As the Environment Agency calls for water meters in virtually all homes in England and Wales, we look at some of the issues for consumers. Most meters use a positive displacement chamber which has a fixed amount of water flowing through it that turns a dial to measure water usage for a household. Meters are usually installed in the most suitable location determined by the pipe layout, which may be in the road, garden or indoors. You local water company will then visit to check your water meter reading and calculate how much to charge, much like gas and electricity meters. All homes built since 1990 are fitted with water meters. It is estimated about a third of properties have them.

The argument in favour of a meter is straightforward: You pay for what you use. The Consumer Council for Water found customers considered metering to be the fairest billing method, but they still liked to have a choice. The Environment Agency makes the case that paying per volume is the fairest way to pay and that it gives people an incentive to use less water, benefiting the environment. To meter everybody regardless of their circumstances or how many children they have is absolutely a recipe for disaster

It is said homes with meters use on average 10% to 15% less water than those without. People who cut their water use often find other bills fall as well, as about 40% of energy bills go on heating water for washing dishes and clothes, bathing and showering. Another benefit is the meter allows you to see whether you have a leak. Domestic customers are entitled to a “leakage allowance”, so you do not have to pay for the water lost through a proven leak, according to the Consumer Council for Water. Water UK, which represents water companies, said metering also allowed the possibility to introduce more adapted tariff structures in the future. The disadvantages of meters are that your bills may rise.

The Campaign for Water Justice said the poorest and most lowly-paid households could end up facing higher bills. “To meter everybody regardless of their circumstances or how many children they have is absolutely a recipe for disaster,” said Neil Fishpool, from the campaign group.

Soaring costs have forced British Gas owner Centrica to postpone building a giant £750million offshore wind turbine farm. This is the latest setback for the Government, which is relying on wind power over the next decade to help the UK achieve tough green energy targets. Last week, Spain’s Iberdrola, the world’s biggest investor in wind power, admitted that investment in the UK would fall by 40 per cent this year. Centrica is still keen for the 250 megawatt wind farm near Skegness, Lincolnshire, to be developed, but the board will not sanction the move because of rising costs. The company has a £4billion war chest to spend on wind projects over the next five years and it still hopes it will be able to go on to become the country’s largest wind power investor and operator. Centrica has all the permission necessary to build the wind farm, which would be capable of supplying 170,000 homes, but the price of turbines, which are made overseas, continues to soar because of the weak pound, while engineering costs are escalating as steel prices rise.

In an attempt to kick-start the investment, Centrica and the Government have been in talks aimed at giving industry a bigger incentive to develop wind farms. The group wants Whitehall to offer increased concessions under its wind subsidy programme. Under this scheme, for every unit of green electricity a company produces, it receives a credit from the Government that can be used to offset charges it faces from any electricity it uses or produces from ‘dirty’ plants such as coalfired power stations. Energy Minister Mike O’Brien is said to be determined to create the conditions that will allow the wind industry to go ahead with its investments, without which the UK would miss its climate change targets.
Tomorrow he will spell out how the Government will further encourage the industry by offering generous research and development grants for a new generation of giant wind turbines. He will also say he is working with the Treasury to come up with more financial inducements to attract investment. 

Opus Energy, the independent supplier of electricity to UK businesses, has recently signed Halfords, bringing the total number of UK business sites it supplies up to 50,000. Now the largest electricity supplier to UK businesses outside the Big Six, Opus Energy has expanded further in the last 12 months:

Halfords has entered into a two year contract with Opus Energy, with the supply starting in April 2009. Opus Energy will provide 52GWh to the bicycle and motoring specialist chain, across 440 sites. Opus Energy is attracting a growing number of large corporate customers through the development of a unique wholesale purchasing platform, Opus Evolution.

Opus Evolution gives companies control of their energy purchasing strategies, enabling them to choose how much energy they purchase and when. For example, in a volatile market companies using Opus Evolution have the flexibility to purchase a smaller percentage of their total energy demand over a number of purchases rather than being restricted to one buying opportunity per year. Opus Evolution offers an alternative to a fixed price contract for the first time to this sector,

Andy Taylor, Commercial Manager at Halfords said: “Opus Evolution will be a very useful tool for us. We can control our energy purchasing across the whole portfolio, but also monitor the consumption levels at each site using the online reporting tool. This is really key for us as a retail company with a large number of active sites to manage.”

Steve James, Commercial Director for Opus Energy said: “We’ve drawn on extensive retail sector experience to provide a tailored solution for Halfords. Opus Evolution will give Halfords control over their energy needs and projected spend, but we as a team can also help them on a day to day basis. They will benefit from a single point of contact at Opus to simplify account management, and as Halfords are a growing company we can help by quickly connecting new sites to their expanding portfolio.”

On the news that Opus Energy is now supplying 50,000 business sites across the UK, Charlie Crossley Cooke, MD and founder of Opus Energy said: “It’s fantastic to reach this landmark. Customers are our core business and we re-sign a very high number of our accounts as a result of a focus on excellent customer service. We’ve grown the Opus Energy business by listening to our customers’ needs and finding solutions. The Opus Evolution product is a great example of this – a unique answer to a market wide problem. It is this type of innovation which will help us continue to expand into 2009.”

Opus Energy: is a leading independent supplier of electricity offering tailor-made solutions for the UK SME and corporate markets. Its market-leading innovations are driven by customer needs and the company is committed to helping businesses reduce their carbon footprint through procurement of energy from cleaner sources. Opus Energy supplies 50,000 UK business sites across all sectors. Large customers include: Stagecoach, Thorntons, Farmfoods, FirstGroup, Cumbria County Council.

Over the last two years (between April 2006 and March 2008), 62% of the energy supplied by Opus Energy to its customers came from cleaner, low-carbon sources – 54% from renewable generators and 8% from cleaner Combined Heat and Power (CHP) produced by CHP generators. These CHP generators have been awarded accreditation by the regulator, Ofgem, for producing cleaner, more environmentally friendly power.

Opus Energy’s management team has a 50 percent stake in the business, while International Power Plc holds 30 percent and Telecom Plus Plc has 20 percent. With offices in Northampton and Oxford, it employs 200 people.

It looks like the long-awaited roll-out of smart meters in the UK has been put back yet again. An announcement from the Department of Environment and Climate Change had been expected last year, and then again at the start of this year. Now energy industry and government sources are saying that an announcement could come in April. The UK’s difficulties are a lesson to other countries seeking to press ahead with smart meter and smart grid technologies. The British government has already signalled that it is in favour of smart meters, which promise to give households the information they need to use less energy, as well as to allow for more accurate billing by energy suppliers. But it has yet to decide how the project will be rolled out.

One option would be to leave it to the market and allow energy companies to supply smart meters to their customers whenever they like. The other extreme would be divide the country into regional franchises, awarding contracts to companies to supply meters to these areas in bulk. Most people agree that the free market model would lead to a very slow roll-out, whereas the regional franchise model would be quicker but would compromise the concept of the UK’s liberalised energy market.

It looks likely, therefore, that a compromise solution will be chosen. The government is expected to award a multi-billion pound contract to create a centralised communications system for gathering data from smart meters. Energy suppliers will then be able to choose their own meter technology, as long as it is compatible with the communications system, and roll out smart meters to their customers at their own pace.

Installing smart meters is vital for making progress in micro-generation. If households are to generate their own power through solar panels and mini-wind turbines, they need to be able to measure how much power they sell back to the national grid.

But the real prize could be less peak demand for energy and therefore a reduced need for new power stations. Energy companies, although they don’t like to talk about it, would like to introduce different tariffs for different times of the day, and plan to charge customers more to use electricity during peak hours, such as the early evening. They would also make it cheaper to use power during off-peak times, such as late at night. This should smooth out power consumption and reduce the total amount of power generation capacity that needs to be available.

As energy companies come under pressure to ensure the lights won’t go out as older power stations shut down, the gains from smart metering look more attractive than ever.

Severn Trent Plc, the U.K.’s second-biggest water company, kept an outlook of sales falling by as much as 25 million pounds in the fiscal year ending March 31st. Sales will be lower because of a “decline in consumption across our measured income base,” the Birmingham, England-based company said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. This figure excludes sales from unregulated activities, which account for about 15 percent of total revenue. Severn Trent said in January water consumption had fallen more than previously forecast, mainly because of reduced commercial demand. Its commercial customers included collapsed U.K. retailers Woolworths Group Plc and MFI Retail Ltd. The water industry is undergoing a pricing review, which will set tariffs and spending levels for the five-year period from 2010. Water companies in England and Wales will submit final business plans on April 7 to Ofwat, the industry regulator. The companies submitted preliminary spending plans last year, which Ofwat later said needed to be reduced. Severn Trent’s preliminary capital expenditure estimate was 3.2 billion pounds during the five years from 2010.

Ofwat will establish price limits for each company in a so- called final determination in November. The rates customers pay will then be calculated according to that limit and inflation. The inflation figure is reviewed annually by the regulator. Severn Trent supplies water and sewerage services to more than 3.7 million customers in the Midlands and mid-Wales areas. It posted profit last year of 209.5 million pounds. United Utilities Group Plc is the largest U.K. water company by market capitalization.

The consumer backlash against expensive, bottled water is gathering momentum, according to two related studies this week which reveal that more of us are content with that plain old, dirt cheap stuff that comes straight out of a tap. First of all, the UK’s restaurant-goers overwhelmingly prefer to choose tap water over bottled, according to a brand new survey issued to tie in with UN World Water Day 2009, which fell on 22 March.

The research, commissioned by international charity, WaterAid reveals that tap water is the preferred choice for 63% of people when they dine out. Over 23.5 million people prefer to order tap water with their meals rather than bottled. Yet despite this, one in four people surveyed said they have felt pressured to order bottled water when dining out.

More and more UK restaurants are offering tap water to diners as standard, which is already the norm in the US. But you still often have to ask for it – with the associated embarrassment that can cause. WaterAid’s drinking water survey also shows that women are more likely to choose tap water, while men are more inclined to have bottled water with their meal. And where people live also seems to make a difference – people in Greater London and Scotland are the most likely to choose bottled water, whereas those dining out in the South East and East Anglia are happy with a good old jug of tap.

The popularity of bottled water soared in the 1990s and the early 2000s, but is now s-o-o-o yesterday, according to figures from market research company TNS. Last year the on-going year-on-year increase in sales was halted and sales actually fell by 9%. The Guardian has highlighted what an expensive and unnecessary adornment bottled water is, even singling out Bling H2O – in frosted glass bottles adorned with Swarowski crystals and a mere snip at $55 a bottle – as the ultimate eco-unfriendly product. Tap water costs around 0.1p a litre at home. Surely it’s a no-brainer?

Which do you drink – bottled or tap? Which restaurants would you single out for their refreshing attitude to offering tap water, and which are still swimming against the consumer current?

Oil prices rose above $52 a barrel Monday, boosted by stronger stock markets and a weaker dollar amid plans by the U.S. government to buy bad assets from banks to contain the financial crisis. Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 61 cents to $52.68 a barrel by midday in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract edged up 3 cents on Friday to settle at $52.07, the first time crude ended the week above $50 since last year. In London, Brent prices were up 58 cents to $51.80 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Dealers said the rally, which was given an extra boost by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to buy $1.25 trillion of government bonds and mortgage-backed securities, continued Monday as equity markets rallied in anticipation of more good news. Stock market indexes closed mostly stronger in Asia, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gaining 4.8 percent and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo advancing 3.4 percent, while in Europe the FTSE 100 in London was up 1.6 percent and Germany’s DAX up 1.8 percent. The Fed’s move was also seen helping support oil prices, as the resulting weakening of the U.S. dollar against the euro and the British pound increased the allure of commodities like oil and gold.

KBC Market Services in Britain said there were fears that the printing of money to finance the Fed plan, “could have dire consequences for inflation and the U.S. dollar.” By midday in Europe, the euro bought $1.3642, up from $1.3551 late Friday in New York, while the British pound rose to $1.4585 from $1.4439 in the previous session.

“It could well be that speculators/investors do the job that OPEC is incapable of doing — namely sending oil prices up,” said a report from KBC Market Services in Britain.

But some cautioned the advance may not be sustainable as global oil demand remains weak.

“Oil pricing is driven by the financial rally. It’s questionable whether $50 is the new floor because the fundamental picture for oil has not changed. Demand remains weak in the near term and oil pricing may be vulnerable,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

To get at the heart of the nation’s financial crisis, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is set later Monday to detail plans to remove a mountain of toxic assets weighing on banks’ balance sheet.

The plan aims to purchase as much as $1 trillion in troubled assets, utilizing the resources of the $700 billion bank bailout fund, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

It will seek to entice private investors, including big hedge funds, to participate by offering billions of dollars in low-interest loans to finance the purchases and also sharing risks if the assets fall further in value.

If the initiative is well received, Shum said it may lend temporary momentum to the oil rally. But he warned prices could fall back to below $50 as a global economic recovery isn’t likely to occur until late in the year.

Algeria’s Energy Minister Chakib Khelil predicted Sunday that crude oil prices could hit $60 per barrel by the end of the year.

Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch has also raised its forecast for crude oil prices to $52 a barrel this year, from $50 a barrel, on the back of a tighter-than-expected oil market balance.

Sharp output cuts in recent months from OPEC nations and a worsening outlook for non-OPEC production will reduce supply in the second half this year, while global demand has stabilized, it said in a recent report. Sharp interest rate cuts and expansive fiscal policies globally will also boost energy demand or prices, it added.

It expects a shallow oil demand recovery in 2010, and sees prices at $62 a barrel next year.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for April delivery rose 0.55 cent to $1.4625 a gallon, while heating oil added 0.58 cent to $1.3892 a gallon. Natural gas for April delivery edged up 2.8 cents to $4.255 per 1,000 cubic feet.