Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 5TH - 11TH JULY 2019 | 5 "We don't believe management 'spin' and think our members' action in the coming months will have a detrimental impact on energy production" Unite regional officer Kelvin Mawer says a series of 48-hour strikes by workers at Drax will hurt. Nearly three-quarters of Conservative voters support onshore wind, according to a survey carried out by Survation for the Conservative Environment Network. It revealed that 74 per cent of people who voted Conservative in the last general election support onshore wind, compared with 71 per cent of all voters. It also found that just 37 per cent of Tory voters support fracking, compared with a quarter of all people. ELECTRICITY CBI calls for more nuclear power The Confederation of British Indus- try (CBI) has called on ministers to build more nuclear power stations to help the UK reach its target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In a letter to business secretary Greg Clark, the CBI said it saw an "important role" for new nuclear power stations as part of a "diverse, low-carbon energy mix". In particular, the business group said it supported plans to build nuclear power at the "right price and affordability" for consumers. It urged the government to explore different ways of financing nuclear power, including using the regulated asset base model. The letter also calls for government support on the devel- opment of more small modular reactors. "We believe such measures could encourage foreign and domestic capital investment into new nuclear projects, which can help us meet the UK's carbon reduction targets, while benefiting from the industrial and economic benefits of a domestic nuclear con- struction industry," the letter said. ELECTRICITY Elexon tweaks code for virtual power plants Elexon has implemented a series of tweaks to the Balancing and Settle- ment Code (BSC) to help streamline the registration process for so- called virtual power plants. The 12 amendments – six modi- fications and six change proposals – will be of particular interest to aggregators wishing to combine multiple technologies within the same balancing mechanism unit (BMU). Elexon chief executive Mark Bygraves said: "The changes we are implementing help us to support new providers of electricity flexibil- ity. They will also simplify the code, removing redundant BSC rules and inefficient processes." In April, Elexon began the registration process for a new type of BSC signatory known as a "virtual lead party" that is able to create an aggregated BMU without becoming the registered supplier for the sites they are combining. £20 million Amount of funding the Scottish government is making available to promote the take-up of electric vehicles Pure Planet's Day becomes a director of the smart campaign Steven Day, the co-founder of app-based renewable energy supplier Pure Planet, has been appointed a director of the national smart meter campaign Smart Energy GB. Day, who has a background in telecommunications, was appointed to the non-executive role last week after being nominated by a colleague. See interview with Steven Day, p6 APPOINTMENT Q1 2019 generation mix Fossil fuels down 3.5 percentage points on Q1 2018 to 45.8% Source: BEIS Renewables' share of generation rose by 5 percentage points on Q1 2018 to 35.8% Fossil fuels down Renewables up

• Cover