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UTILITY WEEK | 16TH - 22ND JUNE 2017 | 5 "Domestic water competition is dead in the water" Lord Rupert Redesdale, chief executive, The Water Retail Company. See news, p27 Burbo Bank offshore windfarm is to get a battery bolt-on in order to deliver frequency response services to National Grid. The windfarm's owner, Dong, said the wind power and battery hybrid system is the first of its kind. See story, p19. ELECTRICITY SSEN hails success of smart grid trial in the Shetland Islands An £18 million smart grid trial on the Shetland Islands has been hailed as a success by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN). The network operator said its five-year-long Northern Isles New Energy Solutions (NINES) project has shown the ability of smart grids to operate reliably with high levels of renewable penetration. It has also demonstrated scope for incorporating millions of UK home appliances into actively managed electricity distribution networks, said SSEN. The scheme tested the use of a new active network management control system alongside domestic demand-side response and utility- scale energy storage to enable the increased integration of renewables into the islanded power grid. "By creating flexible demand on the islands, through the use of smart technology and energy storage, we have made progress in exploiting and maximising Shetland's renewable generation potential and reducing the generated output from thermal power stations," said SSEN head of asset management and innovation, Stewart Reid. "This was an important achievement as it will inform the transition to a low-carbon economy. It also offered us the opportunity to trial the technology in an environment which could then be applied to the wider GB electricity network." –£24/MWh Wholesale power prices plunged to record lows on 7 June as traders responded to a glut of wind generation. For the first time, negative prices were seen in the half-hour day-ahead auction, reaching a low of minus £24/MWh for one half-hour delivery period 19.3GW Windy weather brought with it a new renewables record on 7 June. Output from wind, solar, biomass and hydro peaked at 19.3GW European utilities are better placed to meet their Paris Agreement goals than their counterparts in the US, according to research conducted by the London School of Economics' Grantham Research Institute. The study examined the carbon intensity of 20 leading utilities, three of which are Euro- pean: Enel, Iberdrola, and SSE. It found that the three European companies are "significantly" less carbon-intensive than the 14 US utilities in the sample. Carbon intensity was measured by working out the level of emissions per megawatt-hour of electricity generated. The report also concluded that SSE is on track to meet its Paris climate change targets but will have to work harder to achieve those designed to keep global temperatures from rising above 2C. Coal-fired capacity shows steady decline Carbon intensity (metric tonnes CO2e/MHw) 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 EMISSIONS INTENSITY PATH FOR COMPANIES WITH TARGETS CLP Holdings DTE Energy First Energy Enel Iberdrola Paris Pledges AEP Co Xcel Energy SSE Entergy Corp 2 Degrees Source: Grantham Research Institute