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.