Energy and Climate Change Committee launch an inquiry into the UK's electricity infrastructure
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The UK energy market is on the cusp of major structural change and the majority of businesses will need to consider how and when they use power or face spiralling costs. Remaining a ‘dumb’ consumer of power in an age of smart grids could prove costly, warns Smart Grid Consultancy director Gary Swandells.
Following on from the recent changes by the government to onshore wind subsidies and large solar developments, Amber Rudd the secretary of state for energy and climate change this morning announced that they intend to take the cuts a whole lot further. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is launching a consultation on proposals to stop solar farms with less than 5MW of capacity accessing the Renewables Obligation (RO) subsidy scheme from April next year. The consultation will close on September 2nd and DECC said it would aim to publish its decision as soon as possible thereafter.
ENGIE, (formerly GDF SUEZ), announced today they have invested in KiWi Power, one of the leading UK demand response aggregators, through its corporate venture capital company ENGIE NewVentures. This investment will see ENGIE support the privately owned energy technology company’s plans for growth and development of its client base in the UK and Internationally.
SGC are very proud to announce their involvement in SP Energy Network's 2015 submission, seeking funding from Ofgem's Network Innovation Competition. Following SGC's original proposition and development of the concept of the evolution from DNO to DSO we have been working closely with the innovation team in leading the bid creation.
Project EVOLUTION is a £6.8m project that will create and demonstrate primary elements of a Distribution System Operator (DSO) model. It will implement local system balancing through innovative commercial and technical mechanisms under a Grid Supply Point (GSP).
The Electricity NIC is an annual opportunity for electricity network companies to compete for funding for the development and demonstration of new technologies, operating and commercial arrangements. Funding will be provided for the best innovation projects which help all network operators understand what they need to do to provide environmental benefits, cost reductions and security of supply as Great Britain (GB) moves to a low carbon economy. Up to £81m per annum is available through the Electricity NIC.
Over the past few years with power station closures the margin between the predicted peak demand from consumers and the total available generation has been continuing to narrow. over the past two winters we have been very fortunate with very mild conditions which haven't driven the peak demand as high as was predicted.
At a press briefing, Cordi O’Hara, Director of Market Operation at National Grid has warned that this winter the margin is predicted at 1.2%.
National Grid is set to radically overhaul the way it balances the UK’s electricity system to rely mostly on demand-side measures by 2030 rather than using large generating assets.
Currently the transmission system operator spends around £850 million per year to keep the UK’s supply and demand in balance, with the vast majority of this spent on paying generators to ramp up or curtail power output to meet fluctuating demand.
SGC have been delighted to working closely in conjunction with Western Power Distribution for almost three years in the delivery of Project FALCON.
This is an Ofgem funded innovation project.
FALCON has operated live system trials to test six alternatives to conventional network reinforcement methods, to assess effectiveness, see how they work in practice, establish likely costs and generate new learning about how these can be rolled out across the networks...
On one side we have environmental protestors, backed by MPs on parliament’s environmental committee, the EAC, published a report yesterday calling for a ban, claiming the UK can only use a “fraction” of the gas wells to stay within our targets to cut carbon emissions. Not to mention the viral videos of flaming taps and scare stories of sink holes and earthquakes.