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UTILITY Week 29th April 2016

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4 | 29TH APRIL - 5TH MAY 2016 | UTILITY WEEK Green gas could reduce LNG imports A Renewable Energy Association report suggests green gas production in the UK could match almost a third of the country's liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports by 2035. 40TWh Amount of biomethane Britain could produce every year by 2035 124TWh Amount of LNG the UK imported in 2014 50 Number of biomethane plants completed by the end of 2015 15 Number of further projects due to be finished by the end of 2016 3.5TWh Annual production by the end of 2016 STORY BY NUMBERS Ofwat wants to end role of setting business prices Seven days... O fwat has said it wants to completely deregulate the business retail market so it can stop setting prices, once competition is able to keep costs down. The regulator sets the price, investment and service package that customers receive, which includes setting limits on the prices the water companies can charge their customers. Speaking at a press briefing in London, Ofwat chief execu- tive Cathryn Ross (pictured) said her hope was to be able to deregulate the non-household market so the regulator no longer has to set prices, once competition becomes suf- ficiently effective to constrain them at a "reasonable level". "Of course what that doesn't mean is that the market would ever be completely deregulated – there would remain regulation around things like customer protection, the provision of information to customers, and also we would retain the ability to regulate the interface between the retailers and wholesalers," she said. "When I talk about deregu- lation, it's really getting rid of those price controls, rather than deregulating the market completely. But we're a long way away even from that." Last month, following a thorough review, the regula- tor announced it would set a three-year price control for non- household retail activities from 2017, aer the proposal received "strong support" from water companies. This, it said, would allow it to monitor how competition is developing in the non- household retail market, and "deal with any further cost allo- cation issues" that might emerge between retail and wholesale and/or non-household and household retail. LV National media Ikea starts selling solar panels in UK stores Solar panels will be on sale at Ikea stores from Monday, despite huge government cuts to solar subsidies for homeowners. Shoppers will be able to order panels online and at three stores – Glasgow, Birmingham and Lakeside – before the so-called Solar Shops appear in all the Swedish company's UK stores by the end of the summer. Ikea's new foray with energy company SolarCentury marks its second attempt to sell solar panels, aer a two-year pilot with Chinese company Hanergy ended last year. The Guardian, 25 April Ancient boats inspire wind energy converter A Tunisian start-up has taken inspira- tion from the sailing boats of Ancient Carthage to develop a bladeless, non-rotating wind energy converter that is more efficient than traditional turbines as well as safer and quieter, according to the developers. Saphon Energy says the aerodynamic bowl-shaped sail on its turbine can capture twice as much wind energy over the same swept area as a conventional turbine. Reuters, 25 April Tycoon pumps $1.3bn into Husky Energy Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing is using two of his listed companies to inject $1.3 billion into Canadian oil producer Husky Energy, as the fall in crude prices weighs on the Toronto-traded group. Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings and Power Assets Hold- ings will buy a 65 per cent stake in oil storage assets with a capacity of 4.1m barrels of oil and 1,900km of pipeline in the Lloydminster region. Li, who is Hong Kong's richest man, also holds a controlling 29.31 per cent stake in Husky Energy. Financial Times, 26 April "The age of consumption without consequences is over" National delegates from across the globe have signed the historic Paris climate change agreement that was agreed in principle at COP21 last December £18m Scottish Power has been fined for customer service failings

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