Utility Week

4 | 13TH - 19TH SEPTEMBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Seven days... US to prolong use of incandescent bulbs The Trump administration has rolled back yet another Obama-era regulation. This time the Energy Department issued a final and a proposed rule that will prolong the life of certain old-fashioned – and energy-intensive – incandescent light bulbs invented by Thomas Edi- son 140 years ago. The bulbs would otherwise have been effectively phased out by 1 January. The rollback will mean $14 bil- lion a year in higher energy costs and add to the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study by the Appliance Standards Aware- ness Project and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The Washington Post, 4 September Saudi King appoints a son as energy minister King Salman of Saudi Arabia has named his son prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as energy minister, the first time a member of the royal family has occupied the role, as part of a shake-up of top energy sector jobs. The appointment of Abdulaziz, an older half-brother of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Sal- man, brings to an end a long line of commoner technocrats charged with overseeing energy policy for the world's largest oil exporter. The New York Times, 9 September Radioactive Fukushima water 'will be dumped' The operator of the ruined Fuku- shima nuclear power plant in Japan will have to dump huge quantities of contaminated water from the site directly into the Pacific Ocean, Japan's environment minister has said – a move that would enrage local fishermen. More than 1 million tonnes of con- taminated water has accumulated at the plant since it was struck by a tsunami in March 2011. The Guardian, 10 September Around the world Blackout prompts ESO call for review of resilience National Grid's electricity system operator (ESO) has called for a review of the security and qual- ity of supply standards (SQSS) to determine whether it is neces- sary to provide "higher levels of resilience". The ESO made the recom- mendation in its final report to Ofgem on the August blackout, which leƒ more than one million customers without power. The report will inform the regula- tor's investigation into whether any of the network operators or generators involved breached their licence conditions. Customers were disconnected to prevent a wider power cut aƒer the ESO was unable to contain a large frequency drop following unplanned outages by two large generators. Some industry figures said the ESO should have had more capacity to hand to counteract the losses. The ESO said it had enough available to meet the requirements of the SQSS in their current form. The report also recommends: • A review of the disconnec- tion policy designed to protect critical infrastructure. Newcastle Airport was among the custom- ers to be disconnected when the procedure was triggered. • A review of the role of dis- tributed generators to prevent so-called nuisance tripping. • A review of communica- tions processes and protocols, particularly in the first hour aƒer an incident. • A review of the settings on the internal protection systems on electric trains to ensure they continue to operate through "normal" disturbances on the power grid. About 60 trains unexpectedly shut down when the frequency of the power grid dropped below 49Hz. Half required a visit from a techni- cian to restart. • An assessment of whether it is necessary to establish stand- ards for critical infrastructure and services "setting out the range of events and conditions on the electricity system that their internal systems should be designed to cater for". Ipswich Hospital lost power during the blackout when its own protec- tion systems were triggered. The interim report to Ofgem was published on 20 August. TG "We are now in our global expansion phase, there will be more to follow." Greg Jackson, chief executive, Octopus Energy STORY BY NUMBERS Bioenergy could fill nuclear gap More than dou- bling the amount of bioenergy could help plug the looming sup- ply gap resulting from the collapse of the nuclear new-build programme, ministers have been told in a new report from the Renewable Energy Associa- tion (REA). 16% of the UK's primary energy should come from bioenergy by 2032, accord- ing to the REA. 7.4% of the UK's energy needs are currently met by bioenergy sources. 80m tonnes of C02 would be removed from the atmosphere annually if the REA's bioenergy strategy was adopted, which would deliver 117TWh of energy – both heat and power.

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