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UTILITY WEEK | 4TH - 10TH MARCH 2016 | 5 Scottish Power has outlined proposals to more than double the capacity of its Cruachan pumped storage hydro plant near Oban in Scotland. The company completed a two-year feasibility study on expanding the 440MW power station and found that the capacity could be increased by 400-600MW with an investment of £300-400 million. It said extending the plant would take eight to ten years, with up to three years spent obtaining consent and six to seven years on construction. Ecotricity aims for tidal first Ecotricity will compete to build Britain's first tidal lagoon ahead of the government's independent review of tidal power in the spring, it announced last week. The green generator and supplier said it could build one at a strike price of around £90/MWh – compared with estimates for rival Swansea Bay of up to £168/MWh. Prime minister David Cameron recently raised concerns over the level of subsidy required. Good Energy storage offer delayed Good Energy will not meet its target of having an electricity storage offering ready by April. In an interview with Utility Week last year, Good Energy chief executive Juliet Davenport said the company wanted to launch "some kind of storage proposition, whether large scale or small scale, by next April". However, a spokesman for the green independent supplier told Utility Week it wanted to spend some more time on the "research and development phase" before going to market. RENEWABLES ELECTRICITY £18m What metal theft from substations has cost SP Energy Networks in the past four years "It is likely to lack credibility" British Gas slams Ofgem's approach to determining the need for a mid-point review of the eight-year price control for networks as neither "demonstrably comprehensive or robust". Analysis, p13 National Grid has played down fears of a black- out, following the publication of data showing the UK faces a supply shortfall over 11 weeks in the coming winter. The company released figures showing a projected shortfall in supply, with the biggest gap forecast in the second week of 2017, when demand will exceed avail- able capacity by 2.3GW. However, in a state- ment to Utility Week, National Grid said: "We publish this information so that suppliers and generators can make decisions and respond ac- cordingly, it is not an indication that there will be supply problems next year. It is a forecast based on current data, current notifications of generator outages and demand forecast." National Grid plays down blackout fears National demand forecast week, 2-52 week-ahead data Source: National Grid 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 13,200 9,900 6,600 3,300 0 -3,300 MW Note: published surpluses include the forecast level for wind generation in short-term timescales up to 14 days ahead and then at a seasonally dependent load factor for 2-52 weeks ahead. Hydro is at full output usable, so is therefore dependent on there being sufficient sources of water for this level to be achieved.