Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 21ST - 27TH JUNE 2019 | 27 Customers Tripling onshore wind capac- ity from 13GW today to 35GW in 2035 would cut annual energy bills by £50, according to research commissioned by Renewable UK. The study, conducted by Vivid Economics, concludes that electricity prices would fall by around 7 per cent and the buil- dout would create thousands of new jobs – the number of people ELECTRICITY Tripling onshore wind capacity 'could cut energy bills by £50' directly employed in the sector would rise from 5,300 to 14,000. Renewable UK deputy chief executive Emma Pinchbeck said: "Now the government has announced it will set a legally binding target to reach net zero emissions by 2050, it needs to make use of the cheapest tech- nology to get there… people are demanding immediate action on climate change. "They also want lower electricity bills in the decades ahead, and skilled jobs. Onshore wind is treated as the Cinderella of energy policy by government but in reality, it should be their fairy godmother – one of the few technologies that can grant all of these wishes. "The government's climate advisers are also recommending more onshore wind because it's This week Shell Energy pays for price cap delays Supplier charged 12,000 customer accounts a total of £100,740 above the level of the price cap Shell Energy Retail will pay out £390,000 a•er it overcharged customers on its default tariffs when the price cap was intro- duced at the start of this year. The supplier will refund and compensate about 12,000 customer accounts and pay £200,000 to Ofgem's consumer redress fund. Shell Energy has apologised to the customers affected and said it always intended to re-credit them. Ofgem's price cap monitoring found that between January and March 2019, Shell Energy Retail over- charged about 12,000 electricity and gas customer accounts (8,800 customers) a total of £100,736.63 above the level of the price cap. Shell Energy, which was trading under the name First Utility at the time of the breach, has agreed to refund customers by crediting their accounts and will pay extra compensation to rectify its failings. Ofgem said about 6,200 Shell Energy Retail customer accounts were on tariffs that did not comply with the price cap, so they were paying a price higher than the level of the cap for their energy supply. The company has agreed to refund these customers and pay a further £62,000 in compensation (£10 per fuel). Energy price reductions under the price cap for the remaining 5,600 customer accounts were delayed until customers requested a change to a cheaper means of paying for their energy. Shell Energy has agreed to refund these customers and pay £29,000 in compensa- tion (£5 per fuel). In light of the steps the supplier has taken to address the error, the regulator has said that it will take no formal action. KP ENERGY Ofgem sets out its vulnerability focus Ofgem has published its dra• consumer vulnerability strategy 2025, which outlines five areas of focus for the energy regulator. Over the next few years Ofgem anticipates that digi- talisation, decarbonisation and decentralisation are likely to rad- ically change business models, creating new costs and benefits and capability challenges for consumers. Furthermore it believes pro- grammes like the future charging and access review, RIIO2, the future retail energy market review and half-hourly settlement will "fundamentally change" the way the market operates. It also said it will consider the appropriateness of either retaining or replacing the default tariff price cap in 2023 at the latest, which is currently subject to a ministerial decision a•er a regulatory assessment. In the foreword to the online consultation document, Ofgem's chief executive Dermot Nolan said the market cannot be consid- ered to be functioning well until it is meeting the specific needs of a "wide range of people across a wide range of circumstances". Nolan added: "We need to make sure the most vulnerable are adequately protected in this future market. These change pro- grammes, in different ways, will redefine how the energy market functions to bring greater ben- efits to all energy consumers." WATER Thames sorry for Hampton burst pipe Thames Water will carry out a "full investigation" a•er a burst pipe in Hampton caused water shortages across areas of west and southwest London. Thames said engineers worked "around the clock" to fix the 85cm wide pipe, 2.5 metres underground at its Hampton treatment works. The incident le• about 100,000 properties in the capital with little or no water, causing schools to close and hospital appointments to be cancelled. Thames said it delivered hundreds of bottles of water to customers on its priority services list, including people with medi- cal and mobility issues. Ofwat warned that it expects Thames to "identify and under- stand the root cause of what went wrong". Ofwat said: "We expect all companies dealing with situations like this to be doing everything they can to rectify the problem, to keep custom- ers regularly informed and, in particular, to ensure those who might need more help get it." Labour's London Assembly environment spokesperson, Leonie Cooper AM, added: "Time and again Thames Water have been warned that the leaks from their network are unac- ceptably wasteful, and that they are letting customers down with inadequate communication and compensation in emergencies." A total of 8,800 customers were overcharged part of the cheapest route to net zero emissions by 2050. Now is the perfect time for ministers to take a fresh look at this key technology." In a report published in May, the Committee on Climate Change said the UK may need up to 35GW of onshore wind capac- ity by 2035 to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century.

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