Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 14TH - 20TH SEPTEMBER 2018 | 5 WATER Water firms take environment oath Nine UK water companies, along with 20 non-governmental organisations, have joined together to create a set of "shared principles" to improve the health of the environment. The shared principles include: greater collaboration on policy and projects; promoting greater awareness of the links between water management and the natural environment; working together to achieve and build upon water framework directive obligations; sharing key data sets; and joint efforts to enhance and improve the resilience of water-based ecosystems. The organisations involved in the pledge intend for the shared principles to deliver "more effective joint working" on environmental and wildlife issues. Environment secretary Michael Gove visited Anglian Water last week to see how water supplies are being maintained. He went to sites in Gazeley and Newmarket in Suffolk, where the company talked him through its "sector- leading" approach to leakage and how it is building resilience in its systems. A report into decarbonisation by Imperial College London and Ovo Energy says increasing residential flexibility could cut energy costs by almost £7 billion. The "Future Survival" decarbonisation scenario in Blueprint for a Post-Carbon Society predicts a total of £6.9 billion in whole-system costs, or £256 per household. This scenario envisages a high uptake of electric vehicles (25 million) and electric heating (21 million homes) and a high penetration of low-cost renewable power generation (93 per cent). It would reduce carbon emissions by 65 per cent. "Net zero would have seemed beyond our reach when the Climate Change Act was passed in 2008… it is now both achievable and necessary" Simon Clarke, Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, speaks as 131 MPs sign a letter to Theresa May calling on the government to adopt a net zero greenhouse gas emissions target before 2050. DECARBONISATION COULD SLASH ENERGY COSTS 400 300 200 100 0 Today Burning Stepping Future (2016) Platform Stone Survival Industrial and agriculture Residential Other transport Other road transport Passenger cars Other energy supply Electricity sector Scenarios: Total carbon emissions (MtCO2e) 17.1% The energy sector is "falling behind" all other sectors in implementing data analytics because only 17.1 per cent of energy companies are implementing a data-driven strategy, according to Exasol. £1.5bn Clean energy has been promised a share of an extra £1.5 billion per annum pledged by Nicola Sturgeon for infrastructure in Scotland. NuGen to cut jobs at its Moorside plant NuGen has announced that is axeing more than half of the 100-plus strong team on its troubled nuclear new-build project at Moorside in Cumbria, which will be slimmed down to fewer than 40. The posts to be shed were identified following a consultation. A NuGen spokesman told Utility Week the cuts were distributed across the company and chief executive Tom Samson remains in post.

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