Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 2ND - 8TH AUGUST 2019 | 17 Finance & Investment A consortium led by Rolls-Royce has been awarded £18 million of government funding to support its £500 million project to design a first-of-a-kind small modular reactor (SMR). A working model is expected by the early 2030s. The grant has been made as part of the third wave of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and will be more than ELECTRICITY Rolls-Royce consortium given £18m to design mini nuclear reactor matched with private-sector investment from the consortium itself and third parties. The fund- ing is subject to a final invest- ment decision by the consortium. SMRs are smaller than con- ventional nuclear reactors but can be pre-fabricated in modules before being combined on-site to form larger plants. Advocates claim that building a larger number of smaller reactors in controlled factory conditions can reduce the cost of nuclear power. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) also confirmed that four research and development grants of up to £10 million each will be made available for the second phase of its advanced modular reactor (AMR) programme. Grants of up to £300,000 were awarded to eight companies to GoCompare acquires Look After My Bills In combination with Weflip, GoCo plans to grow customers of its AutoSave segment by 25 per cent Automated switching service Look AŽer My Bills, which featured on the BBC's Dragons' Den, has been acquired by GoCompare in a deal worth £12.5 million. The GoCo Group, which also owns Weflip, announced it had acquired This Is The Big Deal Limited (trading as Look AŽer My Bills) in its half-year results published on 25 July. Total consideration for the acquisition is comprised of £6 million upfront, financed through the group's existing resources, plus a £2.5 million deferred consid- eration as well as up to a further £4 million performance based earn-out. The GoCo Group said the acquisition "significantly strengthens" its proposition in the energy sector. Matthew Crummack, chief executive of GoCo group, said: "Weflip and Look AŽer My Bills complement each other in their approach to saving UK consumers money and with both brands we can target the significant saving opportunities that still exist for consumers who haven't been tackled by existing price comparison websites or regulation. "Together, Weflip and Look AŽer My Bills form the group's AutoSave segment, which is building momen- tum and is in a great position to address the needs of infrequent switchers. "Our ambition is to rapidly scale customers and build our AutoSave business to grow live customers by at least 25 per cent in the next five months to 31 December 2019." Look AŽer My Bills, which has more than 150,000 customers, received the "best equity deal" in the 13-year history of the BBC show when it featured last year, giving up 3 per cent of the business for £120,000. AJ WATER Ofwat could block intercompany loans Ofwat has warned water companies it will block any financial arrangements that are not deemed to be in customers' interests. The regulator has published guidance on the regulatory ring- fencing framework, which states companies must seek consent before entering into certain financial arrangements. The current system already prohibits companies from enter- ing financial arrangements that are not in their licence agree- ments, however Ofwat hopes regulatory ring-fencing will give protection to companies and customers. It has issued guidance that relates to occasions when a company is expressly prohibited from entering into an arrange- ment without the consent of Ofwat. Any company wanting to enter a financial arrangement will need consent from Ofwat before it could do so. Ofwat said a company will need to provide a clear demon- stration of how the arrangement would serve the customers' interests before consent would be given. Any arrangements that do not get prior consent could be blocked, as part of a package of work Ofwat is undertaking to strengthen companies' financial resilience. Ofwat chief executive Rachel Fletcher said: "We are setting out guidance, which is very sim- ple: we won't allow companies to take on financial arrange- ments if they are not in custom- ers' interest and do not help the company's financial resilience. There is a high bar for compa- nies to clear and we want to set it out plainly for all to see." ELECTRICITY Sharp rise in profits for Solarcentury Solarcentury's profits have seen a sharp increase over the past year following investment in solar projects across Europe and Africa. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 860 per cent to £14.4 million for the year ended 31 March 2019, compared with £1.5 million in 2018. EBITDA margin also increased from 2.4 per cent in 2018 to 14.4 per cent in 2019. The renewable energy firm reported revenues of £100.2 million, an increase of 59 per cent over the previous year's £62.9 million. The company's utility-scale business grew in terms of operational and advanced stage pipeline projects, including the 300MW Talayuela solar develop- ment in Spain, as well as one of Africa's largest airport solar PV plants at Moi International Airport in Mombasa, Kenya. Solarcentury plans to draw on its major projects in Spain as a roadmap for its developments in the UK. Crummack: company complements Weflip undertake feasibility studies for the first phase. Further funding will be awarded based on an evaluation of these studies. BEIS said the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency will additionally receive £5 million to modernise the generic design assessment process and prepare themselves for future licensing decisions on SMRs and AMRs. This week

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