Utility Week

4 | 5TH - 11TH APRIL 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Seven days... Shale boom cuts price of gas to record low In west Texas last week, you could not give gas away, as prices dropped to record lows. Companies trying to offload natural gas at the Waha hub, in the booming shale oil region of the Permian Basin, found they had to pay operators with pipeline capacity to take it away. The gas price at Waha registered a low last week of minus $2.50 per million British Thermal Units and closed at minus $1.95, its lowest level since S&P Global Platts started collecting the data back in 1994. Financial Times, 31 March South Korea likely to miss renewable target South Korea is likely to miss its 2030 renewable energy target even though the country's renewables capacity is expected to triple from 2019, according to consultants Wood Mackenzie. South Korea, Asia's fourth- largest economy, relies on coal and nuclear power to produce about 70 per cent of its electricity, and according to Wood Mackenzie ana- lysts the country will achieve only a 17 per cent renewables mix by 2030. Reuters, 27 March Geothermal 'threat to fresh water' Solar farms can interrupt ecosys- tems by fencing off and shading swathes of desert, and geothermal energy can jeopardise freshwater resources. In Hidalgo County, US, the deep geothermal water is dirty with naturally occurring contaminants – especially high levels of fluoride. "Geothermal isn't terribly new; we just don't have a regulatory framework for most of this stuff," said Ben Shelton, legislative direc- tor of Conservation Voters New Mexico, an environmental lobbying group based in Santa Fe. The Guardian, 26 March National media Ofwat will 'closely scrutinise' revised PR19 business plans B y the time of going to press, most water compa- nies in England and Wales should already have resubmit- ted their PR19 business plans to Ofwat a•er the regulator took a tough stance on all but three at the end of January. Ofwat will scrutinise the revised documents to determine if the companies have demon- strated they have addressed the shortcomings Ofwat identified when it published its initial assessments. The regulator placed four companies in the "significant scrutiny" category and ten in "slow track" for their plans, covering 2020-25. Only Severn Trent, South West Water and United Utili- ties were placed in "fast track", while no companies were deemed to be "exceptional". Ofwat said at the time that it would be "pushing" the remain- ing companies to go further to achieve the "new standard" set by the fast-tracked companies. Thames Water, Southern Water, Affinity Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy all found themselves in the significant scrutiny category, The regulator said the four firms would have to "substan- tially rework" their plans and would be under increased regu- latory scrutiny. The remaining companies Ofwat deemed to have "further work to do" in slow track were Anglian Water, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Yorkshire Water, Northumbrian Water, Wessex Water, Bristol Water, Portsmouth Water, South East Water, SES Water and South Staffs Water. David Black, senior director of Ofwat, told Utility Week: "We will scrutinise closely the infor- mation the remaining companies submit to make sure they have addressed our concerns and now have plans that deliver more of what matters." The regulator is expected to publish final determinations for all water companies on 11 December 2019. KP See analysis of Ofwat's initial business plan verdicts, p12 "Thirty years on from privatisation, it's clear it is not working. It's time to bring our water sector back into public hands" Stuart Fegan, national officer for GMB, responding to an increase in domestic water bills. STORY BY NUMBERS Latest BEIS figures on smart meter rollout Almost 14 million smart and advanced smart meters were operating in British homes and businesses in the fourth quarter of 2018. 8% Latest BEIS figures show an 8 per cent increase from the previous quarter. -16% Compared with the same period last year, instal- lation activity by large energy suppliers is down by 16 per cent. 12.65m smart and advanced meters were operating in domestic properties as of 31 December. 1.12m meters were operating in non-domestic properties.

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