Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 23RD - 29TH NOVEMBER 2018 | 5 "Chris Scoggins is no longer acting in his capacity of CEO" Water retail market operator MOSL said in an email to members seen by Utility Week that it is looking for a new chief executive. Electricity North West has launched a "Powering our Communities Fund" as part of its community and local energy strategy supporting the growth of community energy to help meet the UK's target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. Organisations can apply for up to £15,000 to engage communities in energy issues and energy efficiency; support vulnerable customers or reduce fuel poverty; or work towards smart low- carbon solutions. ENERGY UK wants to play its part in EU ETS after Brexit The UK would remain linked into the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) under the blueprint on future post-Brexit co-operation published last week. The political declaration, laying out the proposed future relationship between the EU and the UK, was published alongside the draft with- drawal agreement, which sparked the resignations of two cabinet ministers on the day. The declaration states that the new framework will consider co-operation on carbon pricing by "linking a UK national greenhouse gas emissions trading system" with the EU ETS. And it said the framework for the EU-UK relationship would "facilitate" technical co-operation between electricity and gas network operators as well as organisations planning and using interconnectors. The framework also includes "wide-ranging" nuclear co- operation between the UK and the Euratom nuclear community. ELECTRICITY T-3 auction 'will run next year' The government intends to run the postponed T-4 auction, which was due to take place in February, as a T-3 auction a year later, National Grid has revealed. The capacity market was suspended until further notice after the European Court of Justice overturned a 2014 decision by the European Commission not to raise objections to the scheme under state aid rules (see lead story). In an industry briefing, National Grid said the postponed T-4 "is intended to be run as a T-3 auction in next year's auction round, subject to the commission completing its formal investigation and providing state aid approval for the main capacity market scheme". It said the government will also seek separate state aid approval to run a "one-off replacement T-1 auction". £219m Welsh Water has revealed a record level of investment over the six months to the end of September and said it is on track to spend £460 million in 2018/19. £5bn International trade secretary Liam Fox has launched a multi-billion pound portfolio of UK energy and infrastructure projects to be marketed to international investors. Severn Trent opens £3m testing facility Severn Trent has opened a £3 million laboratory in Church Wilne, near Nottingham. The accredited microbiology testing site will employ more than 40 people, who will carry out some 200,000 tests per year. Shaun Dowen, water regulations and public health lead at Severn Trent, said: "We've made the labs bigger and upgraded our equipment, so we can now bring all our sampling and micro- biological analysis in the East Midlands under one roof, enabling continu- ous improvement in the service we deliver for our customers."

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