Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 17TH - 23RD MAY 2019 | 21 This week Scottish Water starts £30m quality scheme More than 54,000 people are set to benefit from improved water quality as a result of the project Scottish Water is set to improve services for more than 54,000 people in parts of Bearsden, Milngavie, Clydebank, and Strathblane as part of £30 mil- lion project. The company will change the source of its water supply from Burncrook water treatment works (WTW) in West Stirling- shire to Milngavie WTW in East Dunbartonshire. This swap will involve the installation of about 13km of new water mains and the decommissioning of Burncrook. Customers in the north of Bearsden, Blanefield, parts of Strathblane and a large part of Clydebank should receive "the highest quality" drinking water in future. In February, the company launched a £15 million project to improve water quality and the environment along the river Kelvin. The new project will be carried out for Scottish Water by its alliance partners Caledonia Water Alliance and is expected to be completed in about two years. The main section of the new plastic water main will be installed at Bankwell service reservoir in the east to Baljaffray service reservoir in the west. The total of 13km of water main will also include a second stretch of 5.6km to be installed near Baljaffray to Carbeth, where it will connect to the existing network. Several other alternative routes for the pipe were considered, including ones that passed through more built-up areas of Milngavie and Bearsden, but the cur- rent route was chosen for a number of reasons, includ- ing minimising disruption. GJ ELECTRICITY Moixa completes funding round Smart battery company Moixa has announced the completion of a multi-million pound fund- ing round in which a collection of global investors led by Honda have backed its vision for the future of home energy storage. The £8.6 million will support the company's plans for inter- national growth and expansion of its current business – man- aging home batteries, electric vehicles and smart charging, and aggregating battery capacity to provide grid services. Other investors include Itochu corporation, a Japanese investment house and Fortune 500 company, and venture capi- tal investors Contrarian Ventures and First Imagine! Ventures. Moixa manages energy stor- age in 7,000 homes in the UK and Japan. ELECTRICITY 'Ring-fence subsidies for marine energy' Ninety-one MPs have signed a letter to energy and clean growth minister Claire Perry petitioning the government to provide ring- fenced subsidies for wave and tidal power. The letter, written by Con- servative MP Richard Gra- ham, says support for marine energy could help grow the UK economy by billions of pounds and create thousands of new jobs, mostly in coastal areas in need of regeneration. He said contracts for differ- ence (CfD) auctions do not cur- rently support marine renewable technology because they seek to secure early-stage investment in smaller-scale projects that will drive technology down the cost curve to full commercial competitiveness. "However," he added, "the CfD mechanism could be reformed to include a restricted, but competitive, pool of allocated funding for marine technologies." ENERGY Pure Planet cuts its prices again Renewable energy supplier Pure Planet has announced its second price drop of the year because of a fall in wholesale gas prices. Pure Planet has cut the price of gas by 6 per cent on average for a medium user, so a typical dual fuel customer will see their annual bill fall from £986 to £962 a year. The app-based supplier says it is now 23 per cent cheaper than Ofgem's default price cap – currently £1,254. Electricity prices remain unchanged, however, which means the overall price reduc- tion for a dual fuel customer is 2.4 per cent. Work is already under way at the river Kelvin Finance & Investment Stock watch 180 160 140 120 100 80 CENTRICA SHARE PRICE, FIVE DAY Sep 2018 Jan 2019 May 2019 CENTRICA SHARE PRICE, ONE YEAR Centrica's announcement that it lost nearly a quarter of million customers in the first half of 2019 failed to dent the company's share price, which rose slightly aer the news. In a trading update released shortly before its annual general meeting, the British Gas owner said it is facing a "challenging trading environment" owing to the price cap, warmer weather and falling gas prices. Note: Centrica's ex-dividend date fell on 9 May. 110 105 100 95 90 9 May 10 May 13 May 14 May pence pence

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