Utility Week

 Severn Trent is creating a back-up water supply for Birmingham so it can take the Elan Valley Aqueduct (EVA) out of service when necessary for maintenance and repair. The EVA was built in the Victorian era and transports water 120km from Wales to the Midlands. The Birmingham Resilience Project is described as the company's flagship engineering project. 1GWh Scotrenewables Tidal Power's SR2000 floating tidal turbine has clocked up more than 1GWh at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney. ENERGY Ofgem under fire for central switching service procurement Blockchain energy systems developer Electron has criticised Ofgem's approach to procuring a central switching service (CSS) for being "limited in scope". The London-based company's chief executive, Paul Ellis, has written an open letter to his opposite number at the regulator, Dermot Nolan, claiming Ofgem "is in danger of missing an important opportunity", which could result in the UK "being locked into an outdated, inflexible system for the next 20 years". The letter says the CSS is an opportunity to create a decentral- ised data service with "implica- tions that go far beyond faster switching". "For example, the development of local energy and flexibility markets requires visibility of current and future local assets, their exact location and the balance responsible party. "Ofgem's current approach is limited in scope, mandating a small part of the switching infrastructure that replicates the current technical requirements," the letter stated. "One of my main objectives will be to try and ensure every new building in Scotland has as much solar installed on its roof as possible" Chris Clark, the new chairman of the Solar Trade Association Scotland UTILITY WEEK | 8TH - 14TH DECEMBER 2017 | 5 Correction In last week's issue (1-7 December) we included the incorrect job title for Jon Butterworth's opinion piece on interconnectors. We would like to clarify his job title is global transmission director, National Grid Ventures. PRE-QUALIFICATION RESULTS SUMMARY Capacity market pre-qualification shows more than 27GW of potential new-build, including 4.62GW of batteries *Figures for batteries based on de-rating factor of 96 per cent More than 27GW of new-build projects have pre-qualified for the upcoming four-year-ahead (T-4) capacity market auction in February, according to analysis by Aurora Energy Research. National Grid released the pre-qualification register for the auction on Friday 1 December and on Monday the government published updated de-rating factors for batteries bidding into the auction. De-rated capacity, GW New-build transmission New-build distribution Target 50.1GW Existing and refurbishing CCGT OCGT and reciprocating engines Some batteries are expected to opt out following the announcement of new de-rating factors 53.15 5.10 2.98 4.62 2.16 11.40 Demand-side response *Batteries Inter- connector Other Total pre-qualified capacity Source: National Grid 0.64 80.66

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