National Grid has decided not to procure any Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR) for the coming winter. The announcement came after the results of the tender, which closed in June, “showed minimal volume would be available across this period”. “DSBR was always intended as a transitional product to provide additional reserves ahead of the capacity mechanism,” it said in an open letter. The scheme was designed to target consumers who had so far refused to shift their demand or made use of embedded generation during peak times in response to pricing signals. “It is clear this has not been successful,” the system operator said. The letter continued: “Our decision not to procure DSBR for 2016/17 has been made using all relevant information available to us at the time and following detailed analysis of volume over peak; giving appropriate consideration to the cost and expected benefit of DSBR and our licence requirement to procure services on an economic and efficient basis.” National Grid will work with those capable of offering demand side reserve over the winter to see if any “alternative delivery routes” can be developed. It said it remains committed development of demand side response and will continue to encourage innovation through its Power Responsive campaign. The decision not to procure any DSBR for this winter marks a significant turnaround for National Grid. Only last year the firm’s head of commercial operations at the time, Duncan Burt, told Utility Week that demand side measures would be used to meet “well over 50 per cent” of balancing requirements by 2030. Last week Ofgem proposed giving National Grid an additional £4.5 million of funding for the Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) and DBSR for the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2017. The firm had requested a £4.56 million increase. Ofgem said it planned to cut overall funding to National Grid by £185.4 million as part of a mid-period spending review.  Source link

8 July 2016 | Jamie Harris A rationalisation of facilities management contracts in the NHS has saved £15 million to date, NHS Property Services has announced. The streamlined contracts, which reduced the number of outsourced deals from 2,300 to 249, and the number for suppliers from more than 1,000 to fewer than 20, have been put in place to ‘improve the provision of FM services’ across the NHS property portfolio. Dennis Markey, chief operating officer at NHS Property Services, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for our FM teams and marks a significant cost saving for the NHS. “By reducing the number of contractors we employ and setting a standard service specification, this process is already driving efficiencies for the NHS, with £15 million already saved and an expected total saving of £22 million by year end, which will be reinvested back into patient care.” More than 900 staff have been TUPE transferred into NHS Porperty Services. Mitie secured the £100 million hard FM services contract in March, where it is to provide building fabric and maintenance services over the next three years. Mitie secured 25 of the 31 lots. Other successful hard services bidders included Integral, recently acquired by commercial property services provider JLL for £226 million. The soft FM contracts were awarded to a number of firms, including OCS, PHS Group, Mitie’s security and pest control divisions, and Ideal Cleaning Services. Source link

Berkeley chairman Tony Pidgley said the UK needs “a balance” of housing tenure, adding that the government’s Starter Homes policy would not solve the housing crisis. “I don’t think you can have an ideology where everyone has got to own a house, we’ve got to have a balance,” he said. “The working class people and key workers in this country, they’re entitled to rent a property at rents that’s are affordable for their salary.” Mr Pidgley said the government had failed to get behind the build to rent sector, after imposing a 3 per cent Stamp Duty surcharge on second homes. “They [the government] have taxed it [the sector], I don’t think they encourage it. I don’t think you can have a perfect housing market, you can’t have it a hundred per cent homeownership and I’m a housebuilder,” he said. Tony Pidgley on: Offsite manufacturing: “We’ve got to crack it, all my life we’ve tried to cure it but we’ve ever really found the answer. “I’m not sure it’s the panacea, we need many silver bullets.” Timber Skyscraper plans: “It won’t work – those buildings move. We build skyscrapers and they move. “I built timber frame when I was 20 years of age, I like timber frame and it has a lot to be said for it in two-storey housing [because] it does take down the speed and it’s sustainable but you shouldn’t climb with it.” Cost inflation: “It’s horrendous, but it’s not just cost inflation, we’ve got a shortage of labour and when there’s a shortage, like anything when house prices go up, prices go up. But it is easing a bit.” “If the government doesn’t wake up to the housing [crisis] they [investors] will stop investment in the London market,” he added. “Whether you like investors or not, they [investors] come in and take the risk out of development. “If you can sell 30 per cent [on a development] it gives you the confidence to go on and do it [all].” Mr Pidgley was speaking at an event hosted by Barking and Dagenham council, which is undertaking a major regeneration of the borough. The Berkeley chairman used the borough as an example of where investors were needed. “They [Barking and Dagenham] have got the right leader [Cllr Darren Rodwell] but they need the investment to [grow]. “They will have some stiff challenges because currently house prices are almost at build cost levels so there’s no land value, so there’s no spare money to pay for infrastructure, so everyone is going it have to work at it.”   Source link

Coal generation fell to a record low in May, supplying just 1TWh of power during the month, new figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have revealed. It was down by 72 per cent year-on-year during the second quarter of 2016 at 4.3TWh. Its share of total output fell to a mere 6.8 per cent – the lowest level in 21 years. The fall was the result of a reduction in coal-fired capacity, the department said, in part due to Drax’s conversion of a third unit to co-firing biomass. Accordingly, bioenergy generation during the quarter rose by more than 10 per cent on same period last year to 4.1TWh.   The drop was offset by a 57 per cent increase in gas-fired generation. During April, May and June, gas plants supplied a majority of all power – 31.8TWh out of a total of 62.6TWh. In addition to the Drax conversion, coal capacity has also been slashed by a series of plant closures since the beginning of this year. Longannet and Ferrybridge both shut down in March and Rugeley closed towards the end of June. Eggborough has also exited the main energy market, although the plant has remained open to provide balancing services to National Grid over the coming winter via the Supplemental Balancing Reserve. Winds-generated supply fell to 5.9TWh during the second quarter – a 14 per cent decrease on the same period last year. Offshore generation was down 9 per cent at 3.3TWh, and onshore generation dropped by a fifth. The decline was the result of lower average wind speeds when compared with same period last year. An increase in installed capacity meant solar supplies were up 16.5 per cent at 0.7TWh, despite a drop in average sun hours. Reduced rainfall led a 42 per cent reduction in hydropower suppliers; at 0.6TWh, it was the lowest level in almost two years and the second lowest level this decade. Renewables’ collective share of overall generation was down by 1.4 percentage points at 18.1 per cent. The December closure of the Wyfla plant on Anglesey in North Wales resulted in a 1.5 per cent reduction in nuclear generation to 15.1TWh. Low-carbon generation (renewables and nuclear) supplied 42.3 per cent of the UK’s electricity during the second quarter. Interconnector imports accounted for 7.4 per cent of electricity supplies, down from 7.5 per cent a year ago. Source link

Consumer product giant Procter & Gamble has announced plans to meet its electricity demands by using 100 per cent wind power to make iconic fabric and home care brands, such as Tide and Dawn. The sustainable milestone is possible thanks to a new partnership with EDF Renewable Energy which will see a new Texas based wind farm generate 370,000 megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity each year. The wind farm will be fully operational in December 2016. The partnership was announced at the White House, as P&G became a signatory of the ‘American Business Act on Climate Pledge’. As part of the pledge, P&G agreed to achieve 30 per cent renewable energy to power its plants globally by 2020, with a long term vision to use 100 per cent renewable energy. This comes on the heels of a September announcement where P&G committed to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020. One of the key actions on the journey to rely more on renewable energy is to partner with EDF RE to build a wind farm in Cooke County, Texas. This will generate 370,000 MWh of electricity per year – enough to meet electricity demands for all of P&G’s North American fabric and home care plants, where iconic brands such as Tide, Gain, Downy, Dawn, Cascade, Febreze, and Mr. Clean are produced. The amount of power generated from the partnership will be equivalent to avoiding more than 200,000 metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually. This equals one percent of the national annual reduction target for electricity emissions called for in the White House Clean Power Plan. The electricity consumption of the plants makes up about half of their total energy consumption. The electricity will be exclusively generated by wind power. The plants will also continue to use natural gas for process heating and comfort heating during winter. Speaking about the project Shailesh Jejurikar, North America Fabric Care president, P&G, commented: “I am delighted that our collaboration with EDF RE continues to provide our consumers with their favorite, high performing brands while reducing our environmental footprint.” He continued: “At P&G, when it comes to sustainability, actions speak louder than words and this move is a significant milestone in delivering that promise. It is incredible that the wind farm will generate enough electricity for all our P&G Fabric and Home Care plants; to put that in context: This is enough electricity to wash a million loads of laundry.” Tristan Grimbert, ceoand president of EDF RE, stated: “The participation of P&G to directly procure wind power is a concrete action that demonstrates their understanding of the benefits of renewable energy. “Wind not only emits zero greenhouse gas emissions, but also delivers long-term energy price stability,” he continues. “P&G is leading one of the fastest growing markets in the renewable energy space and we are pleased to be their partner to reach their climate pledge goals.” To celebrate the scale of the collaboration, P&G Fabric & Home Care and EDF RE have constructed a mini-wind farm in Washington DC. The installation is placed on the lawn in front of the Capitol Building and is made up of thousands of spinning pinwheels. Like this story? Please subscribe to our free weekly e-newsletter at the top of the page for more content like this. Source link

Third Party Cookies We use a number of social media tools to enhance visitor interaction on our site. If you already use these platforms their cookies may be set through our website. Data may then be collected by these companies that enables them to serve up adverts on other sites that they think are relevent to your interests. If you do not use such platforms then our site will not place these cookies on your device. Twitter Cookies: __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmv, __utmz, _sm_au_d, _twitter_sess, _twitter_sess, ab_sess_activity_ddg_126, ab_sess_activity_up_top_98, ab_sess_promoted_arrows_and_pills_78, ab_sess_Relevance_V1-49, ab_sess_search_relevance_ranked_hits_189, ab_sess_search_relevance_social_167, ab_sess_t1_actions_156, ab_sess_wtf_user_to_user_rec_155, auth_token, auth_token_session, dnt, external_referer, guest_id, k, lang, original_referer, pid, secure_session, t1, twid, twll Facebook Cookies: _e_0ITr_10, _e_bWDI_21, _e_bWDI_22, _e_bWDI_23, _e_bWDI_24, _e_CTMK_0, _e_CTMK_1, _e_CTMK_2, _e_e6Yv_0, _e_e6Yv_1, _e_e6Yv_2, _sm_au_d, act, c_user, c_user, datr, e, L, L, lu, presence, reg_ext_ref, reg_ext_ref, reg_fb_gate, reg_fb_gate, reg_fb_ref, reg_fb_ref, sct, sct, wd, x-referer, xs, xs Google Cookies: _sm_au_d, APISID, BEAT, HSID, IGTP, NID, OTZ, PP_TOS_ACK, PREF, S, S_awfe, SAPISID, SID, SS, SSID, ULS, W6D Microsoft Cookies: MC1, WT_FPC Source link