Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 25TH -31ST JANUARY 2019 | 5 A wetter than average end to the year helped boost Yorkshire Water's reservoir levels, which had been hit by one of the driest summers on record in 2018. The Environment Agency recently approved the water company's application for a drought permit to increase abstraction for the River Wharfe. Another application, for the River Derwent, is currently being considered. ELECTRICITY New onshore wind at lowest level since 2011 New onshore wind installations plunged by nearly 80 per cent last year to their lowest level since 2011, according to the latest figures. Renewable UK's annual snap- shot of onshore wind installations shows that 598MW of new onshore wind was installed in 2018, made up of 263 turbines at 54 sites. This was down from 2,666MW in 2017, when the closure of the Renewables Obligation scheme to new onshore wind contributed to a record level of deployment. This was a big jump on 2016, when 773MW was installed. According to Renewable UK's figures published last week, 4,466MW of onshore wind has received planning consent. This shovel-ready capacity could generate more than 12TWh a year, which the trade body estimated was equivalent to two-thirds of the output of the Wylfa power station, work on which was suspended last week by Hitachi. However, onshore windfarms are currently excluded from competing in contract for difference auctions even though it is now the cheapest new power option available in the UK, according to figures produced in 2017 by consultancy Baringa. According to new analysis by Renewable UK, building on work by the Committee on Climate Change, the closure of existing nuclear plants and other ageing power sta- tions in the 2020s will create a gap of over 55TWh by 2030, equivalent to over 15 per cent of annual demand. ELECTRICITY Renewable energy company plans to become 'Uber of electricity industry' A renewable energy company aims to become the "Uber of the electricity industry" by giving its customers the ability to store and sell renewable energy via an app. Resilience Energy, based in St Albans, is a Virgin startup- backed company. It said it wanted to provide energy self-sufficiency to home- owners and cut their electricity bills by up to 80 per cent. Under its plans customers will be able to use the app to monitor performance and can sell excess electricity and excess battery capacity to help balance the grid's energy supplies. This, it claims, will allow Resil- ience users to turn their homes into "personal power stations" and help the UK reach its carbon reduction target. Resilience founder and chief executive Loic Hares said he hoped to "shake up the monopoly of the big six". He added:"Resilience aims to be the largest decentralised renewable energy generator – the Uber of the electricity industry – and cut the electricity bills of homeowners by up to 80 per cent. "We'll give homeowners every- thing they need to generate and store energy, use what they need on-demand, and sell the excess on the spot market, or to National Grid to help it balance energy supplies. Resilience said it had "future- proofed" its system to allow for the integration of emerging technolo- gies such EV chargers. National Grid has previously said there could be as many as 36 million electric vehicles on UK roads by 2040. WATER Severn Trent tech to alleviate floods Severn Trent has completed a £1.4 million "unique flood allevia- tion" scheme in Gloucestershire using "innovative underground technology". The scheme in Slimbridge saw Severn Trent engineers applying "flood grout" to 600 metres of sewer pipes as part of a UK trial of the method. Flood grouting uses two differ- ent grout materials, inserted into sewers in stages. The grout flows through the damaged sections of pipe into the surrounding soil particles and then hardens around the sewer pipe. 1,035 The Energy Ombudsman Energy last year conducted more than 1,000 investigations into complaints about energy supplier Solarplicity, ranked bottom in the Which? satisfaction survey. "This news deepens our profound concern about the government's ability to meet its own climate targets" Labour energy spokesperson Alan Whitehead says the government's nuclear strategy is in "meltdown" after Hitachi's announcement about Wylfa and Oldbury (see lead story opposite).

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