Utility Week

24 | 22ND - 28TH FEBRUARY 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Almost 17,000 people died last winter as a result of cold hous- ing conditions, figures from the charity National Energy Action (NEA) and climate change think- tank E3G reveal. The figure is almost double that of the 2016/17 winter. In the 2017/18 winter there were 56,300 "excess winter deaths" in the UK, the highest number since 1976. One in three ENERGY Number of deaths caused by cold homes doubled in 2017/18 winter of those deaths (16,890) were attributable to cold homes. The report stated that the health impacts of cold homes, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, falls and injuries and mental ill health, costs the NHS an estimated £1.36 billion each year. Pedro Guertler, energy efficiency programme leader at E3G, said: "The UK has one of the worst records on cold homes- related deaths in Europe. This epidemic is entirely preventable, and E3G and NEA are calling on the UK government in its upcom- ing spending review to reinstate public capital investment in home energy efficiency to fix the cold homes crisis." According to the latest government statistics, there were 786,000 fewer E, F or G This week Council resurrects Victory Energy plan Portsmouth Council votes to reinstate supplier of low-cost renewable electricity for residents Portsmouth Council's Victory Energy scheme may still come to fruition a›er councillors voted to reinstate it. At a meeting of the full coun- cil on 12 February, Labour coun- cillors, who hold the balance of power on Portsmouth Council, joined Conservative councillors in backing reinstatement, so the city may yet buy the company. Conservative group leader and former council leader Donna Jones told Utility Week: "I am hopeful that Vic- tory Energy will be saved by the actions of Labour and Conservative councillors in Portsmouth. Both parties have put the needs of residents first, particularly those in fuel poverty, I hope the Lib Dems follow our lead." Labour councillor Judith Smyth said: "Portsmouth would be foolish and would demonstrate a lack of ambi- tion and confidence in the future if we let this opportu- nity to protect our public services go. We would also be able to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, reduce fuel poverty and bring jobs for local people." Victory Energy was set up in 2017 by the then Con- servative administration. Following the 2018 council elections, the Liberal Democrats formed a minority administration that scrapped the scheme, which had yet to start operations. The decision to abandon the plan, which the Lib Dems said would need to sign up more than half of the city's households to break even, could cost up to £2.5 million. In August last year the council, headed by Liberal Democrat Gerald Vernon-Jackson, said Victory Energy would have needed "many millions of pounds of tax- payers' money" to get up and running, with payback predicted to take more than eight years. AJ ENERGY EDF loses 200,000 customers in a year EDF Energy has lost 200,000 customers, according to its financial results for the year ending 2018, and posted a £172 million operating loss. The company's annual report indicated it had three million residential electricity accounts and 1.9 million gas accounts at the end of 2018, so 200,000 customers le› during 2018. The big six supplier said the drop in earnings was the result of "lower generation output and lower realised prices". It missed out on £69 million in capacity payments for the final quarter following the suspension of the capacity market in November. As for its smart meter roll- out, the company said it had installed 515,000 devices in 2018, taking the total number fitted to over a million. Earlier this month EDF announced it would increase its standard variable tariff by 10 per cent from 1 April to the new level of the price cap. Eon, Npower, British Gas and Scottish Power have also said they will increase their prices. WATER Analytics to help Yorkshire fix leaks Yorkshire Water has started trialling analytics to find and fix leaks in its network with the aim of avoiding interruptions to services for customers. The water and sewerage company will provide real- time flow and pressure data to Servelec Technologies and Arte- sia Consulting, which will use self-learning analytics to identify disruptions in normal patterns. Discrepancies will be flagged and passed back to Yorkshire Water to investigate. The trial started in January and is taking place in Hebden Bridge and west Sheffield, which service a combined total of around 50,000 customers. Sam Bright, who works in Yorkshire Water's innovation team, which is funding the trial, said: "Continuing to provide customers with a constant water supply is one of our five big goals, and this technology should help us do that. "It also has the potential to predict where leaks may occur in the future, which is extremely exciting." The company is investing £200,000 in the year-long trial. If successful, it will be rolled out across the entire network. Yorkshire Water aims to reduce leakages by 40 per cent by 2025. Andrew Roach, head of water distribution at Yorkshire Water, said: "Yorkshire Water is striving to be industry-leading in leakage performance. The use of smart analytics alongside other innovations we are currently developing, will be a key enabler to providing a 'silent service' to the customer, identifying and resolving the issue quicker than we ever have before." Portsmouth has revived its local energy scheme rated fuel-poor homes in 2016 compared with 2010. Adam Scorer, chief executive of NEA, said: "With fuel bills set to rise again, without urgent local and national action we are worried the same will keep hap- pening each winter." Scorer has previously described the spike in winter deaths as "predictable, prevent- able and shameful."

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