Unfazed by the close shave and entirely avoidable capacity constraint of 2014/15, Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change is belatedly developing plans to prepare the UK for the ongoing prospect of winter energy shortages. With a bad winter raising the prospect of spare generation capacity being just 2.8% compared to 17% […]
UK placed on energy watch list
Being put on a list is rarely a good thing, perhaps waiting for a new iPhone could be classed as such, but then again is paying through the nose to look cool for the day good? Regardless the latest list on which the UK energy market has been placed is definitely not good. The World […]
Pylon Madness Adds to Energy Bills
In an interesting aside to the normal cost of energy debate an eyesore has raised eyebrows. Three main elements have driven the increase in the cost of energy that is the focal point of much angst ahead of the 2015 general election and the findings of the CMA investigation into energy competition in the UK […]
Smart saves you 6%, Smarter saves you much more
In the first quantitative analysis from real world usage of smart meters, British Gas has revealed that customers could save up to 6% on their annual bills by using smart meters. British Gas pinpointed the existence of a visible “smart meter energy monitor” as the key factor in encouraging more efficient behaviour in suitably equipped […]
Increasing Energy Levies and Subsidy Costs
The Energy Cost Artifice Climate Change Levy (CCL), Contracts for Difference (CFDs), Renewables Obligation (RO), Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), Feed in Tariff (FIT), the list goes on. The levies and subsidies attached to the invoices of business electricity customers are growing at an inexorable rate. Already the cost of these environmental and social obligations make […]
Hinkley Point’s woes continue
As if the development of a new generation of power stations to deliver energy to the UK over the coming decades was not precarious enough, the latest news from the Areva, the French nuclear business, could prove the final nail in the coffin of “new nuclear” in the UK. Areva were responsible for the design […]
LNG, The Only Way is Down
It has certainly been a strange few months in the global energy markets. With all the indicators suggesting prices should be rising – uncertainty in unstable markets, the Russia Ukraine conflict, a falling oil price raising the spectre of OPEC driven curtailment of supply and a winter capacity constraint the level of which has been […]
Independent suppliers top B2B satisfaction survey
Datamonitor have released their latest B2B Energy Buyer Customer Satisfaction research. The 2014 report as ever makes interesting reading for those businesses looking for an energy supplier and for the industry itself. Once again smaller, independent suppliers have come out on top with Opus Energy taking the SME crown and Smartest Energy triumphing in the […]
Energy Efficiency and the SME: The Time to Act is Here
The next front in the war on energy costs is getting the UK’s SMEs to take energy efficiency measures seriously as a key plank of their business strategy, that is according to a recent Guardian seminar on business energy costs. Such a proposition is unlikely to be attractive to all but the most committed environmentally aware […]
Centrica’s latest profit warning
There have probably been worse executive teams to sit on in the last 12 months than Centrica’s, but not many. With a revolving door that appeared to only be working one way, outwards. A vocal then chastised Chief Executive. And the advent of the CMA investigation into the energy market with Centrica particularly suffering the […]