Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 4TH - 10TH MAY 2018 | 5 GAS Quadgas to be sole owner of Cadent National Grid has agreed to sell a further 25 per cent stake in Cadent to Quadgas for £1.2 billion. Quadgas already owns 61 per cent of Cadent, in a deal announced in March 2017 that also gave it the option to buy a further 14 per cent at a later date. According to the terms of the latest agreement, the acquistion of the outstanding 25 per cent must be completed between March and October next year. In a statement, National Grid said the proceeds would be reinvested in its other businesses. The Quadgas consortium con- sists of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, Allianz Capital Partners, Hermes Investment Man- agement, CIC Capital Corporation, Qatar Investment Authority, Dal- more Capital and the International Public Partnerships fund run by Amber Infrastructure. ENERGY ETI: new nuclear can be 'highly cost competitive' Evidence from around the globe shows there is "significant" potential to cut new-build nuclear costs in the UK by learning from the experiences of other countries, according to the Energy Technolo- gies Institute (ETI). In a new report, the ETI said although recent nuclear projects in North America and Europe have been beset by delays and cost overruns, plants built elsewhere in the world have demonstrated that nuclear energy can be "highly cost competitive". The report identifies 35 oppor- tunities to drive down costs, spread across eight key categories from project governance and develop- ment to policy and regulation. They include building multiple units at a single site and providing govern- ment support for financing. The report was produced as part of the ETI's nuclear cost drivers project and is a summary of a fuller report, which is due to be released later this year. ENERGY CMA wants closer look at big six deal The proposed merger between Innogy's Npower and the retail arm of SSE reduces competition in the energy market and raises bills for consumers, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded. The competition watchdog believes the deal "warrants further in-depth scrutiny". Following an ini- tial probe, the CMA has threatened to launch a full investigation into the merger if the two companies fail to address its concerns. In a statement, the CMA said the phase 1 investigation found the rivalry between the large energy companies is "an important factor in how they set tariffs". The removal of any competition could "therefore lead to higher prices for some customers". First power has been generated at the 21.5MW Ince biomass plant in Cheshire. The power station is owned by the Bioenergy Infrastructure Group and is the first active facility at Peel Environmental's £700 million Protos energy hub. The hub is located within the newly created Energy Innovation District near Ellesmere Port in between Manchester and Liverpool. "An extended opinion piece" Labour shadow energy spokesman Alan Whitehead makes a scathing assessment of professor Dieter Helm's review of energy costs (news, p11). "The future energy system will be completely transformed from what it is today" Orsted UK managing director Matthew Wright on effects of new technology and clean energy generation combined with smarter, flexible grids balancing supply and demand. Over £220m Amount paid by energy companies in compensation and penalties since 2010, according to latest Ofgem figures. As at April 2018: 10 open investi- gations, 62 closed investigations (since 2010). 3.8m Number of complaints made to energy suppliers in 2017. • Bills • Customer service • Metering • Switching £6.9m Amount paid out by DNOs and GDNs since 2013 for failing to meet guaranteed standards.

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