Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/221850
Seven days... National media Eon considers selling Italian business Eon, Germany's biggest utility, is planning to pull out of recession-hit Italy and has started the process of looking for buyers for its power stations and other assets, according to industry sources and press reports. Goldman Sachs has been appointed to work on the sale, industry sources said. The Financial Times Millions will miss out on 'rollback' promise Millions of households are set to miss out on the energy savings promised by the government's controversial "rollback" of green levies because they are locked into fixed-price gas and electricity deals. The Telegraph Electricity is a luxury, says energy boss A power boss sparked uproar yesterday by saying the amount of electricity families in Britain use is a 'luxury'. The extraordinary claim by Chris Train, a senior director at National Grid, coincided with energy companies refusing to rule out more price rises. The Daily Mail story by NUMBERS What 'rolling back green levies' means Under pressure to help households with the rising cost of living, the government has tweaked some policies to shave money off energy bills – at the taxpayers' expense. See p15 for the full story. £50 Saving off the average household energy bill. £1,000 Sweetener offered to home buyers installing energy efficiency measures. £1.14bn The cost of Decc's package to the Exchequer. "It is immoral for tax payers to be lining the pockets of landowners by funding large-scale renewables" Energy minister Michael Fallon 4 | 6th - 12th December 2013 | UTILITY WEEK Eco changes 'nothing to do with Labour price pledge' The changes to the Energy Company Obligation (Eco) have "nothing" to do with Labour leader Ed Miliband's promised price freeze, according to the energy minister. Speaking at a Spectator event in London, Michael Fallon said the reason for the changes to Eco, which will cut £50 from domestic energy bills next year, was "because we've seen increases in people's bills now". He added: "His [Miliband's] pledge comes for 2016/17. We've got a situation where bills are going up now and we're doing something about it now. "Where we can see government action affecting people's bills, where hard-pressed families are burdened by this, we're taking action." £8.4bn The cost of "failing" energy efficiency schemes, according to research by Which? The government has announced changes to Eco, including a 33 per cent reduction to the Carbon Emissions Reduction Obligation, and allowing cavity walls to become eligible under Eco. The scheme will also be extended from March 2015 to 2017. Fallon said the "problem" with Eco was that it was "completely indiscriminate" and resulted in "a cross-subsidy from ordinary rate tax payers to large middle class families living in very large, badly heated Victorian homes". He said: "We should target those who need it most and in those types of housing that need the most insulation where the poorer people live. That's the point of the changes." MB See analysis, p15 "Scotland is asking how it will fare on its own. What about the rest of the UK?" Former SSE boss Ian Marchant warns Scottish independence would affect renewables targets