Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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UTILITY WEEK | 8TH - 14TH JULY 2016 | 5 Great British Bake Off finalist Ian Cumming has devised a series of energy-saving recipes with the help of his smart meter to encourage people to think about how they could cook smarter. The recipes aim to use as little gas and electricity as possible and include a chicken and lemon tagine, elderflower and blueberry cheesecake and Scottish salmon macaroni cheese. Cumming said: "I hope everyone enjoys trying them at home and thinking about different ways to reduce their energy use when cooking." 6.4% Decc statistics show renewable electricity generation rose in Q1 2016, compared with the same time last year. ENERGY WATER A report by SSE has shown district heating can improve heating efficiency and afford- ability. The study was based on a partnership with Cube Housing Association to install a district heating system at the Wyndford Estate in Glasgow. It found emissions savings of 2,357 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent by using district heating instead of storage heaters, while 80 per cent fewer tenants and 85 per cent fewer owners reported going to bed early to keep warm. District heating system reduces emissions Northumbrian Water hosts new wastewater research facility Newcastle University has opened a major research facility at Northumbrian Water's sewage treatment plant near Gateshead, to find more affordable and less carbon-intensive ways to treat wastewater. The Biological Engineering: Wastewater Innovation at Scale (BE:WISE) research facility is a European first in large-scale wastewater treatment research using bacteria. Northumbrian Water is providing the space where BE:WISE is located, along with key infrastructure support. Sewage treatment plants contain trillions of bacteria that break down and treat wastewater. However, the costs and uncertainty involved in scaling up laboratory research to application in a real-world setting have meant there has been little change in the main technologies used to manage the wastewater treatment process. Operating as a mini sewage treatment works, the site will allow experiments to be run using 10,000 times more microbes than can be used in the lab, allowing researchers to better understand how complex biological interactions work at different scales. £360m The cost of a new energy-from-waste plant in Yorkshire, the Ferrybridge Multifuel 2 project, which has been given the go-ahead by SSE. "Inside or outside the EU, our generation capacity has diminished" Nuclear Industry Association chief executive Tom Greatrex said the vote to leave the European Union will not affect the UK's energy challenge. Council sets up energy services firm Barking and Dagenham Council is creating an energy services company to develop heat networks across the borough, in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint. By establishing B&D Energy Limited, the council aims to cut the borough's carbon footprint and generate savings and investment for the local community. As well as developing combined heat and power systems, B&D Energy will seek opportunities to store wind and tidal power and generate energy from solar panels on council buildings. Council leader Darren Rodwell said: "Our 15- year strategy aims to reduce fuel bills for local residents and to address fuel poverty. We want to move from being a borough that gets just 2.5 per cent of its energy from renewable sources – the London average – to one that by 2025 gets over 25 per cent from low carbon, decentralised and renewable sources." £2bn The Daily Telegraph reported that National Grid has predicted the costs of balancing the UK's energy system could double to £2 billion in five years.