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UTILITY Week 13th November 2015

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UTILITY WEEK |13TH - 19TH NOVEMBER 2015 | 5 Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission has completed a £94 million project to refurbish the 275kV overhead line on the main west-to-east transmission route from Beauly via Blackhillock to Kintore. Originally built in the 1960s, the 157km line spans the three local authority areas of Highland, Moray and Aberdeenshire, and is supported on 476 towers. With more renewable power generation planned for the Highland area through developers seeking connection to the transmission network in the north of Scotland, completion of this project has allowed for an 85 per cent increase in the capacity of the overhead line route, the company said. Restringing and refurbishment of the line began in 2010. Ofwat in £90k branding upgrade Ofwat has completed a major redevelopment of its website at a cost of £65,000 and a £25,000 update of its visual identity, including the redesign of its logo. An Ofwat spokesman told Utility Week the website's first redevelopment in seven years was "essential" because doing nothing would have left it "at risk of failure". "We needed a new website that was fit for purpose to meet the needs of all our audiences, including having appropriate security, reliability and functionality," Ofwat said. The website had not been updated since 2008, meaning the software underpinning it had become "obsolete". The redevelopment was undertaken at the lowest possible cost, and could mean further efficiency savings in the future, the regulator's spokesman stressed. The regulator said it conducted a competitive procurement process to "ensure best value" and, where possible, carried out work in-house to keep costs down. "The primary piece of work was the redevelopment of the website, with the updating of the visual identity a secondary, complementary piece," the spokesman said. He also pointed out that the redevelopment would mean "significant" savings would be made on the day-to-day running costs of the website. "The website redevelopment was essential work – simply doing nothing would have left it at risk of failure." WATER 500MW National Grid was forced to call on the market to bring forward at least 500MW of extra power generation capacity on 4 November after multiple plant breakdowns and low wind forecasts resulted in the tightest capacity crunch since 2012. More, p12. Decc could save hundreds of millions of pounds and promote more competition and innovation among energy companies by sweeping away swathes of energy quangos at the spending review, think-tank Policy Exchange said this week. Its report said there were over 30 bodies responsible for the delivery of energy policy, the management of industry codes of practice and the operation of the energy system. They cost more than £600 million a year. 18 November The date by which North Yorkshire County Council had been due to make a decision on gas developer Third Energy's application to frack its existing well in Kirby Misperton. The council has begun a further 21-day consulta- tion, meaning it will miss the deadline. Source: Policy Exchange

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