Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 2ND - 8TH MARCH 2018 | 5 ENERGY Energy price cap will be reviewed every six months The government this week tabled legislation to cap default energy tariffs, including proposals to review the level of the cap every six months and extend the tariff safeguards to customers on green default tariffs. The Domestic Gas and Electric- ity Bill requires Ofgem to impose an absolute cap on standard variable and other default energy tariffs until 2020. It includes two key changes from the draft legisla- tion published in the autumn. The first is that Ofgem should review the level at which the cap is set at least every six months; the second is that customers opting for a green tariff will also be pro- tected. Previously, green tariffs had been exempted from the draft bill. The move on green tariffs fol- lows concerns by Ofgem and the select committee that suppliers could use the proposed exemption to get around the wider price cap. John Penrose, a Conservative MP who helped to lead the back- bench campaign for a cap, argued that six months was too long between reviews and warned that customers could be left "short- changed". However, climate change minister Claire Perry said she was confident the bill would prove effective and that companies would not be able to "game" the price cap by renaming their standard variable tariffs. "Any company that tries to game this bill by renaming its tariffs will be caught," she said. "We will be asking for absolute transparency on tariffs and will not hesitate to take further action if gaming is there." £1,038 Eon has launched a fixed one- year "smart saver" tariff, available to customers by telephone and priced at £1,038 based on the national average dual fuel consumption. "Our wish is that the energy price cap should be in place by the end of this year" Alex Chisholm, permanent secretary at BEIS, tells the BEIS select committee the government wants the energy price cap in place before next winter. Two thousand volunteers from Severn Trent have cleaned up more than 50km of rivers in the past year as part of a company-wide volunteering scheme. Under the Community Champions initiative, staff can volunteer to spend two working days a year helping across the company's region, which covers most of the Midlands and into mid-Wales. Renewable output rose by 27 per cent over 2017 due to windier weather and new capacity coming online, according to the latest Electric Insights report from Imperial College London. The quarterly report commissioned by Drax shows low-carbon sources, including nuclear, accounted for half of all electricity production, as fossil fuel generation dropped by a tenth. Data also showed that generation from coal continues to fall and is "now the pre- serve of colder months as opposed to being the mainstay of generation as it was in 1958", said lead author Iain Staffell from Imperial College London. The report said the power system emitted 93 million tonnes of carbon dioxide 60 years ago, while in 2017 renewables produced the same amount of electricity by emitting just three million tonnes. COAL NO LONGER THE MAINSTAY OF GENERATION 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Annual generation since 1940 (TWh) Source: Electric Insights, Imperial College London and Drax 400 300 200 100 0 Fossil fuel Nuclear Renewables

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