Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 15TH - 21ST DECEMBER 2017 | 17 This week Kepco to take over Moorside project Toshiba announces plan to hand troubled Cumbria nuclear scheme to South Korean utility The Moorside nuclear plant may not be up and running until the early 2030s, the troubled project's boss has admitted aer confirming that Kepco has been chosen to take it over. Tom Samson, chief executive of NuGen, told the Nuclear 2017 conference that Toshiba had chosen South Korea's biggest utility to take over the unit set up by the Japanese multi- national to develop the Cumbrian plant. Toshiba, which has been the sole owner of NuGen since French energy company Engie sold its 40 per cent in the project in April, has decided to withdraw aer its nuclear development arm Westinghouse filed for bank- ruptcy earlier in the year. Samson said Kepco had to clear a number of hurdles before the project could be delivered. "It's a significant milestone in the sale process but it's not yet done," he said. The hurdles include finalising the transaction with Toshiba and the UK government while securing permission from the South Korean government to enter the UK market. Also, Kepco will have to secure general design approval to operate its APR 1400 reactor in the UK. Samson ruled out using the Westinghouse reactors that Toshiba lined up for the 3.4GW project. Questioned on the timescale for a completion date, he said: "It's likely to be towards the end of the 2020s or the early 2030s before we can achieve that." But he said delivering Moorside as rapidly as possible would keep costs down. DB WATER NHS trust puts out £250m contract The UK's largest NHS Trust – Barts Health NHS Trust – has put a contract out to tender for the supply of water retail services. Barts Health NHS Trust runs five hospitals and said it intends to put in place a four-year frame- work agreement for the supply of water and wastewater services including ancillary goods, works and services. The contract is worth an estimated £250 million. The successful retailer will be required to deliver associated services in connection with the supply of water and sewer- age services, such as account management, billing, metering, management of sites and meters, data management, sewerage services including trade effluent, and automatic meter reading. The deadline for requests is 19 January 2018. ENERGY Spark announces expansion plans Spark Energy is to employ 160 new staff to mark the first anni- versary of its on-site academy. The Scottish borders com- pany will employ the new staff in its customer service and back- office departments including IT, finance, legal and compliance, HR and training. Spark, a niche energy sup- plier for home movers, said it has delivered over 23,000 hours of training and upskilled nearly 200 employees through the academy. The company currently employs 416 permanent staff. Spark's director of people and culture, John Hawkins, the archi- tect of the academy, said: "This is a fantastic milestone for the Spark Academy and the volume of training delivered is testament to its benefits for not only Spark and its customers, but for the entire borders region." ELECTRICITY Networks promise a more flexible grid Electricity network operators have pledged to deliver £17 bil- lion of energy system benefits by 2050 by creating a smarter, more flexible power grid. The ENA has published a report as part of its Open Net- works project – a pan-industry initiative to establish the future roles and responsibilities of network companies. The document included a commitment by network opera- tors in England, Scotland and Wales to "create new markets to enable flexibility services that will compete alongside tradi- tional investment". Network operators in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have also signalled their intent to use the services in the future. Moorside: hurdles still need to be overcome Stock watch 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 2015 2016 2017 BRENT CRUDE PRICE, THREE YEARS UK natural gas prices surged to their highest level since 2013 on Tuesday aernoon (12 December) following an explosion at a key gas installation in Austria. The blast at the Baumgarten an der March facility killed one person and le 18 injured. Reports following the incident suggested Europe was plunged into "energy chaos" at one of the heaviest periods of demand in the year. On the same day, UK gas prices rose as much as 40 per cent to 95 pence per therm in early London trading. It was the second consecutive day energy markets were "rattled", with supplies already affected by a crack discovered in a major North Sea pipeline which forced its closure. Brent crude, which had been in the doldrums because of over production but had been trading around its strongest levels in two years, rose above $65 a barrel for the first time since June 2015. Finance & Investment

• Cover