Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/406126
National media M&S builds biggest UK rooftop solar scheme Marks & Spencer is building the UK's largest array of rooop solar panels on its distribution centre in Castle Donington. Spread across 900,000 2 with more than 24,000 photovoltaic panels, the system will generate nearly enough energy in daylight hours to power the distribution centre, which handles all the goods M&S sells online. The Guardian, 24 October Japan to restart Kyushu nuclear plant Satsumasendai, a town of 100,000 in southwest Japan, has approved the restarting of the two-reactor Kyushu nuclear plant, three years aer Japan took all its nuclear power plants offline following the Fukushima disaster. Nineteen of the city's 26 assembly members voted in favour of restarting the plant, while four voted against and three abstained. Reuters, 28 October Developing countries going greener faster The growth rate of windfarms and solar plants in China, India and an array of smaller developing coun- tries is starting to outpace that of many of the world's richest nations. A year-long study of developing countries' energy use suggests a major shi in green energy use. Financial Times, 28 October BP and GDF Suez find new North Sea oil field BP and GDF Suez have discovered a new North Sea oil field in adja- cent blocks operated by the two companies. The discovery has been called Marconi by GDF Suez subsidiary GDF Suez E&P UK, while BP has named it Vorlich. BBC, 23 October N ational Grid has secured an additional 1.1GW of derated capacity for the coming winter to guard against the heightened risk of blackouts. The transmission system operator said it had taken the "sensible precaution" to increase margins to just over 6 per cent through extra meas- ures to keep power plants in reserve and reduce demand over peak hours by 319MW. National Grid has asked three older thermal plants totalling 94o MW of derated capacity to remain on standby. They are: RWE's 1.25GW oil and coal-fired Littlebrook plant; SSE's 1.1GW Peterhead plant (pictured); and Scottish Power's 715MW Rye House gas-fired plant. By "derating" the reserve available, National Grid is able to take into account breakdowns and shortfalls which typically impact generation output. In addition, National Grid has secured 319MW of demand- side reduction contracts, derated to 160MW, which were offered to large energy users to cut their dependence on the grid during peak demand hours. UK security of supply has come under increased scrutiny in recent months aer a string of unplanned outages, includ- ing two recent fires, cut winter supply margins from 5-10 per cent estimated by Ofgem in June, to just over 4 per cent based on National Grid's latest projections. JA National Grid gets extra 1.1GW to cut blackout risk Seven days... Bills go up as clocks go back Clocks going back by an hour equates to Britain spending nearly £585 million more on its energy bills, according to new research by DIY retailer B&Q. £24bn the cost of the nation's energy bills over the winter months £1.68bn or 7 per cent of winter bills are accounted for by the use of light bulbs £1.4bn is what it is estimated the nation could save by switching to LED lighting story By NUMBErs "The world is gagging for yield" Liberum Capital equities analyst Peter Atherton speaking at the Energy UK conference in London on investor risk and returns in the energy sector "How much do we need? It's certainly north of ten but probably less than 20 per cent" Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford, Dieter Helm, on the ideal UK capacity supply margin 4 | 31st OCtOBEr - 6th NOvEmBEr 2014 | UtILItY WEEK £63 per year The big six energy suppliers should reflect falling wholesale costs by cutting their customers' energy bills by 5 per cent this winter, according to Energyhelpline.com