Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | MAY 2021 | 7 The Month in Review Power grid sees 'greenest ever' moment Great Britain's power grid saw its "greenest ever" moment on Easter Monday as low demand over the holiday weekend, combined with sunny spells and strong winds, allowed renewables to dominate the energy mix. National Grid Electric- ity System Operator (ESO) said the carbon intensity of the power grid dropped to a new record low of 39gCO2/ kWh at 1pm, with zero car- bon sources providing nearly four-‰ Š hs of electricity. Wind accounted for 39 per cent, solar for 21 per cent and nuclear for 16 per cent. The previous record of 46 gCO2/kWh was set on 24 May 2020. "This latest record is another example of how the grid continues to transform at an astonishing rate as we move away from fossil fuel and harness the growth of renewable power sources," said ESO director Fintan Slye. "It's an exciting time and the progress we're seeing with these records underlines the signi‰ cant strides we're taking towards our ambition of being able to operate the system carbon free by 2025." The ESO said there have been a spate of records over the past year, with wind pro- ducing its highest ever out- put (17.5GW) on 13 February and contributing its highest ever share of the electric- ity mix (59.9 per cent) on 26 August. Solar set equiva- lent records of 9.7GW and 34 per cent in May, while the power grid saw its longest ever coal- free run of almost 68 days between 10 April and 16 June. National Grid has unveiled its new Green Light Signal – a low-energy smart bulb that highlights the greenest times to use electricity. Using the company's carbon intensity forecasting tool, the bulb glows green when the electricity supply is at its cleanest. Chief executive John Pettigrew said that as a principal partner of COP26, the company wanted to "give people hope by making them aware of the transformational changes taking place in the energy sector as we move towards a clean energy future". Thames installs 500,000th smart meter Thames Water has become the ‰ rst company in the UK to deploy 500,000 smart water meters as it works to increase penetration in London before expanding across the Thames Valley. The company said the data gathered from the 12 million daily reads has helped it identify leak- age both in customer homes and within the net- work, which has contributed to its progress on reducing leakage. It is the ‰ rst company to roll out a fully smart advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) focused on domestic properties in London and Hasle- mere, near Guildford. Mark Cooper, head of metering, told Utility Week the programme drives home the message of taking less water from the environment and he described the smart metering project as the cor- nerstone of the company's water e¢ ciency drive. From 2025, the rollout across Thames Val- ley will be underway and Cooper said the team expects to have meters ‰ tted in all suitable homes during AMP8 and AMP9. On properties that are currently unsuitable, he said innovation was needed equip households that share a water source, such as converted properties and ¤ ats. Cooper said that where continuous ¤ ows had been identi‰ ed on a property that would impact on bills, householders had ‰ xed the leak in up to 70 per cent of incidents within a day. "It's been a real call to action," he said. Octopus Energy to launch into hydrogen market Octopus Energy Group is to push into the hydrogen market with the launch of a new company this autumn, Utility Week has learnt. Octopus Hydrogen is described as a locally distributed "green hydrogen as a service" proposition for heavy goods transportation, energy storage, industrial applica- tions and aviation. The company said its new business is part of its bid to push into the "parts of the economy electri• cation can't reach". It will be led by William Rowe as chief executive with Julius Baghdadi, who spent six years at Ovo Energy, as chief commercial oƒ cer. Other members of the team include Charlie Harris, also ex-Ovo, as technology and operations director. All three most recently worked for Octopus Energy Hatchery, the company's environmental consul- tancy arm. They will be joined by Will Turner, Good Energy's former head of trading, who will lead on trading and origination, and Ben Eaton as engineering director. In a statement the company said: "Octopus Hydrogen will bring the unrivalled customer-centric approach Octopus Energy has delivered to the green hydrogen supply market. "With the recent acquisition of Octopus Renewables, the group is uniquely positioned to drive down costs and help customers drive the transition to a competitive and 100 per cent green economy."

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