BP still struggles to stop crude oil pouring from a well a mile under the sea as the growing oil slick attacks the US coastline.

According to the US Coast Guard, the amount oil that could be leaking is now five times greater than any previous estimates.  The massive oil spill, which began when an offshore oil rig exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico last week, has proved difficult to clean-up due to its distance below sea level.

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Half hourly electricity prices can be difficult to obtain, and then even harder to work out what your actually paying.  Let us do the hard work for you, with our compressive range of half hourly electricity procurement services.

Finding the right half hourly electricity supplier for your business requirements shouldn’t be a time consuming and difficult task.

Outsource the whole process to us, and we will show you how we can deliver results and then add significant value to managing your ongoing energy requirements.

And with our free ongoing half hourly data reports, we will even help you calculate your carbon emissions and identify areas of potential saving.

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UK Leads Offshore Wind Energy Generation

Last week the UK’s offshore wind energy generation has reached the 1 GW mark. In total there are 336 wind turbines spread over 11 offshore wind farms providing energy to power 700,000 homes. The news comes after the announcement that E.ON’s Robin Rigg Offshore Wind Farm in Solway Firth has completed testing and is up and running. With 60 turbines the wind farm can produce a total of 180 MW enough commercial electricity to power 170,000 homes.

Robin Rigg Wind Farm adds to the other two E.ON’s wind farms at Blyth and Scroby Sands.  Now E.ON is looking forward to bigger schemes, including the 1 GW London Array, the 300 MW Humber Gateway and participating in the development of a 650 MW wind farm zone off the coast of Hastings awarded under the Crown Estate’s Round 3.

Further on, E.ON announced plans to invest €8 billion in renewable generation and climate protection activities across the entire group by 2011.

The 1 GW of wind power energy generation achievement is just the tip of the iceberg.  There is another 4 GW of offshore wind capacity in construction, taking the total capacity in development to over 40 GW.

Right now offshore wind generation is on par with hydroelectricity in term of load factors and is set to provide over 150 TWh of electricity a year – just under half of current consumption levels.

Already a leader in offshore wind energy production with pioneering technology, to have deployed 1 GW of offshore wind plant in ten years is a tremendous step forward towards carbon commitment reductions and climate change bill agreements.

Since 2008 the UK is the world leader in offshore wind farms when we surpassed Denmark.  According to an announcement made by Lord Hunt last year, Minister of Energy, there are plans for an extra 25 GW of offshore wind energy around the UK, which would be enough to supply electricity to every home in the UK.

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PC Power Management is very important in light of the recent introduction of the carbon reduction commitment, and with most businesses only open 25% of the time, you need to ask your self if your business still uses most of your power for the other 75% of the time?

Ask yourself, what do you leave on in your business that pointlessly wastes energy out of working hours?

US, Car manufacture Ford has only recently decided to shut down its computers at night, and they have calculated that this will save the company over a million dollars each year. 

Most companies just don’t have the resources to check that all equipment has been turned off.  But a new program called PC Power Down that uses energy saving settings provided by Microsoft Windows could be the answer. 

A managed shutdown will occur each night and during the weekend period.  Additionally, computers will be awake to receive updates during pre-selected non-business hours, freeing up time previously used for updates throughout the working day.

Do you turn off your computer at the end of the day? 

Research has shown that desktop computers are the single biggest users of electricity in any office – and that 30% to 60% of this energy is wasted.  Both Windows and Mac PCs have power saving modes which you can easily use to set your computers to go to “sleep” after a specified amount of idle time.  You can also set PCs to turn off completely.   Look on your Help system for detailed instructions on how to set this up.  It is quite simple

However these options are limited, and still rely on human interaction and it can have other drawbacks such as disabling remote access and having to wait for computers to start back up again after they have powered down.

The PC Power Down software addresses the issues of PC Power Management in an easy manageable solution.

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Commercial Gas Prices Eased by Warm Weather – Despite the fact that Britain’s gas stocks are very low for this time of the year and the spike in crude oil prices.  Commercial gas prices eased on Thursday as demand dropped thanks to a rise in temperatures.

Gas for delivery on Thursday fell from 32.30 pence at close on Wednesday to 30.50 pence per therm by around 1030 GMT, while contracts for the working days of next week dropped a penny to 29.50 pence and May fell to 30.50 pence ($4.71 per mmbtu).

“Demand is much lower thanks to this warmer weather and gas prices are down.” said an independent gas broker.

Gas prices went up in the beginning of the week pushed by an unusually cooler weather for this time of the year which increased gas demand for heating but a warmer weather spell that began on Thursday is expected to erode overall gas consumption in the short term.

At the same time, relatively high gas prices in Britain compared to the United States has helped attract several cargoes of LNG to the UK, with at least four more tankers expected to arrive over the next few weeks. Also helping commercial gas prices drop.

With Britain’s gas stock currently at 20% full – nearly 50% less when compared to last year’s 39 %full, according to data from Gas Storage Europe, demand for gas restock during summer will likely be stronger than last year, even though prices for winter 2010-2011 fell.

Prices for winter 2010-11 fell 0.70 pence to 42.85 pence per therm, while contracts winter 2011-12 fell 0.15 pence to 50.20 pence.

Last year gas was the dominant fuel for UK power generators which helped lower energy prices and we are seeing the same scenario this year.

Baseload electricity for Friday fell to £37.40 per megawatt hour, while the day-ahead auction price on Britain’s N2EX wholesale power exchange was set at £36.78.

Other energy contracts also fell, reflecting lower gas prices. May baseload contracts plunged 40 pence to £35.25 per megawatt hour and June contracts went down 20 pence at £35.85, according to a leading energy broker.

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Current commercial gas prices in the UK are volatile at the moment, and with seasonal temperatures colder than normal for this time of year, this has helped support higher prices recently.  But short term forecasts predict much milder temperatures in the next few weeks and this could cause national demand to lower.  Then with additional LNG deliveries expected to arrive this Friday at South Hook.

This should help build back current commercial gas stock levels, which according to some reports are less than 20% full compared with 40% this time last year.

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Benefits of Hiring an -  Independent Energy Broker

Over the years the UK’s energy market has become a highly competitive business thanks to an increased number of energy and gas suppliers.  The independent advice offered by energy brokers and energy consultancy firms has become crucial to help businesses find the right business energy and business gas contracts. Nowadays over 60% of energy procured in the UK is done through energy brokers, highlighting the importance of this position today within the UK’s energy market.

Many companies and organisations across the land who have been using business energy consultancy services report that the  service provides an independent and fresh approach to evaluate energy saving opportunities that, saves their businesses thousands of pounds each year on their energy bills.

This leads us to fairly common questions asked by many energy consultancy firms’ prospects: What are the benefits of hiring an independent Energy Broker for my company?

First and foremost energy consultants are specialists trained to identify areas for significant improvement and act on them. Thanks to an accumulative experience working with different organisations in various areas energy brokers can provide a wide array of ideas, methodologies and approaches to be applied to just about any circumstances.

But the main benefit of hiring an energy consultancy firms is because the UK energy market is in constant metamorphosis which turns the tasks of – reducing costs, increasing efficiency,  improving quality or capacity, or simply understanding the market conditions – almost impossible to be done in-house.

The other key factor is supplier relations, as it is more cost effective for an energy supplier to manage a range of brokers who in turn manage a large portfolio of clients than having to manage the portfolio directly.  This allows the suppliers to focus on the challenges of service and delivery of products, whilst the energy consultant can add value and additional support to the standard services offered by the supplier.

In resume a professional energy management service should:

1 – Help companies reduce their energy costs by providing both non half hourly, half hourly and gas solutions

2 – Identify areas where energy consumption can be reduced and energy efficiency enhanced

3 – Focus on the challenges of service and delivery of products

4 – Add value and additional support to the standard services offered by the supplier

5 – Increase energy buyer confidence by offering the most commercially viable energy solution for their business

6 – Provide a detailed energy comparison service together with comparison offers, finding the best energy deals saving you time and money

7 – Provide a comprehensive supplier panel; it is very important that the energy broker have agreements with every major energy supplier in the UK as well as agreements with independent suppliers

8 – Provides ongoing support for the life of your agreement

9 – Any costs for the service are cleary indicated in advance

10 – Offer services and solutions in other areas that can help manage the cost of your energy, other than just energy broker services

If you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how we could benefit your business, simply call our energy team today on 0870 710 7560 or request a call back at time to suit.

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