sold, which is the equivalent of the annual consumption of a city with 2m inhabitants, such as Vienna or Hamburg, and will avoid more than 1.5 m tonnes of CO2 emissions, SUEZ says.

Jean-Marc Boursier, Group Senior Executive VP in charge of Recycling & Recovery Europe at SUEZ, said: “Waste can become secondary raw materials. Waste that cannot be recycled is also an energy resource with three benefits as it is local, low-carbon and affordable for both local public authorities and industries.

“We are convinced of the growth potential for the Group in Europe and on international markets. Our ambition is to recover more than 10m tonnes of waste as sustainable energy by 2020”.

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SSE the latest ‘big six’ firm to put its prices up

by with No Comment Brexit and Government Energy NewsEnergy NewsNews

Customers of SSE are set to see their electricity bills rise by 14.9% from 28 April, as the company became the latest of the “big six” energy suppliers to increase prices.

The firm, formerly known as Scottish & Southern Energy, said its typical dual fuel (gas and electricity) customer will see their annual bill rise by 6.9%, or £73 a year. It blamed its first electricity price rise in three-and-a-half years on government policies that require all energy customers to subsidise renewable energy, and the cost of a smart meter installation programme. Gas prices for the company’s 2.8 million customers remain unchanged.

 

Will Morris, SSE’s managing director for retail, said he “deeply regretted” having to put prices up. “We have seen significant increases in electricity costs, which are outside our control,” he said. “Without an increase we would have been supplying electricity to domestic customers at a loss.”

Four of the other big six suppliers have already announced price rises this year, while British Gas has held its prices until August. Scottish Power’s standard electricity prices will increase by an average of 10.8% and gas by 4.7% on 31 March. Npower is raising its standard tariff electricity prices by 15% from 16 March, and gas prices by 4.8%. EDF Energy cut its gas prices by 5.2% in January, but its electricity prices rose by 8.4% on 1 March. E.ON is increasing electricity prices by an average of 13.8% and gas prices by 3.8% on 26 April.

Mark Todd of switching service energyhelpline described the SSE increase as a hammer blow to households. “SSE lost 130,000 customers last year, and are likely to lose even more as customers switch to beat the hikes. The company announced in February that gas usage was up by 10% and electricity usage was up by 2% in 2016, meaning they benefited from higher usage last year and will now benefit from higher prices in 2017. Customers must not continue to stay loyal to the energy giants. Move to a low-cost fixed-rate tariff and you can beat these price rises.”

 

Todd says a typical SSE standard tariff customer will pay £1,141 a year after this price rise, yet could get a deal as cheap as £834 a year by switching.

A two-year investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority concluded last June that 70% of domestic customers of the big six were on expensive standard variable tariffs and could save more than £300 by switching. As a result, customers have been paying £1.4bn a year more than they would in a fully competitive market, the CMA found.

The government is expected to address concerns about the energy market when it publishes a consumer green paper in the spring. John Penrose, a former minister at the Cabinet Office and a Conservative MP, has called on the government to introduce a relative price cap, where the worst-value standard variable tariffs are no more than a certain percentage more expensive than the best-value fixed deals. He said: “We still get lots of competition, lots of choice, but it does mean the most vulnerable of us or those of us with least time to switch suppliers don’t get ripped off.”

Penrose secured a House of Commons debate this week on energy bills. “In most things in life, if you are a loyal customer you are valued and rewarded. But apparently for your energy bill, loyal customers in the view of big energy firms are there to be exploited and not rewarded – and that doesn’t seem fair,” he said.

£511m saved on energy bills by negotiating

by with No Comment Brexit and Government Energy NewsEnergy NewsNews

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According to a You Gov survey commissioned by npower, Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK saved £511 million on their energy bills in the last 12 months and around 45% of them saved up to £10,000 per year.

This is all because they negotiated a better deal from their suppliers, with as many as 93% of SMEs stating that taking the time to negotiate contracts really is worth while with average savings per business valued around £2,800.

However, despite the financial benefits of negotiating with energy companies, still 70% of SMEs don’t think to ask for discounts and price savings.

To encourage more businesses to negotiate with their suppliers, the Big Six has launched a campaign which offers tips on how to get the most out of their negotiations, including the importance of research and planning ahead.

Philip Scholes, Head of npower Business said: “This research shows that businesses across the UK are reaping the dividends of negotiating their supplier contracts. However, not all firms are entering discussions with their provider, which could prove to be a missed opportunity in the long term.

“That’s why we launched this campaign – we’d encourage all British businesses to look at their supplier costs and particularly their annual energy costs to help improve their bottom line.”

Earlier this month, the CMA stated SMEs paid around £280 million more per year between 2007 and 2014 to the Big Six.

Gas Bills to be cut by 7% announce Ecotricity

by with No Comment Brexit and Government Energy NewsEnergy NewsNews

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Britain’s greenest energy company, is cutting its customers’ gas bills by 7% from April. Ecotricity believe the cuts, available to both new and existing customers, will save the average customer nearly £50 a year on their only tariff – ‘Green Gas.’

The company said it was making the cut following recent falls in the wholesale gas price – and called for other energy companies to better reflect wholesale reductions in their own price cuts.

The price cuts follow similar price cuts from large energy suppliers in the wake of plummeting wholesale gas prices. However, Ecotricity’s cuts are the largest in the industry so far. Earlier this week British Gas and EDF Energy cut their gas prices by 5%.

In the past 12 months the price of wholesale gas has fallen by as much as 35%, caused by lower global commodity prices and a mild winter.

Ecotricity said the price cuts would save the average customer £46 a year. The utility, which has one flat-rate gas tariff for all its customers, called for other utilities to make more aggressive price cuts in light of the fall in wholesale gas prices.

Founder Dale Vince said the 5% cuts from the rest of the industry do not go far enough.

He added: “We think 7% better reflects the reduction in wholesale costs. The 5% reductions that we’ve seen so far around the industry just aren’t enough.

“It’s all of our customers who’ll get this reduction, too – no matter when they joined us or how they choose to pay; that’s part of our ethical approach – one tariff and one price for everybody. We think that’s how it should be.”

Ecotricity’s Green Gas tariff is the only one in Britain with a green component and the only one with a frack-free promise – the company also recently announced that they’ll be making their own green gas from grass using its Green Gas Mills.

Mr Vince added: “A new kind of gas is entering the energy market, the green kind – and it’s the genuine alternative to fracking in Britain.

“Oil prices have fallen, so we’re seeing reductions in gas prices across the industry now – but one thing is for sure, they’ll go up again. It’s only by making our own green gas in Britain that we can keep energy bills affordable in the long term by creating energy independence – and we won’t need to frack the countryside to get our gas.”

Last month, Ecotricity lodged a planning application for its first anaerobic digestion plant, which if approved will be the first of three Green Gas Mills from the energy provider.

The plant will create gas from grass and rye sourced from within 10 miles of the plant, and will also include training facilities to offer local college students work experience in the anaerobic digestion industry.

100,000 people could die over the next 15 years because they can’t afford to heat their homes.

 

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ScottishPower to cut gas prices by underwhelming 5.4% from March

by with No Comment Brexit and Government Energy NewsEnergy NewsNews

 

ScottishPower has become the third large energy company from the ‘Big Six’ suppliers to announce household price cuts this year, these cuts are scheduled to reduce average annual bills by £32.

 

ScottishPower have announced they are to cut its standard gas prices by 5.4% from mid-March, saving a typical household £32 a year.

 

The Glasgow based company is the third of the ‘Big Six’ suppliers to announce a gas price reduction this year, after pressure from politicians to reflect the falling price of wholesale costs in a fairer tariff.

 

The reduction, which will affect about one million households on the supplier’s standard variable tariff, will not come into effect until March 15, meaning customers are still paying more during this colder winter weather.

 

Earlier this year E.On was the first to announce a 5.1% price, effective from February 1, this was subsequently followed by SSE, who announced they will slash their prices by 5.3% after Easter.

 

Stephen Murray, of MoneySuperMarket, said ScottishPower’s price cut was “hardly worth shouting about”. Murray stated “These price cuts are long overdue considering the sharp falls seen in wholesale gas prices over the last year, but they just don’t hit the mark.

 

“It will still leave these customers paying on average nearly £300 more than those who have shopped around and switched to one of the many fixed price deals already available.”

Introduction to Business Utilities UK

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