Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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utIlIty WeeK | 27th June - 3rd July 2014 | 5 £10m Government funding lost by Siemens-owned Marine Current Turbines (MCT) for its tidal generation project in north Wales. £2.57m Total amount awarded by the UK's carbon capture and storage research centre to 14 projects for research and development. The government and 67 employers have set out a three-year action plan to plug the skills gap in energy and utilities. Companies including National Grid, British Gas, Eon, Thames Water and United Utilities will between them invest £82.5 million, and the government £33 million, to create 70,000 training opportunities. Energy & Utility Skills estimates that half of current employees will leave the power, gas, water and waste manage- ment industries by 2023 and 200,000 recruits will be needed. Steve Holliday, chief executive of National Grid, said: "This investment shows major government recognition of the challenges facing the UK's energy and utilities sectors…The strength and scale of this partnership means it will build consensus within these industries on how to meet the demand for new, innovative power and energy solutions, and build a more secure, sustainable economy for the future." The energy and efficiency indus- trial partnership will fund and promote a range of apprenticeships, training courses and youth engagement pro- grammes. Utilities squandering executive talent by ignoring female talent pool, p24 Pan-utIlIty Energy efficiency expert Anesco is installing 30MW of solar panels on former colliery sites owned by Harworth Estates. Anesco said it fell in line with the government strategy of developing solar power on brownfield land. The former coal mine sites will undergo a renewable makeover with the ground-mounted solar installations expected to be operational for 25 years and, once completed, to generate enough low-carbon energy to provide power for around 10,000 homes, while saving up to 15 tonnes of carbon per year. Utilities back skills action plan "I think there is a need for intervention" Energy secretary Ed Davey says the lag in lower wholesale energy prices being passed on to customers should be addressed. "We would expect the proceeds to be reinvested in US gas assets or other larger M&A to support [Centrica's] declining earnings and cash flow" Citigroup analysts speculate on the reported sale of Centrica's Trinidad and Tobago upstream gas assets. "The momentum needs to be maintained with a focus on finalising key details, such as auction guidelines and CfD budgets" RWE Npower chief executive Paul Massara welcomed the start of secondary legislation of the Energy Bill, but warned that further progress was needed. baa1 Affinity Water's credit rating will remain stable due to its "enhanced status" as part of its 2014 price review, ratings agency Moody's said.