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Review ✔ ✖ Atlantic Array • £4bn offshore wind project • RWE Innogy pulled out on 26 November having submitted a planning application in June, due to "technological challenges and market conditions" Tilbury biomass conversion London Array • World's largest offshore windfarm commissioned 4 July • Cost: €2.2bn • A joint venture between Denmark's Dong, Eon and Abu Dhabi investment firm the Masdar Initiative • Plant generated for the last time on 13/08/2013 • 46 year-old facility had been converted from coal to 750MW biomass plant in 2011 • Cash-strapped owner RWE Npower cited difficult market conditions Liquidity Centrica's gas storage ✖ ✖ target to the Bill was narrowly voted down in both Houses of Parliament. To everyone's surprise, the Lords managed to tack on tighter restrictions to coal generation, although this was reversed in the Commons. Much of the detail around Electricity Market Reform will be in the secondary legislation that remains to be thrashed out, however. It puts significant control over the generation mix in the hands of government, rather than the market. The political implications were in evidence this month, with the announcement offshore wind would get • Plans dropped on 23 September for two gas storage facilities at Baird and Caythorpe • Centrica had to write off £240m in development costs on the £1.5bn project • The government ruled out extra subsidies for gas storage earlier in the month higher subsidies at the expense of onshore wind. Backing the more expensive technology means less carbon reduction for bill-payer's money, but curbing onshore wind plays well with certain Conservative MPs. In 2014, we will find out if the reforms have achieved their goal and bring on the investment needed to replace aging coal plant with greener forms of generation. Green Deal start of the year: "I wouldn't be sleeping if we didn't have 10,000 [Green Deal packages in place] at the end of the year." With the end of the year in sight, the latest figures revealed that, while a total of 101,851 Green Deal assessments were lodged up to the end of October, only 219 measures had been installed, with another 954 packages in the system. All year Barker has been saying that the scheme is still in its "early stages" and it is designed for the coming decades, so needs to grow steadily. But the criticisms of the scheme kept coming – both from industry and across the dispatch box. The interest rate is "too high", the process is "too complicated", and there are worries from homeowners about attaching a new debt to their property. Solutions offered up from Labour and the industry include cuts to stamp duty and council tax for energy efficient homes. After months of seeing the Green Deal struggle to get going, it has been given a shake-up, with new home owners being given £1,000 to put towards energy efficiency improvements. Yet homeowners still appear reluctant to sign up. Barker looks set to see in the New Year suffering from insomnia. It's been a restless 2013 for climate change minister Greg Barker, who told Radio 4 at the One of the most divisive issues in the industry, wholesale power market liquidity has been fiercely debated for years. It inspires as many opinions as there are market participants. A number of independent players complain that a lack of liquidity makes it hard for them to compete with the big vertically integrated companies, which can sell power to themselves. Some of the major suppliers denied there was a problem and argued intervening would be costly. Among those who agreed something should be done, the proposed solutions were many and various. They ranged from a selfsupply restriction, forcing the big six to trade all their power on the open market, to mandatory auctions. In November, after several consultations, Ofgem finally cut through all the disagreement and set a course to enshrine its preferred solution in company licences. It has published a statutory consultation on a "secure and promote" condition. This places a market-making obligation on the big six and requires the eight largest generators to help independent suppliers access the market. If all goes smoothly, this will kick in on 31 March. It will not please everyone, but after all the conversation, a little action will be refreshing. UTILITY WEEK | 13th - 19th December 2013 | 13