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UtILItY WEEK | 21st - 27th March 2014 | 5 "Retrospective policy changes have a negative impact on existing investments and risk damaging the UK energy sector's reputation as a stable destination for international investment" The Nuclear Industry Association and Renewable UK united in their campaign against a carbon floor price freeze in this week's Budget. See utilityweek.co.uk for all the latest Budget news the value of the tender scottish Water has put out for its non- infrastructure capital investment programme for 2015-21 the sum of 12 grants the Department of Energy and climate change made to community energy projects this week Electricity DNOs resubmitting their business plans to Ofgem this week £750m £500,000 5 Plugged in LinkedIn Nothing like a bit of competition to keep a business on its toes, but could retail companies run our UK water industry into the ground? Emma Colby, S ocial media at Bozboz Some very determined people have been trying to increase competition in the UK water industry for nearly 15 years – so far without much success. However, there is a fundamental problem that this will not overcome. The water industry is VERY capital intensive – much more so than the energy industry. Most of what cus- tomers pay is to service the borrowing on investments. The operating costs are relatively small by comparison. Compe- tition will not enable large discounts to be offered and the margins available to retailers are going to be small. Alan Bland, independent utilities professional Feedback from utilityweek.co.uk Headline: RES criticises 'inconsistent' policy as it axes biomass plant Oliver Munnion: This is good news for forests, climate and communities. Whilst RES are painting this story as a failure of government to adequately support renewable energy, let's look at the facts. The plant would have needed some 1 million tonnes of wood each year, mostly imported, and contributing to the already unsustainable demand for pel- lets the UK currently creates. There is widespread evidence that UK demand for wood for biomass electricity is being increasingly sourced from cleared wetland forests and important ecosystems in North America. Further still, study aer study has shown that far from reducing carbon emis- sions, burning biomass can actually be more polluting than burning coal. On top of this, biomass power stations negatively affect air quality and therefore the communities around them. Big biomass electricity is not sustainable, renewable energy, it is highly polluting and destructive. Big role for new gas Different types of gas could play an "increasingly significant role" in the energy mix, the Energy Technolo- gies Institute (ETI) said as it called for partners this week. A new ETI project will look at how bio-synthetic natural gas and hydrogen, as well as natural gas, can be used in future to heat build- ings, fuel vehicles, power industrial plant and generate electricity. These new sources of gas could help cut carbon emissions and flex around intermittent renewable energy generation, the research body said. The project is part of the ETI's energy storage and distribu- tion programme and will look at the infrastructure and operating regime needed to support new types of gas. Gas This is one of four skeletons unearthed by Wessex Water as it carried out a £200 million water main replacement programme. The remains of one woman, two men and a ten-year-old, found near the A303, are believed to date to early Iron Age and Saxon periods.