Entries in Bulletin Archive (68)
ENA Bulletin 15th March 2010
- ENA briefs DECC on gas futures
- Budget signals energy policy launches
- Energy Minister signals the future direction on Ofgem
- ENA on Radio 5 Live talking street works
- ENA meet Lib Dem Shadow Transport Secretary
- Home energy saving launch
- New maps to reveal potential hydropower hotspots
- Brussels Update
- Forthcoming Events
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ENA briefs DECC on gas futures
Last Wednesday (10th March) the Conservative-leaning think-tank Policy Exchange published an ‘alternative manifesto’ saying there was a crucial role for biogas in the future energy mix. On the same day, as part of ENA’s continuing programme, we held a briefing session with senior DECC officials focussing on gas network issues.
The officials and policy advisers were briefed on the continuing vital role for gas in any feasible energy scenario, biogas, the need to ensure that smart meters meet the needs of gas networks and the concept of a smart gas grid. All these issues are being funnelled through our Energy Network Futures Group and its sub-group on Gas Futures, which are also looking at major projects to identify and define the gas networks of tomorrow.
The Policy Exchange book can be read at: http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/assets/TROG.pdf
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Budget signals energy policy launches
This week the Government finally announced the date of the Budget: 24th March. We could find the budget week to be a crowded one in energy policy terms. The DECC ‘Roadmap to 2050’ is expected to be published as part of the Budget, along with the energy market assessment work being done by the Treasury and in which the Chancellor (a former DTI Secretary responsible for energy policy) has taken a strong personal interest.
The industry has been looking to the ‘Roadmap to 2050’ to provide some policy clarity and truly offer an unambiguous route to our energy future, but he Bulletin understands this may not be the case. Despite the fact that DECC are already preparing a further Energy Bill, the Roadmap may not be the white paper we had expected. It could well offer some directions but they could be varied. In addition, a lot of the anticipated detail could well be left out.
Perhaps some of this detail could be filled in by the Conservative energy policy paper. First completed back in November last year it has been a long time coming and - despite rumours that the Conservatives might be going a bit easier on policy announcements at the moment - this one seems to have got under the wire. It may even come out around the same time as the ‘Roadmap to 2050’.
In what could prove the last policy announcement before the election (and the publication of all the manifestos), the Conservatives are expected to set out a comprehensive statement of policy direction, something they have criticised the Government for failing to do. If this is the case, it will be welcome and could well set out some useful fuel for debate during the election campaign. Expect to see a big chunk on the role of the Ofgem and the regulatory framework as well as some firm views on the future role for gas. There is also likely to be a commitment to establishing an Emissions Performance Standard, something that they nearly got through in the Energy Bill recently.
The Budget date also confirms that the General Election will almost certainly be on 6th May. But another possible and slightly risky scenario could see Gordon Brown announce it during the Easter Recess and the entire Government programme would be abandoned.
If Mr Brown avoids the scorched earth option the Energy Bill, set for Second Reading in the Lords on 23rd March, will almost certainly not get any further than this. This will mean the Bill will have to be agreed by the opposition parties to allow it through without fulfilling all its stages. This is likely to mean some bits will have to be jettisoned; this is likely to be the clauses on the Ofgem’s remit.
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Energy Minister signals the future direction on Ofgem
In the debate in the Lords on the National Policy Statement on nuclear energy last Tuesday (9th March) the Energy Minister Lord Hunt may well have signalled where the Government’s thinking on Ofgem is going.
In response to Conservative Energy Spokeswoman Baroness Wilcox’s reference to Ofgem’s Project Discovery, Lord Hunt was emphatic and unambiguous about what the Regulator’s role should be. The Noble Baroness had referred to various scenarios auguring the lights going out. He said he had read the reports produced by Ofgem with interest, but “Ofgem is an economic regulator; it is not charged with energy policy”. He went on to lay the killer blow when he said “sometimes I think that Ofgem needs to reflect on what it is there to do, rather than produce rather speculative reports from time to time.” He concluded that “it is the Government's responsibility to establish policy in relation to energy and it is our job to ensure that there is security of supply. We will do that.”
What is even more interesting is this is exactly what the Conservative Energy team (Greg Clark and Charles Hendry) have been saying for some time. Lord Hunt could almost be giving us a preview of their forthcoming policy document. From this it is would seem clear that whoever wins the next election, the role of Ofgem will be changing pretty profoundly.
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ENA on Radio 5 Live talking street works
ENA were represented on Radio 5 Live last Monday (8th March) along with all the utilities who are members of the National Joint Utilities Group. Tony Glover was on the Gaby Logan Show to set out our response to increasing and, in our view, unnecessary additional regulation on street works. He also set out how we are driving up standards and that these standards and the regulatory burden should be equally shared by the highway authorities who are responsible for half the works on the road. This point was accepted by the presenter of the show who said that the authorities were ‘getting off lightly’.
We are increasingly getting our views across to the broadcast media with this appearance following on from our appearance on Radio 4’s You & Yours three weeks ago. We will continue to get our message across and so shape the policy climate in which we operate.
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Hendry hails DECC energy efficiency plan
Shadow energy minister Charles Hendry endorsed enthusiastically the Government’s recently announced plans to boost the installation of energy efficiency measures in Britain’s homes on the grounds that they are, he claimed, identical to Tory proposals of a year ago.
Earlier this month, DECC unveiled a plan to improve energy efficiency in UK domestic property. The “Pay as you save” scheme will include up front-funding from energy suppliers and repayments by the householders met from reductions in their energy bill.
The plan to insulate practically all British housing will be financed through an obligation on suppliers to reduce carbon emissions. More elaborate “eco upgrades” such as heat pump installation will be financed by other private funding. The scheme has three proposed stages with insulation for six million homes by the end of 2011 with all lofts and cavity walls insulated by 2015 and “eco upgrades” in seven million homes by 2020 when all homes should have smart meters.
Hendry compared the DECC proposals with a Conservative proposal which he claimed was issued in January 2009 to give every home up to £6,500-worth of insulation measures, with the money repaid over a 25 year period. Hendry said the Tory plan had the saving made from the insulation shared between repayment of the entitlement and lower bills for the household. Hendry said that under the Conservative proposal – as with the DECC plan - the repayments would stay with the property, rather than the person, and so repayments would be unaffected by people moving house.
Hendry said: “This is yet another example of where Conservatives have been leading the way with visionary policies, only for the Government to play catch-up by pilfering our policies at a later date”.
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New maps to reveal potential hydropower hotspots
The Environment Agency has unveiled a map showing where potential for hydropower generation on rivers in England and Wales remains unused. While the total number of about 26,000 sites it identifies could generate enough power for 850,000 homes, it points out that only a half of those sites would be viable given environmental sensitivities and constrained access to the network. In more than 4000 sites with hydropower potential, the plant could improve the local environment as well as generate renewable electricity.
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Brussels Update
CCS Discussions
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has made it clear that we need smart grids, to connect the new streams of generation, micro generation, CHP etc which are coming on line.
EN A is meeting with European legislative bodies, including the European Parliament, and the Commission, to get clarity and certainty on their future legislative proposals. These meetings have provided opportunities to give the legislators background information on the UK networks, and to discuss any concerns which can be fed back to our members.
Following on from our meeting with Fiona Hall, Lib Dem Leader in the Parliament last month, this month ENA met Chris Davies MEP, Lib Dem spokesman on environmental and public health issues. Mr Davies covers the North West of England.
Inevitably our discussions focussed in on recent Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) developments. We commended Mr Davies on his efforts to secure sufficient allowances from the EU ETS New Entrants Reserve for renewable and CCS projects. Member States’ representatives on the EU Climate Change Committee have agreed that 300 million allowances should be set aside for this purpose, a decision which should be formalised in Council in May, after debates in the Parliament. The majority of MEPs are expected to support the proposals.
The European Investment Bank will sell the allowances and distribute the monies to Member States. The tight timetable agreed requires Member States to submit their project proposals to the EIB by the end of 2010, with due diligence and assessment early in 2011, and final decisions by the end of 2011. The ambitious aim is to have eight EU CCS demonstration projects up and running by the end of 2015, as requested by the Council. EU funding for up to three demonstration projects is envisaged for the UK.
The Power Fuel Hatfield CCS project in North Yorkshire successfully secured €180 million in funding from the EU under the Economic Recovery Programme last year. ENA member company National Grid is a major partner in this project, and is proposing to use existing gas pipelines to transport the carbon dioxide to depleted North Sea gas fields. Clearly CCS presents significant opportunities for the networks as carbon dioxide transporters, with established infrastructure already in place. For now the focus is on the transmission networks but with the right regulatory incentives, there may also be potential for the gas distribution networks to play their part.
Recognising that there are uncertainties as to how the UK might reach its 2050 low-carbon targets, Mr Davies believes that a CCS deployment plan or roadmap is needed, in particular to deal with the roll out of new CCS projects, following on from the initial demonstration projects.
UK representation on the Parliament’s Energy Committee
Edit Herczog, an experienced Hungarian Member of the European Parliament, recently became a full member of the Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE). She has effectively replaced the UK’s Derek Vaughan who was Labour’s only full member of the Committee. ENA is now seeking a meeting with Ms Herczog.
We know that Peter Skinner, Labour MEP for the South East, will be remaining on the Committee, as Ms Herczog’s S&D substitute. Mr Skinner’s focus is currently on the dossiers before the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. We are hoping this may change when the Commission starts to produce more substantive energy policy proposals in the coming months.
EU reporting of infrastructure investments
For the time being there are few pieces of EU energy policy legislation under consideration by the Brussels legislators. The new Commission is still getting its act together.
An exception is the draft Notification of Investments in Energy Infrastructure Regulation, which is intended to improve transparency and provide an overall picture of infrastructure investments with the aim of improving co-ordination between Member States, and also at EU level.
From the networks’ perspective, the amendments agreed to date to the Commission’s original text have been helpful, with the emphasis on maintaining confidentiality of the information provided, and avoiding duplications in reporting. Rapporteur Valean’s report was adopted by Parliament during the February plenary session in Strasbourg, and political agreement reached between Member States at the Energy Council last week.
The next step will be for the jurists and linguists to make the multiple translations, and ensure all the legal niceties are met, which may take up to eight weeks. Formal adoption of the new Regulation by the Council is expected in May or June.
Security of Gas Supply
Another significant piece of energy legislation currently progressing through the Council/Parliament co-decision process is the new Gas Security Directive.
The Spanish Presidency is hoping to reach political agreement on this important dossier by the end of its term in June. However progress to date has been slow and there is not yet sufficient agreement between Member States for the Directive to be signed off at Council level.
Council and Parliament amendments have been largely helpful in reasserting the importance of the markets being able to continue to operate for as long as possible in a gas emergency. Reaching agreement on the standard EU definition of protected customers has been problematic. The compromise wording being considered by Member States includes all household customers connected to a gas distribution network. Additionally, Member States can also choose to include small businesses and essential social services. However, these customers must already be connected to a gas distribution network and not represent more than 10 per cent of the final consumption of gas.
Proposals require individual Member States to guarantee their own surplus gas capacity, even when major gas infrastructure is out of action. This proposal could pose particular problems for some Member States such as Sweden, which have only a single gas pipeline. The UK is in a better position than most to be able to fulfil the proposed requirements. Recognising the challenges for some countries, it looks as though the compliance date will be extended from the Commission’s proposed three years, to four years from when the new legislation comes into force.
The original Commission text required all gas pipelines to be given the capacity to reverse gas flow within two years. ENA, with others, has argued that this should only be done if it will improve significantly security of supply, and where it is cost effective to do so. These arguments have been imported into the text. Current thinking is that the competent authority in a Member State, usually the relevant government department, can seek an exemption from the reverse-flow requirement on the basis that this would not significantly enhance the security of supply in that member state.
Discussions are of the Commission’s own competences as opposed to Member States’ in the event of an EU emergency are continuing. As it stands, the Commission will have a ‘safeguard’ role if a member state’s competent authority takes measures that either unduly restrict the flow of gas within the internal market, or endanger seriously the situation in another member state or threaten maintenance of cross-border access to infrastructure. If any of the three above conditions is met, the Commission can request that the concerned member state, competent authority or natural gas undertaking to alter its actions.
The ITRE committee is aiming to adapt Vidal Quadras’ report this week. The Spanish Presidency will be pushing for political agreement between member states in Council by May/June. The Spanish see this Directive as, potentially, the crown jewel in terms of their energy policy achievements for their six--month Presidency.
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Forthcoming Events
Transmission & Distribution/Smart Grids Europe 2010
29th-31st March 2010, Amsterdam
This conference and exhibition will bring together 90+ of Europe’s industry professionals to deliver case studies on long- and mid-term electricity network issues delivering the specific cases you can leverage to implement best practice to your business. Alongside Transmission & Distribution Europe, the 2nd edition of Smart Grids Europe is being organized. The 2-day Smart Grids Europe programme delivers international case best practice case studies showcasing European utilities like Endesa, ENEL, ESB, EDF realising utilities smart grids potential.
Utlity Street Works
London, 31 March 2010 (09:30 - 16:00)
The ENA (Energy Networks Association) and the Utility Networks division of SBGI are once again organising a joint one day Utility Street Works Seminar. The event is designed to share information and ideas with senior representatives of the utilities industry and other stakeholders to help improve performance in all aspects of street works. The seminar will offer a wide range of high quality, stimulating presentations from influential speakers, together with extensive networking opportunities and a topical exhibition.
Getting Connected:
Planning and Grid Access for New Energy Infrastructure
26th April 2010, Bircham Dyson Bell, London
This conference examines the challenges facing the delivery of new energy infrastructure, looking at current infrastructure investment commitments and focusing on how the planning and grid access processes are developing to cope with the necessary increase in energy projects. It provides an opportunity to understand and update on the grid access process and the planning requirements for new energy infrastructure.
SHE2010
28th-30th April 2010: Wokefield Park (Mortimer, Reading)
SHE2010 will take place from Wednesday 28th to Friday 30th April at Wokefield Park, Berkshire.
SHE2010 is a must-attend event for employers, employees, trade unions, regulators and anyone who needs to know all that is happening with safety, health and environment in the industry.
For further information, please go to http://www.energynetworks.org/SHE2010 or contact SHE2010@energynetworks.org.
2010 EURELECTRIC Annual Convention & Conference
Dublin, 14-15 June 2010
The forum provides Europe’s energy utilities with a good opportunity to share their ideas and analysis on how to advance the electricity industry for the benefit of consumers and economies everywhere.
Smart Grid 2010: Making them a reality
25-26 May 2010, Mary Ward House, London, UK
This two-day conference is your chance to find out what is happening in the Smart Grids field. It will examine regulatory, legal, commercial, market and industry issues, and is the ideal forum to learn from leaders in the energy sector as they explain current pilots and projects, and provide some of the solutions to solve the latest technological and strategic challenges.
http://conferences.theiet.org/smartgrid/index.htm
Realisation of the Future Grid
16-17 June 2010, London, UK
SMi’s Realisation of the Future Grid conference has been created to bring together leading players in the UK and European DNO landscape for a thorough, in-depth review of Smart Grid deployment, discussing current infrastructure, distribution, security and interoperability challenges affecting the industry.
Don’t miss this opportunity to gain strategic insight into the UK governments proposed initiatives, hear about the UK's first Smart Grid, and meet UK and European DNO's who are already establishing their next generation networks.
To view the full conference programme visit http://www.smi-online.co.uk/futuregrids19.asp or for further information contact Andrew Gibbons on +44 (0) 20 7827 6156 or email agibbons@smi-online.co.uk
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For more information, contact Tony Glover: 020 7706 5122 (tony.glover@energynetworks.org)
Copyright © Energy Networks Association 2010. Copying, duplicating or reproducing this or any other issue of 'The Bulletin' without written consent will constitute an infringement of this work under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved.
Any opinions expressed in the Bulletin or its attachments do not necessarily reflect the opinion of any members of ENA.
ENA
ENA Bulletin 1st March 2010
Commons Report backs ENA on investment call... Conservative Planning Policy causes concern... Welsh Assembly Report reflects ENA concerns... Route map for Smart Grids published... ENA at the Conservative Spring Forum... Energy Bill clears the Commons unscathed - just... Brussels Update... Forthcoming Events...
ENA Bulletin 15th February 2010
ENA sets out future of networks at Networks 2010 event... Has Mr Miliband made a ‘Discovery’?... Investing in UK infrastructure - a return to picking winners?... ENA raises electric vehicles with Transport Secretary... ENA success on Next Generation Networks... ENA on R4 You & Yours... Conservative energy and planning policies expected soon... Budget likely to be on 23rd March and election called on 25th...
ENA Bulletin 1st February 2010
ENA appears before Energy Select Committee on planning... ENA gives evidence to MPs on future role for networks... ENA meets Shadow Transport Secretary and Mayor’s adviser... The future of gas heralded by green NGO... RPI-X @20 - the review of energy network regulation continues... Energy Bill clears Committee stage...
