News
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New Thinking: The RIIO-ED1 Price review – Just how successful is RIIO – update
RIIO Update Helen Poulter, IGov Team, 23rd January 2018 In June 2017 IGov reported on the RIIO ED1 price control. This was the first annual review by Ofgem of the RIIO ED1 price control – effected after the companies had been working to it for one year. The blog concluded that although there were minor improvements this new regulation strategy did not incentivise the DNO’s to do things differently. In July 2017, a report by Citizens Advice highlighted the forecasted RoRE (return on regulatory equity) – the financial return achieved by investors during the price
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Global Insights: 23rd January 2018
AUSTRALIA ‘Reliable Coal’ breaks again – and has to be saved by renewables and storage In another heatwave last week – with temperatures reaching 40C+ the 1100MW Loy Yang B coal generator in Victoria tripped, losing 530MW of capacity and sending prices in the energy market to $12,900MWh in Victoria and $14,200MWh in South Australia. This is the thirteenth time a coal generator has failed this summer causing commentators to question whether they can be relied upon for peak generation. The good news for both industrial storage and domestic solar and storage is that they
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Global Insight 27: 16th January 2018
AUSTRALIA Storage making headway in the start of 2018 In a ‘first of its kind’ project, a hydroponic agri-business in Victoria will power its entire business with renewable energy. Powering and heating the extension of Nectar Farm’s site from 10-40 hectares with gas proved too expensive – but electrifying the entire operation has meant that it will be able to be powered from a 204MW wind farm and a 20MW/34MWh battery storage facility to be built nearby. A deal between the Bungala Green Power Hub, the Victorian Government and Nectar Farms will see 15% of
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New Thinking: The Capacity Market – How did we get here?
The Capacity Market – How did we get here? Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 15th January 2018 This winter is the first in which Britain’s electricity Capacity Market comes into play. The Capacity Market (CM) is part of a set of policy measures introduced in 2013 known as the Electricity Market Reform. The basic case made for a capacity intervention in the early 2010s was that increasing amounts of wind power would make average wholesale prices lower as well as making periods of high prices rarer and more unpredictable, with the result that no one would
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New Thinking: Waiting for the ER P2/6 review
Waiting for Godot the ER P2/6 review Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 11th January 2018 Yesterday a member of the IGov team attended the excellent (although somewhat male dominated) Conference on Electricity System Change: Flexibility and costs, organised by the University of Strathclyde, UKERC and the IEEE. The final panel featured Paul Bingham, recently appointed as Ofgem’s first ever Chief Engineer. One of the areas he mentioned an interest in was reviewing and updating industry standards for security of supply, which made a lot of sense within the context of a conference highlighting a system experiencing
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Submission: BEIS Call for Evidence on the Helm Review
Submission by the Energy Policy Group (EPG) of the University of Exeter to the BEIS Call for Evidence on the Helm Review. Catherine Mitchell, Helen Poulter, Matthew Lockwood, Bridget Woodman, Rachel Bray, Richard Lowes, Jess Britton and Richard Hoggett. January 2018 Summary The table below sets out the issues that the EPG agrees with in the Helm Review, and the issues we do not agree with. On some issues, we semi-agree with Helm. In these cases, we tend to agree with the problem but not with his solution. ISSUE DO NOT AGREE
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Global Insight 26: 8th January 2018
Australia Hottest day in 80 years Unlike the ‘snowbomb’ hitting the USA , New South Wales, and in particular Sydney, had its hottest recorded temperatures for 80 years this weekend with the Penrith area reaching 47.3C. Previous heat events have seen large areas losing power due to back-up generation being unavailable, whereas although 31,000 people lost power this weekend only 4 of the 42 outages were caused by overloading of the networks. Critics have argued that the loss of power would have been much worse had the heatwave not been at the weekend and suggest
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New Thinking: Four years after switching, I get my credit back
Four years after switching, I get my credit back I wrote two blogs at the beginning of 2014 about my experience in switching my gas account from British Gas to Good Energy. The first blog on 8th January 2014 described the switch to Good Energy. I began the process on 12 November 2013 and by early January 2014 I was a Good Energy customer – the process was very straight forward. The second blog was written on 20th February 2014 and described my efforts to get back the credit of £35 or so pounds
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Global Insight 25: 18th December 2017
Australia Demand management incentive scheme The Australia Energy Regulator (AER) has this week released details of its Demand Management Incentive Scheme and the Demand Management Innovation Allowance. The scheme will give more choice to how consumers use their household electricity and solar PV and storage systems by signing up to schemes such as virtual power plants. This will enable distributors and consumers to work closer together to alleviate pressure on the grid. The AER estimates $1bn worth of demand management investment may be realised over 5 years. Report from the ISF suggests alternatives to
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Global Insight 24: 12th December 2017
Australia The unseen benefits of renewable energy Last week’s Global Insights highlighted the official opening of the Hornsdale Power Reserve – the Tesla Big Battery – in Jamestown, South Australia. As well as providing reliable, sustainable energy to the district it has also provided other benefits as Neoen, the owners of the Hornsdale wind farm, have shown foresight in how to make renewable energy have a positive impact on a local community. At all stages of the development Neoen worked with local stakeholders. During construction 250 jobs were created over three years which led to
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