Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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4 | 11TH - 17TH DECEMBER 2015 | UTILITY WEEK National media Party rules Research com- missioned by PR firm Igniyte has revealed how UK workers in different sectors behave at their office Christmas parties. 14% of utility employees have been dumped because of their Christmas party behaviour. 14% of utility employ- ees said they're going to use this year's party to confront a col- league. 20% of utility employ- ees drank so much alcohol they didn't turn up to work the next day. 26% employees across all sectors who have kissed a work colleague at an office Christmas party. Ikea to help tackle climate change Ikea is teaming up with govern- ments from China, India and the US to tackle the 5 per cent of global emissions caused by lighting. Ikea expects to have ten billion super-efficient light bulbs fitted worldwide, with China committing to sell five billion by 2018. It is a race against time, though, accord- ing to Steve Howard, Ikea's chief sustainability officer, who said we only have "20 years of the global carbon budget le", and need to roll out "fantastically energy-efficient products to scale very fast". The Guardian, 3 December Google plans to go green by 2025 Google has committed to double its use of renewable energy as part of its plan to be green and shed conventional energy by 2025. The company has promised to power its data centres with an ad- ditional 842MW, some from sources in the US, including windfarms in Oklahoma and an additional 150MW from a wind farm in Sweden and a solar plant in Chile. Oil Price, 4 December UK told: give more aid or accept more refugees International development secre- tary Justine Greening said that if Britain doesn't spend billions of pounds helping poor countries adapt to the effects of global warm- ing, we risk taking more refugees when their own countries are rendered unliveable. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Green- ing said Britain's commitment to spend almost £6 billion on overseas climate aid in the next five years was "the smart thing to do" . The Telegraph, 6 December STORY BY NUMBERS Storm Desmond could cost utilities millions Seven days... "We are sceptical" Analysts at Investec have said that RWE's plans to navigate the changing energy landscape by undertaking an Eon-style business split might not be enough to meet the challenges still faced by the company. News on page 21. U nited Utilities and Elec- tricity North West face multi-million pound bills aer the severe flooding that followed Storm Desmond at the weekend. Early estimates suggest United Utilities could face costs of £20-£25 million, and an Ofwat-imposed penalty of up to £22 million under the outcome delivery incentive regime, which rewards and penalises compa- nies according to how they per- form on certain commitments, for example sewer flooding. An Ofwat spokesperson declined to comment on whether United Utilities would be penalised, saying: "The pen- alties and rewards are agreed upfront, but they may have caveats that would mean you wouldn't need to pay them out." The company's share price fell nearly 3 per cent, from 983.50 pence on Thursday 3 December, before the storm, to a low of 943p on Tuesday 8 December. Meanwhile, Electricity North West is unlikely to face the same high level of compensation costs as UK Power Networks and SSE following the storms in 2013 but will still need to compensate the 4,000 customers le without power for more than 48 hours. Electricity customers are entitled to at least £70 compen- sation from companies when power has been lost for more than 48 hours, but this qualify- ing period does not start until "it is reasonably practical for ENW to reconnect them," Ofgem said. At the storm's worst, 60,000 households were le without power and almost 1,000 without water supply. United Utilities and Electric- ity North West worked "around the clock" to restore water and power supplies, while the government convened an emergency Cobra meeting in a bid to restore power and water to affected communities. LV/LD $40 In the aftermath of the Opec meeting last week the price of Brent crude oil plummeted below the $40/barrel mark. More in news, p27 ➟ Photo: Press Association