Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/370624
4 | 29th August - 4th september 2014 | utILItY WeeK National media Profits fall at Eon UK eon uK saw its profits fall in the first half of 2014 when compared with the same period in 2013 £422m decrease in supply sales £85m fall in supply profits 31% increase in profit from generation £226m total investment in the first half of 2014, down from £281 million in the first half of 2013 14% increase in investment on the supply side of the business. This is largely attributed to the installation of 330,000 smart meters Al Gore backs Ovo ahead of stock listing Al Gore, the former US vice-president and climate change campaigner, has invested £8 million in Ovo Energy, one of the UK's fastest growing new power suppliers. The US politician-turned-inves- tor began talks with the firm late last year through his sustainable investment fund, Generation Invest- ment Management. It is the largest investment deal in Ovo Energy's history. The Telegraph Mini-revival for UK coal mining Coal mining is poised for a mini- revival in the UK, with Australian investors financing projects close to the border of England and Scotland. Melbourne-based New Age Exploration has been drilling test holes near the Scottish border town of Gretna, where it believes relatively shallow coal seams will produce a viable mine. Meanwhile, about 80km away at Whitehaven, West Cumbria Mining, a UK company with Australian back- ers, is proposing to extract coal that lies mainly offshore, part of beds that supported decades of mining at nearby Haig colliery until it closed in 1986. Financial Times Tepco must pay damages over Fukushima suicide Tepco, the operator of Japan's Fuku- shima Dai-chi Nuclear power plant, has been ordered to pay £284, 000 to the family of a woman who burnt herself to death aer being forced out of her home by the 2011 nuclear disaster. The Times story by NUMbErs N ational Grid and Ofgem must be vigilant as the risk of blackouts rises this winter aer a string of high-stake unplanned outages, a former energy department mandarin has warned. UK safety margins could halve aer the unexpected loss of 3GW of generation capacity in recent weeks. The fire-damaged Ferrybridge coal-fired power plant and four of EDF Energy's nuclear reactors, taken offline because of safety concerns, are due to return later this year but delays would increase the risk of a sup- ply shortfall. "National Grid and Ofgem need to face this challenge to secure supply for the winter," said former Department of Energy and Climate Change director Jonathan Brearley. Brearley, a key architect of the government's Electricity Market Reform (EMR), told Util- ity Week that EMR would solve such problems in the long term. "This is exactly the kind of problem that the capacity market was designed to address but the current decline in supply margins was always going to be a risk as we make the transition to EMR," he said. The winter of 2015/16 was forecast to have the highest risk of blackouts because of the mandatory shutdown of older plants before new capacity comes online. But if units cur- rently under repair fail to return to service before cold weather sets in, the UK could face a squeeze a year earlier. Brearley said the situation is "tight but manageable". A spokesman for Ofgem told Utility Week: "While no system can ever give a 100 per cent guarantee, National Grid has the right levers to help keep the lights on." National Grid declined to comment on the security of sup- ply situation before it produces its official winter outlook in October. JA Summer round-up... Blackout risk rises as power plants falter 500% Utilities service provider Waldeck says it plans to increase the roles within its energy and infrastructure business by 500 per cent to meet growing demand for nuclear and renewable energy infrastructure services "The [ETS] reform process is like fixing a burst water pipe… we fix the leak and mop up the spillage" SSE's managing director of wholesale markets Martin Pibworth tells Utility Week an early introduction of the market stability reserve is needed