Pupils in Perthshire will be the first in Scotland to test energy monitors which show how much electricity, gas and water their school is using. The devices have been installed in Kenmore, Longforgan, Stanley and the Royal School of Dunkeld primaries. The equipment also stores data which the schools will use to understand and reduce their energy consumption. Ewgeco, which stands for electricity, water, gas and ecological, monitors were invented by a local mother. Kenmore Primary School Headteacher Anne Burrell said: “The school is pleased to have been given the opportunity to work with the Ewgeco team.

“It has given the children an insight into the world of enterprise and innovation as they have followed the design process throughout the past year. “It fits with our eco-school aims and will support the children in the work they carry out related to the conservation of energy.  We also want to raise awareness among young people about the simple ways to avoid wasting energy.

Device designer Tanya Ewing has won an Inventor of the Year award for her creation. She said: “I am delighted that my local council is the first in Scotland to trial the Ewgeco monitors. “The aim of the equipment is to give people real-time information about their energy and water consumption that can be put to practical and educational use.”

Leader of the council Ian Miller added: “As a council we are committed to doing all we can to protect the environment in a number of ways – by recycling, using renewable energy in the form of biomass, and, as we are highlighting today, cutting our energy consumption wherever we can.

“We also want to raise awareness among young people about the simple ways to avoid wasting energy like switching off lights and electrical equipment when they are not needed, and making sure taps are turned off.”

Thames Water has asked a group of MPs working on new legislation for the industry to consider the use of water flow restrictors. Flow restrictors, also known as trickle flow meters, are used in parts of Australia to disrupt a home’s water supply with the aim of inconveniencing non-paying customers into paying their bills.

However, in the UK water companies are not legally allowed to do this and Thames Water wants Parliament to explore the possibility. The key issue for the firm, which announced a profit of £435.1M earlier this month, is that gas and electric companies have the power to cut supplies to customers who don’t pay.

The group, which provides drinking water for 8.5m customers, also beleive bad debt adds £11-a-year to honest customers’ bills. David Owens, Thames Water’s chief executive, said: “First things first, no one is going to get cut off. “We don’t want to cut anyone off, and we’re not allowed to anyway.

A law change would be required before water firms could use flow restrictors, so they’re not going to be in action any time soon – if at all. “Even if they were used, there would be no health implications. These devices would simply reduce flow, not cut it completely. “We’ve currently got £45m of ‘bad debt’ – in other words, outstanding bills. “That adds £11-a-year to the bills of honest customers who do pay, and that can’t be right. “That’s why we’ve asked a group of MPs who are drafting some new legislation to make chasing down non-payers easier for water firms – so it’s fairer for the rest of us. “One of the things we’ve asked them to consider is restrictors, which are used in some parts of Australia to lessen the flow of water to non-payers in order to inconvenience them into paying.

“We don’t even want to use flow restrictors – and right now we’re unsure how we would use them anyway – but we do think they need looking at as a last resort for customers who are perfectly able to pay but refuse to do so. “But we’ll leave the final call on this to the MPs whose job it is to decide. And finally, let’s be absolutely clear: we’re after the won’t pays – not the can’t pays. “If you genuinely can’t pay your bill, we can discuss a range of ways to help you, including financial assistance through our Charitable Trust, a £5m fund set up to help customers in need.”

Up to a million small businesses could see their energy bills nearly double this year when they come to renew their contracts, despite falling fuel prices. Every month about 90,000 business energy contracts expire, but many firms fail to realise this in time to cancel the contract or switch energy provider. If they receive no notification, providers can automatically renew the contract on a rollover basis, in most cases locking the business on to a far higher rate. A survey by business price comparison website makeitcheaper found that 84% of small businesses were unhappy with their current supplier, but only 14% knew when their contract was due to end.

Energy Contract Renewals Explained

Most providers require businesses to give at least 90 days’ notice before the end of an energy contract if they want to move elsewhere. ScottishPower recently changed the terms of its business contract so firms have a ‘termination window’ of between 90 days and 45 days before the end of their contract. Failing to give notice in time can cost small businesses dear. This time last year tariffs were available from 7p per kilowatt-hour for business electricity and at 2.5p per kilowatt-hour for gas. However the sharp increase in wholesale prices in 2008 means renewal tariffs are typically 14p per kWh for electricity and 5p per kWh for gas.

How to cut your energy bills

With mortgage rates on the rise, fuel and food prices skyrocketing and less credit cards being approved it is understandable that many people are battling with their financial position to keep it out of the red.  We may be driving less, not throwing as much food out among other methods of cutting back on spending.

But for one local council in Aberdeen they have some serious debt problems of their own, the council is currently £50 million under and has mentioned to staff members that they are to not use unnecessary electrical appliances whilst at work.  What constitutes an “unnecessary appliance”? Well top of their list are toasters, kettles and desk fans. There are even talks to send staff on training courses to encourage better driving practices to conserve fuel and reduce the £1.5 million diesel fuel costs. 

This and other fuel costs for the council tipped the scales at £10 million.  Other odd changes proposed include using scrap paper instead of ordering post-it notes, removing all non-council fridges, kettles, microwave ovens and even turning off safety lighting outside of office hours.

Whilst the council’s debt solutions seem a bit “out there” it’s this kind of frugality that may help people who are struggling with debt to cope in this age of missed repayments and house repossessions.  Conserving energy is a hot topic for both environmental concerns but also since it is a commodity that is both necessary and price is on the increase it makes sense to try and conserve energy if only to save on the pennies. Many more people have spent themselves in to bankruptcy and now face a similar situation to the Aberdeen council, hopefully with much less owing than £50 million but there are some solutions for if you do end up in a rut, such as Individual Volountary Arrangements which can help avoid bankruptcy.

Smart energy meters will bring about the end of estimated electricity bills and meter readings, and provide customers and energy suppliers with accurate information on the amount of electricity and gas being used.

Around two thirds of the UK’s electricity is generated by coal and gas fueled power stations. These plants pump millions of tons of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These gases are known to cause climate change. Much of the remaining electricity in the UK is produced by nuclear power stations, but there is still no satisfactory way to dispose of radioactive byproducts. With the decreasing stocks and rising prices of fossil fuels like gas an oil, environmentalists fear that even more nuclear power stations will be built, and so the race is on to find cleaner ways to produce electricity. Green electricity is electricity that has been produced with only minimal impacts on the environment. Sources of energy like the sun, wind and tides are known as renewable energy. Green electricity can be produced using renewable energy sources.

Wind turbines are growing more popular in the UK, and wind turbines now supply some of the electricity for the national grid. Modern turbines are quieter and more efficient than early models as more research has led to improvements in their design. The placement of so called windfarms in the countryside has been controversial because some people don’t like the way they look and have concerns about how wildlife could be affected.

There is a potential solution to the perceived disfigurement of our countryside which is to build windfarms out at sea. If this can be made to be cost effective, wind could become the UK’s solution to future electricity supplies.

Solar power is an energy source that we could make more use of to generate electricity, even in the UK. Currently, solar panels are so expensive they are not widely used, but as demand increases and more are produced, the prices will hopefully come down. Solar power could one day be the world’s number one source of electricity. A big advantage of solar panels is that they can be used even in remote locations which are not on the national grid.

The energy of rivers can be harnessed by power turbines which generate electricity. There are already a few large hydroelectric plants in the UK, and there is potential for many more low impact, small scale hydroelectric turbines in lots of places in Britain.

Wave power is something of a holy grail for green electricity in the UK. Research is underway to find methods or harnessing the energy that is in the waves all around our coastline. If an efficient, effective way can be found, then wave power could be a great source of green electricity in the future.

As customer demand for green electricity increases, energy suppliers are trying to find less polluting ways of producing electricity. British Gas, a big UK energy supplier, have carbon neutral dual fuel deals if customers use them to supply their gas and electricity. This means that any carbon dioxide released in the production of your electricity, or when you use your gas, is compensated for by British Gas’s involvement in projects to develop green electricity. Opting for carbon neutral packages like this is an easy way to further green electricity production and prevent climate change.

Crude oil rose for a third day after Nigerian militants targeted an Agip pipeline, while speculation grew that fuel demand will increase as the global economy recovers. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said it blew up an Agip link that delivers crude to the Brass export terminal. The index of U.S. leading economic indicators rose for a second month and European Union leaders said the region is on course for a “sustainable” economic recovery. Protests in Iran over the result of last week’s election entered a seventh day. “Missing flows from Nigeria are starting to add,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director of Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Swizerland. “We will need to keep an Iranian risk premium for the weekend and to it we will add a Nigerian risk premium.” Crude oil for July delivery rose as much as 93 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $72.30 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, trading for $72.07 at 12:55 p.m. London time. Prices have risen 60 percent this year and reached a seven- month high of $73.23 on June 11. The July contract expires June 22. The more-active August contract was at $72.63 a barrel, up 72 cents. Petroleum products demand in the U.S., the world’s largest energy user, fell 6 percent in the four weeks to June 12 from a year earlier, the Energy Department said June 17.

Crude futures may fall next week on speculation U.S. fuel stockpiles will increase as the recession and rising prices sap consumption, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Fourteen of 32 analysts surveyed, or 44 percent, said futures will decline through June 26. Thirteen respondents, or 41 percent, forecast that the market will be little changed and five said prices will climb. Last week, 49 percent of analysts said oil would increase. In Iran, the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, supporters of presidential contender Mir Hossein Mousavi took to the streets to protest against June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Brent crude for August settlement was at $71.77 a barrel, up 71 cents, on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange at 12:53 p.m. London time.

A supermarket in England will begin using a new energy source this week that will be used to power its cash registers - speed bumps. 

According to GreenBiz.com, supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has installed new Kinetic Road Plates that will harness energy from vehicles driving in and out of the store’s car park.  The system, which has been developed by U.K. startup Highway Energy Systems works using plates that move when vehicles drive over them, creating enough kinetic energy to drive a generator.

Along with the kinetic energy system, Sainsbury’s features several other environmental technologies, including rainwater harvesting systems, solar thermal panels for heating water, sun pipes designed to increase the use of natural light, and energy management systems designed to ensure energy efficiency is constantly optimized. The speed bumps are also being tested to power street lights, traffic lights and road signs in London, and could be implemented throughout England if they are successful.

51 million extra funding to cut public sector carbon footprint

Hospitals, leisure centres, local authorities – and even central government departments – will be able to reduce  carbon emissions by taking up new energy efficiency loans. The Government, in partnership with Salix Finance and the Carbon Trust will provide £51.5 million in interest free loans to help public sector organisations take advantage of energy efficiency technology.  Announced by the Chancellor in the Budget, this money is an addition to £30m million announced last year for the scheme in 2008-20012 and will be available through Salix Finance. Loans will be available for around 80 different energy efficiency tehnologies, including building insulation, boiler and lighting upgrades, improved cooling systems and IT energy efficiency improvements.

This support will play an important part in the build up to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which begins in April 2010. The CRC is a mandatory scheme which targets carbon dioxide emissions from large public and private sector organisations, which use more than 6,000MWh of electricity per year.  It will provide incentives for these organisations to record and reduce their energy use, and improve energy efficiency, saving an estimated 4 million tonnes of CO2 a year by 2020.

Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Joan Ruddock said: ”We estimate this fund could help public sector bodies save around £14 million per year in fuel bills. Following the announcement of our ambitious carbon budgets, all public sector organisations should lead by example by pioneering ways to reduce carbon emissions. I hope that schools, hospitals, and fire stations will look into projects they can undertake, and use this funding opportunity. “CEO of Salix Finance, Alastair Keir said: “Salix is very pleased to be managing this programme. Salix is currently working with 128 public sector bodies who are already saving over £3.5m a year in energy spend. This new loan funding will enable us to significantly increase the support we can provide to public sector bodies to reduce their energy spend and their CO2 emissions. It will not only enable other public sector bodies to benefit but also allow our current clients to undertake larger projects and achieve even greater savings.”

The Scheme will provide loans to pay for the installation of a wide range of energy efficiency measures in public buildings. All public sector organisations are eligible to apply. All loans will be repaid in 4 years with 8 equal repayments made by direct debit. The repayments can be covered from the energy savings achieved by the projects.The Carbon Trust is an independent company set up in 2001 by Government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.

Carbon Reduction Commitment – Public sector organisations that consume at least 6,000MWh of electricity through half hourly meters during the 2008 calendar year, or equivalent to an annual electricity bill in the region of £500k, and have at least one settled half-hourly meter, will qualify for the CRC. All central government departments will be part of the CRC and many other public sector bodies will also be covered. The scheme will begin in April 2010, starting with a three year introductory phase. Organisations will have to report their carbon emissions to the Environment. Agency and purchase allowances for every tonne of carbon they produce. The first allowances will go on sale in 2011 and all the revenue from the sale of allowances will be recycled back to participants six months after Government’s allowance sale, with a bonus/penalty element based on emissions

performance and their relative position in the scheme’s performance league table.

Crude oil prices rose above $71 a barrel yesterday for the first time in seven months and will soon test the $80 a barrel level, industry analysts said yesterday. West Texas Intermediate light crude for July delivery rose to a high of $71.79 a barrel before pulling back slightly to trade up $1.12 at $71.13 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, North Sea Brent crude gained 95 cents to $70.57 a barrel. Analysts said investors were also pouring money into the commodity as a hedge against a recent weakening in the dollar. Gerard Rigby, an energy analyst with Fuel First Consulting, commented: “I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re testing $80 in a week or two. The momentum right now is too strong.” The latest rally came after the US Energy Department predicted that average oil prices could rise to $67 a barrel in the second half of 2009 – about $16 higher than the first six months of the year and significantly stronger than the £55 a barrel it forecast a month ago. The department’s Energy Information Administration also said global consumption of crude, which has fallen by nearly two million barrels of oil a day this year, will begin to rebound in 2010 as the global economy recovers.

With oil prices doubling from below $35 a barrel in March, UK motorists have seen a return of average petrol prices in excess of £1 a litre.  Meanwhile, oil company BP said the world’s proved oil reserves fell in 2008, the first drop in a decade. Proved reserves of 1.258 trillion barrels in 2008 was three billion barrels less than in 2007, the company said.

UK power for winter delivery rose Thursday as an oil-led surge ensured prices for natural gas and coal were well supported, making electricity generation for some of the country’s power producers more expensive.  Despite some reported selling interest by a large utility, winter 09 base rose 70 pence to GBP46.75/MWh ($76.53/MWh) by the end of the morning session (1100 GMT).  Power for next summer climbed 30 p to GBP44.30/MWh.  The fuel complex climbed after global crude futures rebounded Thursday morning from Wednesday’s $4/barrel plunge to swap hands above $67/b. Gas prices for the corresponding winter period gained 0.6 p to 50.9 p/th, while coal for delivery in northwest Europe rose $1.25 to $91/mt. Gas and coal are currently the feedstocks for around 75% of the UK’s power generation, according to National Grid data.

July base edged 15 p higher to GBP36.55/MWh.  On the prompt, power for delivery on the next working day rose on strong levels of predicted peak demand on Friday, traders said. Day-ahead base rose 75 p to GBP34.25/MWh, while the equivalent peakload contract climbed GBP2 to GBP42/MWh.  Peak demand Friday is pegged at 41 GW, a touch down on the forecasts for Thursday, but still high for a Friday, when demand is usually much lower than other working days.

“With one or two units missing from the system, the demand levels were strong enough to drive the prompt higher,” one trader said, adding that forecasts of cooler temperatures were behind the strong demand predictions. 

Goldman Sachs raised its oil price forecast for the end of 2009 to $85 a barrel from $65, anticipating dwindling supply and rising demand this year and next. Its forecast also put prices at $95 by the end of 2010, led by economic recovery in China. Influenced by these predictions, US light crude rose $2.39 to $68.51, while Brent was up $2.52 to $68.40, sparking fears of a further increase in prices at the petrol pump.  The Goldman Sachs research note, by Jeffrey Currie in London and David Greely in New York, said that the recent rally in US crude was likely to be the first stage in a sustained oil price rally.

The bank’s forecast of recovery in economic activity centres on China and other emerging market countries outside the rich West. Goldman Sachs expects Chinese oil demand to decline by 115,000 barrels per day in 2009, but to grow by 343,000 barrels in 2010.

It has ruled out a strong rebound in US oil demand over the next 12 months, as the pace of American economic activity is expected to remain low. Demand in the US is down 7.7 per cent year-on-year and Goldman Sachs expects that it will decline by 980,000 barrels per day in 2009 and by a further 60,000 in 2010.

Key to the anticipated recovery in the oil price will be the willingness of the production cartel Opec, in particular Saudi Arabia, to keep down production and draw inventories back to ten-year average levels, as non-Opec production continues to decline. Goldman Sachs warned that constraints on storage capacity remained a risk.

However, John Hall, an independent energy analyst, accused Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s largest oil traders, of scaremongering. He said that last December the bank had slashed its forecast for crude oil prices to just $45 a barrel for 2009, in a sharp U-turn from its prediction of $200 made just months earlier in May 2008.

Oil prices peaked at $147 a barrel in July 2008 and then fell sharply to less than $35 in December, as the rapidly deepening global economic downturn reduced demand for energy.

Mr Hall said: “Goldman’s numbers are all over the place. You need to consider the fact that the world is awash with oil on land and sea. And if the recession is really over, tell that to General Motors and LDV.”

Referring to Goldman Sachs’ forecast of a spike to $95 by the end of 2010, he asked: “Who would pay those prices? I don’t think that the Chinese would go that far.”

Mr Hall said he expected a correction in the oil price in the not too distant future: “It could hover where it is now and then come down.”

Last week Opec held production levels, saying that weak demand was “likely to remain for some time”.

Luke Bosdet, a spokesman for the AA, which represents 13 million motorists in the UK, said that at 100.6p per litre, prices at the petrol pump were already 10p up on March, adding £5 to the cost of a full tank.

The European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has been around since 2005 and accounts for most of the carbon dioxide (CO2) allowances issued to businesses in the world. In the US, President Barack Obama has also thrown his weight behind a cap-and-trade scheme. But few realise the UK will soon adopt a carbon trading scheme of its own in less than two years – the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) that was announced back in 2007.

We believe that up to 6,000 businesses in the UK will be liable to join the mandatory scheme.

UK Businesses are facing huge bills if they remain unprepared.

Datamonitor estimates that UK businesses could face a £1.4bn bill for the carbon credits they need by April 2011, when the CRC permits are first sold.  If the finance director of a company has to write cheques for carbon allowances, they’re going to start asking why those costs are so high.  The CRC scheme will begin next April when the large businesses and public sector organisations, including the NHS and state schools, begin monitoring their emissions and reporting them to the government.  A league table of the participants will be published by October 2011 showing the targets, reductions in emissions and so on.

Based on volumes of electricity and gas emissions, retail businesses will be hit the hardest with over 30% of total CO2 emissions, according to Datamonitor.  The next largest polluters are manufacturers, at 15%, followed by the public sector. “We’re seeing a far greater awareness of the CRC within the business community, but organisations need to start budgeting for these allowances and formulating their carbon strategies now, particularly in light of the recession,” Datamonitor’s Jon Lane said.  “Those that sit on their hands and complain will end up paying more in the long term.”

Several businesses gathered at a carbon and energy summit on Thursday at the Royal Society of Arts in London to discuss how best to deal with the carbon trading scheme.
The UK wants to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050.  A power cut meant much of the event was held in darkness. One presenter quipped this at least meant that event had a smaller carbon footprint.  Much of the talk was about how the government’s scheme was an opportunity for businesses to reduce their CO2 emissions now ahead of the CRC.

“There’s a significant upside to helping to reduce climate change,” said Henry Garthwaite, a business development manager at the Carbon Trust, a government-sponsored agency that helps businesses lower their footprint. It also helped develop the CRC scheme.

“If the finance director of a company has to write cheques for carbon allowances, they’re going to start asking why those costs are so high.”

Mr Garthwaite said that one business the Carbon Trust had worked with had saved £1m a year off its energy bill just by switching off the screensavers on the computers in their offices.

It was these sort of seemingly small gestures, rather than complete overhauls, that were suggested to make companies more energy efficient, lowering their fuel costs and their eventual CRC bill.

That includes installing smart meters, which show exactly how much gas and electricity is being used.

“You can’t do anything in terms of reducing your footprint if you don’t know what it is,” Mr Garthwaite said.  The government already plans to put one in every home by 2020.

Some in the press have labelled the CRC scheme as another stealth tax on businesses. But few at the conference were keen to do the same. “It is essentially a very good piece of legislation,” said Donna Young, head of climate change at telecoms giant BT. “It just has some difficulties.”

For example, it calculates your allowance based purely on electricity and gas bills in the UK, not taking into account other items such as car fleets or its international businesses.

This leads to filing reports separately for each scheme, such as the UK and the EU’s ETS scheme, and the obvious problem of a company possibly being penalised for the same carbon footprint twice.

There are also the issue of how useful the scheme will be when it actually happens.

Unlike the EU scheme, the participants to carbon trading in the UK can set their own targets and their certify their carbon emissions themselves, rather than the third-party verification that is done on the Continent.

But surprisingly, there was little grumbling about the CRC scheme itself. It seems most businesses are happy to accept that they will be a critical part of fighting climate change.

And there is rare unity among the world’s politicians that carbon trading is the way to do it.

An application for a non-domestic U.K. electricity supply has been made by BES Commercial Electricity Ltd, the U.K. energy regulator Ofgem said Monday.  BES Commercial Electricity is affiliated with Business Energy Solutions Commercial Gas. BES Commercial Gas Ltd is an independent supplier of natural gas to the business and commercial sectors.