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Time To Turn Back on Nuclear:

Felipe — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 03:21:31 +0000

Should Britain Turn its Back on Nuclear?

The catastrophic events in Japan that led to Fukushima’s nuclear crisis made the world review their concepts about nuclear energy generation. What once was seen as an effective way to generate carbon free electricity is now being questioned about its safety that will sure comprise its economical viability.

What happened at Fukushima’s nuclear power plant caused deep wounds on the nuclear industry, forcing governments in every corner of the globe to review their nuclear development policies.

As countries around the globe start to decarbonise their economies, nuclear power is seen universally as a vital and cost effective carbon free energy generating resource. But new safety policies and other costs for new and existing nuclear power plants could turn nuclear power less economic or even uneconomic.

The nuclear industry has a strong safety record and there is no reason to believe that this cannot be maintained into the future but events in Japan have changed these parameters. Although we don’t have a detailed report of what happened at Fukushima nuclear power plant further improvements on the current high safety levels will sure be implemented and required by new nuclear power plants.

This leads us to the question: “Is it safe for Britain to go on building new nuclear plants?”

Writing to the telegraph Lord Hutton of Furness former secretary of state for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 2007-8, answered this question with an emphatic “YES” stating:

“Safety must, of course, always be at the heart of the case for nuclear energy, and regulators must make this their top priority. In 2008, when I had responsibility for energy policy, the safety case was fundamental to my decision to sanction a new generation of nuclear power stations for Britain. I have every confidence that this will be the same approach taken by ministers today. Modern nuclear technologies have multi-layered safety systems in place that offer a huge improvement on the older power plants.”

With ageing power plants due to close in coming years, time is running out for Britain and nuclear power seems like the most probable solution to not only to keep the “lights on” but also to cut down carbon emissions.

If Britain turns its back on nuclear the Government would be limited to very few energy generating resources. Renewables would be one of them, for the delight of the energy secretary Chris Hune. The second option would be gas as it is unlikely that the Government would sanction a new coal-fired power plant.

Meanwhile one thing is for sure the nuclear crisis in Japan will result in rising business gas prices and consequently higher business energy prices as LNG cargoes are diverted to the Far East to fill the gap left by the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

To sum things up I leave you with the question: “Should Britain Turn its Back on Nuclear?” – Share your thoughts and opinions in our comments section.

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Bill Gates Investing Millions:

Felipe — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:08:32 +0000

Bill Gates Investing Millions to Stop Global Warming

The man who revolutionised personal computing now wants to revolutionise the way we generate energy. After stepping down as the CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates has been investing millions of dollars to fight global warming; his ultimate goal is to find an energy source completely free of CO2 emissions.

Will Bill Gates ever find a way to generate carbon-free energy? Have your say here.

For the past few years Gates has dedicated most of his time and money to projects that range from the development of high voltage batteries to machines capable of extracting CO2 from the air.

As one of the most successful business men in history his words carry enormous credibility which gives more visibility to projects that might not leave the drawing board. Above all Bill Gates is seen as a visionary and if he believes such projects could change our lives, a lot of people will sit and hear what he has to say.

According to Mr. Gates the world needs an “energy miracle”, an energy source that is reliable, cheap and carbon free. He says we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket and purse every available path to achieve this really big breakthrough.

Around the globe there are many countries generating energy from renewable energy resources that look very promising but not big enough to cause the impact needed to make a change. Tidal energy, geothermal and even wind are all good and clean energy generating resources but we need more than that.

The father of Windows is working on a new nuclear approach called travelling-wave reactor, which uses waste uranium for fuel. That dream is far from becoming a reality but if it does we could have cheaper energy with no CO2 emissions.

To sum things up Bill Gates points out two immediate solutions the American and other Governments around the globe should take note to make the transition towards a carbon free society quicker. Increase investment in research and development of new energy generating technology and a well structured energy plan that considers each option based on the likelihood of success.

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Internet’s Energy Consumption:

Felipe — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 04:04:01 +0000

The Internet’s Energy Consumption and Its Carbon Footprint

Over the past few years there has been an ongoing debate about the growing amount of energy needed to power the World Wide Web, a.k.a the Internet, and the impacts on our environment. Many have tried to pin down the exact amount of energy needed to power the internet and its carbon footprint. Recently The Guardian published an article saying that the Internet’s carbon footprint was around 300 million tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to every person in the UK flying to America and back twice over.

The article was published in August and with the number of internet users growing by the day worldwide I wouldn’t be surprised if these figures were higher nowadays. According to the UN by the end of the year there will be 2 billion world internet users, that is 1/6 of world population.

Hypothetically, if these growth rates remain the same, the entire world would be online by 2020.

To measure the Internet’s exact power consumption and then determine its carbon footprint we would need to know the precise number of computers, laptops and mobile phones that are online these days (which we don’t). Add that to the amount of energy consumed by all the Data Centres worldwide to then determine the internet power consumption and its carbon footprint.

Scary isn’t it? But we gathered some data just to give you a better understanding of roughly how much energy is needed to power the World Wide Web these days.

Back in 2006, data centres in America consumed a total of 61,000,000,000 kWh (yes you read it right 61 trillion kWh), which is enough to power the UK for 2 whole months.

A single Google search produces 0.2g of CO2. Not that much right? But now, 3,100,000 Google searches emit enough CO2 to power an average house for a whole month.

The monthly searches processed by Google produce 260 tons of CO2 which is equivalent to power an American fridge-freezer for 5,400 years. This consumes 3,900,000 kWh of energy, which is equal to washing 5.57 million loads of laundry.

But wait, it gets worse! A single spam message produces the equivalent of 0.3 grams of CO2. Multiply that by 62 trillion pieces of spam circling the World Wide Web each year and we have the emissions equivalent of driving around the Earth 1.6 million times.

Despite its huge energy consumption the internet is likely to play an important role as we move towards a low carbon economy. Thanks to advances in communication technologies an estimated 40% of the working population could work from home. If 40% of American workforce worked from home twice a week, carbon emission would be reduced by 53 million metric tons year, equivalent of taking 10 million cars on the road.

If you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how this 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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Facebook,Thanks For Higher Bills:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:20:10 +0000

Is Facebook Responsible For Higher Energy Bills?

As a market leading energy broker we have noticed that the current generation is more committed to discovering and reducing its carbon footprint than ever before. But despite this growing awareness and our need to conserve and reduce our energy consumption, there is one thing that has changed our lifestyle, and increased our energy consumption like nothing else we have ever seen before. Facebook, the social networking site accounted for 1 in every 10 internet visits in September – up 4% from the same month last year, now overtaking popular search engines such as Google in the rankings.

Astonishingly Facebook now attracts 55% of all visits to social networking sites but others such as Twitter, Linkedin and Tumblr have seen visits at least double in the last 12-months, a recent report suggested.

With all of this increased online activity comes an obvious need for an increased supply of electricity, both from the millions of online users, to the huge new data centers needed to host all of this data. With its membership now passing the 500-million mark back in July, the storage and transmitting of messages, pictures and other information through Facebook uses a vast and still rapidly increasing amount of energy, as the network continues to expand its worldwide operations.

And with 4.5 billion updates posted to Facebook every week, the vast amount of energy needed for all of this online activity is enormous.

One of the pricing fundamentals of any commodity is the supply and demand factor, and with any increased demand, we see an impact on the supply and eventually the cost.

Because of Facebook’s rapid growth, their new hosting facility will need to be twice the size of its previous data centre, and to compound this issue the main source of electricity for the site is from coal fired power stations, the largest source of global warming pollution.

But this problem isn’t just limited just to Facebook, as the demand for cloud based applications grows Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others are investing billions of dollars to build new data centers to meet their growing demand for Web services, adding to the world pollution from computing.

In fact a recent study has estimated that the average user now spends at least 7-hours a month on Facebook alone, and reports suggest that this desire for social networking is set to increase further over the coming years.

Given that energy is an expensive and rising cost, these service providers do have a financial and environmental motivation to use as little electricity as possible.

But the implications for increased online activity is unlike anything that we have ever experienced before in our life times, and our desire and hunger for further social media interaction wont stop here.

Facebook is set to launch its latest Google taunting product on Monday, the long anticipated Facebook email system. The launch of an @facebook.com email is not itself a great surprise, as the existence of a secret project officially known as Project Titan has been circulating since February.

We just hope that our dwindling business energy supplies can cope long term with all of this increased use of energy.

More Facebook Facts

Facebook like served a billion likes in the first 24 hours after its launch
To put your friend count in perspective, the average user has 130
People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook, while the current active official user count now stands at over 500 million.
More than 2.5 billion pictures are uploaded to Facebook each month.
If Facebook were a country, it would be the fifth-largest country in the world, after China, India, the U.S., and Indonesia.
There are more than 800,000 developers building applications for Facebook.
70% of Facebook users live outside of the US.
Yahoo! tried to buy Facebook in 2006 for $1,000,000,000.
8,300,000,000 hours are spent on Facebook monthly.
Facebook was originally bankrolled by a co-founder of Paypal for $500,000

Please add your comments below as we would love to know your thoughts on this for you and your business.

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Ofgem’s E-Serve Expenditures:

Felipe — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:00:08 +0000

Ofgem’s new Unit spent more than £5m on energy consultants

Last week Ofgem quietly announced on its website the details of expenditures on external energy consultants. In just six months the energy regulator spent over £5m on new green taxes and incentives that ranged from feed-in-tariffs to smart meters.

Ofgem has an annual budget of £50m, if spending continues at the same rate by the end of the year the amount spent with external consultants will account for 20% of its total budget.

To administer environmental programmes and sustainability projects Ofgem created a special unit called, Ofgem E-Serve. The “E” stands for Environment, Energy and Efficiency. The new unit has used external consultants on 63 different occasions between April and September this year accounting for the total sum of £5m.

The details were quietly published on Ofgem’s website last week, ahead of new rules forcing state-funded organisations to detail all spending of more than £25,000. Among the highest paid sums is an energy consultancy company that pocket a total of £1.4m.

A spokesman for the regulator said: “Ofgem is unique among Britain’s regulators in capping its costs to 3% below inflation. This and other savings has saved more than £11m.”

On top of that, the value of schemes Ofgem has to manage has rocketed from £150m a year to £4bn. Such increase required a significant investment to be able to deliver these projects.

More about Ofgem E-Serve

Ofgem E-Serve focuses on administering environmental programmes and the delivery of sustainability projects such as offshore electricity transmission. Already running a £15bn offshore transmission tendering regime and many environmental programmes and services (some £3bn per year) and this is expected to more than double in the next decade.

Operation of Environmental Programmes (Existing Schemes) sits under the newly created role of Group Finance Director along with the support services covering HR, Information Management and Technology, Finance and Risk Management, Procurement, Building Services and Project Management. Development and implementation of the Offshore and Smart Metering projects sits under the newly created role of Commercial Managing Director along with Legal, and New Scheme Development.

Please add your comments below as we would love to know your thoughts on this subject.

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Energy Market Report Nov10:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 01:46:14 +0000

Our monthly analysis of the UK gas and power markets is now available on line for the month of November 2010. The service is intended to keep you up to date with all the major news in Europe’s gas and power markets. It is also designed to keep power executives focused on market activity in an easy to digest format.

Your find our November 2010 report here and all historical energy reports can be located here.

If you would like more information on our services or would like to find out how this 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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Rising Energy Prices:

Felipe — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:13:09 +0000

SSE announced a 9.4% gas price increase for next month

Scottish & Southern Energy to increase its standard gas prices by 9.4% from December 1st. Britain’s second largest energy supplier stated the increase is based on higher forward annual wholesale gas prices.

According to the energy supplier, annual wholesale gas prices have increased by more than 25% since the company last made changes to its prices in March 2010. The increase will affect around 3.6 million customers, mainly households. We are yet to see if this will affect business gas and energy prices.

With winter just about to kick in, these hikes could not have come at a worse time and from our market experience as leading energy brokers we can forsee that this move by SSE is likely to be followed by the other major energy suppliers, known as the “big six”.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, energy supply director of SSE, said: “The last few months have been marked by rising wholesale gas prices and, having absorbed losses in our gas supply business for some time, we cannot delay an increase in retail prices any longer. I am sorry it will take effect during the winter period.”

With wholesale gas prices raising month after month, it was only a matter of time before energy prices started to go up. Our advice is to be prepared for a sudden increase in energy bills over the next few months.

Even though these hikes are mainly aimed for households, business owners must be on their toes as business energy prices should go up as well. To shield your business energy expenses from imminent price increases, review your energy contracts to make sure you are on the best and cheapest energy tariffs possible.

Here at Catalyst Commercial we offer a complete range of energy brokering services to help your business save precious money with gas and electricity bills.

Please add your comments below as we would love to know your thoughts on this for you and your business.

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Energy Price Increases Due:

Felipe — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:32:09 +0000

Britain’s energy prices are on the rise again

According to Ofgem, the energy industry regulator, energy prices are set to rise £6 every year until 2020, as £32bn is needed to “re-wire” Britain. In total Ofgem estimates that Britain needs £200 billion in investments over the next decade if it is to meet the government’s green energy targets and above all “keep the lights on”.

With the rise in renewable energy generation such as wind farms the National Grid needs to be rewired to improve the distribution infrastructure. The £32 billion will be used to replace gas pipes and electricity cables in the next 10 years and will represent a 75% increase in the amount currently invested.

Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of Ofgem, said: ‘£32 billion of the £200 billion investment challenge Ofgem has identified falls to the regulated energy networks and is within our statutory remit. That is why Ofgem’s new performance regulation model, RIIO, will ensure we attract this investment, but at a fair price for consumers’.

And added:

‘The RIIO model will ensure that efficiency and innovation are hard-wired into the network companies. This means the benefits of the green economy, like more skilled jobs delivering smarter networks to allow householders to run solar energy and other types of microgeneration, will be delivered. However there will be no gold plating of the networks at customers’ expense,’

If it wasn’t enough last week Ofgem warned of its latest quarterly update of the energy market that wholesale energy prices have risen and gas bills could jump by £80 and reach the £700 mark.

The report said: “We forecast our estimate of wholesale energy costs to begin to increase over the coming months. This is because prices in forward markets have further increased since our June report. This effect is more pronounced in the market for gas. We estimate that by spring 2011 gas purchase costs may increase by 13%.”

Our biggest concern here at Catalyst is that despite what some analysts and energy brokers say, such increases seem unlikely, considering the major suppliers had reported healthy half-year profits over the summer. Ofgem’s report could be seen to be giving energy companies free rein to rise their prices going into the peak winter period.

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Businesses Become Greener:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:19:47 +0000

New Government Scheme to Aid Small Businesses Become Greener

In a bid to help small and middle sized businesses improve their energy efficiency the Government is preparing a multi-billion pound fund that will help more than 4m businesses across the land to become “greener”.

The main idea behind this scheme is to finance loans to small and middle sized businesses so they can replace energy hungry equipment with more energy efficient ones improving their overall business energy efficiency. The loans will then be repaid from the savings made in their energy bills.

Entitled “The Green Deal for Business” the scheme is a joint venture between the private and public sector. White hall representatives are discussing with high street banks and business energy providers such as British Gas how to generate the funds and administer it.

Kanat Emiroglu, managing director of British Gas Business (BGB), said: “We are talking to the Government about its energy efficiency scheme for SMEs [small or medium-sized enterprises]. They are very receptive about it. I am hoping it will be introduced in a way that’s not bureaucratic.”

And concluded:

“There should be something in the Queen’s Speech in November, in the Energy Bill.”

The installation of modern and more energy efficient plant machinery has been proven to generate great savings and it is with this data that the Government plans to form the basis of a loan programme.

“Lenders need confidence that they would be repaid and data from businesses that already use energy efficient equipments provide such confidence” – stated Catalyst’s Energy Broker Chris Hurcombe.

Initial plans are to provide £94bn to British businesses by next February under legally binding agreements. In order to achieve such figures the Government is negotiating the involvement of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.

British Gas is so confident that the scheme will work that it is prepared to put £20m up front. Mr Emiroglu said British Gas was examining how to isolate the energy savings accrued by a piece of equipment to take into account the fact that energy consumption may rise or fall for other business reasons.

On the other hand he noted that Existing government-funded initiatives, such as the Carbon Trust’s interest-free loans to small businesses, had not worked.

“The Carbon Trust has only touched a tiny percentage of SMEs. I would guess its less than 1%,”

According to British Gas Business thousands of companies face fines totalling up to £15m for failing to register their energy use with the Environment Agency.

To sum things up we leave you a reminder that if your company uses more than £500,000 of electricity a year it has to sign up to the Carbon Reduction Commitment by September 30^th 2010.

We want to hear from you now. What do you have to say about the Government’s new scheme “The Green Deal for Business” ? Will it be suitable for your business?

Or if you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how this 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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Is Fossil Fuel Dependence Over:

Felipe — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:20:18 +0000

Thorium The Future of World Energy Generation

The world is on the verge of an energy crisis. In a recent statement the International Energy Agency said that the world must invest $26 trillion (£16.7 trillion) over the next 20 years to avert an energy shock.

For decades scientists and researchers across the globe have been looking for a sustainable solution to solve the growing global energy demand and stop the rise in energy prices. We need a proven solution to be brought into the world on a large scale, without delay!

Such solutions already exists and it has been under our noses for quite some time. Its name is Thorium, a naturally occurring, slightly radioactive metal, capable of producing immense amount of energy, in a very safe, environmentally friendly and very economic manner.

According to Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) the use of Thorium could very well be the missing link we have all been looking for towards a sustainable low carbon energy efficient society.

Dr Rubbia says a tonne of the silvery metal produces as much energy as 200 tonnes of uranium, or 3,500,000 tonnes of coal. For a better understanding a handful of Thorium could light London for a whole week.

Thorium is abundant and clean enough to supply global energy demand for centuries. According to experts there is more energy available from thorium than all coal, gas, oil and uranium combined.

What baffles me is that fact that it was demonstrated to be reliable by its pioneers more than 40 years ago and it was simply left aside by nations like the US, Russia and China. If it had been given the attention it deserved the fears of a global energy crisis could be avoided.

Why such an efficient, abundant and affordable fuel has been hiding in the shadows of nuclear research centres around the globe is what puzzles me. But I’m not here to discuss that, I’m here to raise the awareness and campaign for the development and production of Thorium energy plants around the world from now on.

Despite being left aside for more than 40 years. Experts believe if a vast scientific and strategic resources project similar to the old Manhattan Project conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bombs, could reinvent the global energy landscape bringing to an end our dependence on fossil fuels within three to five years.

For those of you interested in learning more about Thorium visit the International Thorium Energy Organisation (IThEO) at www.itheo.org/. Or if you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how this 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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10 Amazing Energy Saving Apps:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:17:38 +0000

Want to be more energy efficient, there’s an app for that with our 10 amazing energy apps for the iPhone and iPad

There’s an app for being more energy efficient, and we have put together our ten energy apps. These iPhone and iPad apps range from offering general sustainability hints and tips to measuring your monthly energy costs. A lot of apps now focus on offering general tips and everyday actions that you can take to help save energy or measure what you use more efficiently.

1. If you need to see just how green your local area really is try AllertMe Energy Map iTunes (Free) The app will allow you to find out the average spend per household a year on energy in your area, how much electricity and gas is used and how much carbon this creates. Energy Map shows how your borough ranks against others in the UK for energy use and CO2 emissions. Compare your area with the best and worst offenders in our League Table. Even use Energy Map when you’re out and about to see how much local residents in any area spend on energy. A great tool for any energy broker is the ability to view a map of the UK showing annual energy spend per area or simply browse through all UK areas from A-Z.

2. The British Gas App iTunes (Free) allows you to easily submit your gas and electricity meter readings at any time allowing them to generate a more accurate bill. You can view your account summary with your last bill amount, payment details, see what tariff you are on and when you last submitted a meter read. You can now also view your energy consumption as a graph and compare your usage over previous months and year. The application provides a convenient guide on how to read your energy meters and emergency numbers for gas and electricity. And if you have any questions the App makes it easy to email us and we aim to respond within 24 hours.

3. With Meter Readings iTunes ($1.99) if you closely monitor your household energy/water usage and the chances are you will SAVE MONEY! This easy to use application allows you to track your household utility meters. Once you start entering meter readings, your usage, costs and savings are calculated and your usage and costs are displayed in easy to visualise graphs.

4. The Kill-O-Watts iTunes ($0.99) is an electricity costs calculator. It lets you specify the electrical properties and usage habits for each appliance to find how many kilowatts-hours it consumes and how much you pay for it on a monthly and yearly basis. Choose from more than 120 typical appliances or create new appliances based on the real ones that you own. Identify the top electricity consumers of your home. Compare the electricity consumption cost of two different brands of appliances before buying one of them. Try different usage scenarios and find possible savings. You’ll be surprise to find out how much money you can save with this little application.

5. With the MeterRead™ iTunes ($2.99) its strength is in the calculations it provides. With each reading you record, you get up-to-date stats of your energy use, including an estimate of how many kilowatt hours you’ll burn for the next 30 days. You’ll know at a glance whether your energy-saving activities are on track, or if you need to turn off a few more lights”

6. Carbon Footprint iTunes ($2.99) is an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows you to track fuel usage for multiple cars. By entering a few pieces of data every time you put fuel in your tank, Carbon Footprint is able to collect and calculate a number of useful statistics.

7. With the Energy Saving #1 iTunes (Free) wouldn’t it be great if you could load your iPhone’s or iPad’s battery anytime, anywhere? Energy Saving #1 presents a solar panel on your screen and gives the impression you found the ultimate way to provide energy for your iPhone! Impress your friends with this great solution for energy production. But please pay attention to this: Don’t leave your iPhone behind unattended, Don’t let your iPhone get to hot, Don’t expect your battery to be loaded this way, but you will get new energy saving tips everyday!

8. The GreenMeter iTunes ($5.99) is an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that computes your vehicle’s power and fuel usage characteristics and evaluates you’re driving to increase efficiency, reduce fuel consumption and cost, and lower your environmental impact. Results are displayed in real time, while driving, to give instantaneous feedback. Though it’s most effective on the road, you can learn from greenMeter even before you get in the car. By tipping the device forward and backward to simulate acceleration, you can see the effects of acceleration, aerodynamic drag, and rolling resistance across the speed range. Then implement this knowledge on the road, by choosing an efficient cruising speed and using the built-in eco-driving displays to moderate acceleration while you drive. Thanks to a novel algorithm that computes parameters over the entire speed range, the app does not need GPS, opening usage up to all generations of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

9. The ShopGreen app iTunes ($0.99) rewards the user by calculating, logging and saving green actions taken to reduce the carbon footprint. Daily tips and great green suggestions help making the correct decisions easier. Carbon savings are tracked within the built-in Eco-Bank. Location aware specials and discounts are offered through participating green friendly companies. Increase the Eco-Bank balance to receive rewards in the form of coupons and specials.

10. The Carbon Calc iTunes (Free) is a Green House Gas (GHG) emissions calculator. If you have wondered what your contribution to global warming is, Carbon Calc is a simple calculator that lets you input your Driving, Flying, and Home energy use. Once you know your footprint, you can compare your net emissions to the US average and the world average. You can optionally offset your footprint by purchasing Carbon Credits.

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.

Or you might want to subscribe for further updates direct from our site.

Energy Suppliers and Their Tariffs:

Felipe — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:32:17 +0000

The Biggest UK Business Energy Suppliers and their Tariffs

Choosing the right energy tariff for your business is not an easy job and it is best to leave it for the professionals, like an energy broker or a business energy consultant. With so many options available and the complexity of the UK energy market it is easy to choose the wrong business energy supplier and waste thousands of pounds each year on energy bills.

In the same way that domestic customers are free to compare prices and switch to a cheaper supplier, business customers can also choose the best deal for their needs. Below you will find a list with the major business electricity suppliers and their tariffs. This list is more like a guide and it is aimed to help you have a better understanding of how each business electricity suppliers charge business based on the amount of energy they consumer yearly.

The UK’s biggest energy suppliers, British Gas, EDF, E.ON, npower, Scottish Power, and Scottish & Southern Energy, all have tariffs designed specifically for business customers.

British Gas business electricity

British Gas (www.britishgas.co.uk), the UK’s largest energy supplier, offers two business electricity tariffs:

Business electricity for small and medium businesses – For businesses that spend up to or less than £50,000 a year on their electricity bills. Rates are fixed for a set period, so you’ll always know what you’ll be paying each month.
Business electricity for large businesses – For businesses that spend more than £50,000 a year on their electricity bills and/or have more than 20 sites. Choose from either fixed or flexible contracts.

British Gas supplies gas and electricity to over 950,000 businesses around the UK, and every customer has their own account manager. The account manager is responsible for arranging connections and metering services, as well as the registration and switchover process, and any billing or payment queries.

You can also opt for Green Electricity which uses energy from renewable resources, and could help reduce the amount of Climate Change Levy (CCL) your business has to pay.

EDF business electricity

French-owned energy supplier EDF (www.edfenergy.com) offers two business electricity tariffs:

Business electricity for small and medium businesses – For businesses that spend up to or less than £30,000 a year on their electricity bills and have less than 20 sites. Prices are fixed for either one, two or three years, so you’ll always know what you’ll be paying each month. Bills are paid quarterly.
Business electricity for large businesses – For businesses that spend more than £30,000 a year on their electricity bills and have more than 20 sites in the UK. Choose from either fixed or flexible contracts, and bills can be monthly or quarterly.

EDF has over 450,000 business customers, all benefiting from a choice of contract length, dedicated business advisers, and 2% off bills for choosing to pay by direct debit, as well as free energy efficiency advice to help cut your company’s fuel bills.

E.ON business electricity

Energy giant E.ON (www.eonenergy.com) has over 500,000 business customers and is one of the UK’s largest business energy suppliers. It has one business electricity tariff, designed for small and medium companies with less than 50 sites in the UK that use less than £100,000 worth of electricity a year. The deal offers:

Fixed electricity prices guaranteed for the duration of your contract
Either a one or three year contract
A discount for paying bills by direct debit
Free energy efficiency advice

Choosing a three year contract means you will be able to budget your energy costs for longer, protecting your business against electricity price increases for three years.

Npower business electricity

With over 300,000 business energy customers, Npower (www.npower.com) offers one business electricity tariff specifically for small and medium businesses that use less than £100,000 worth of electricity a year.

Fixed electricity prices until 2010
Energy efficiency advice to help lower your energy bills
2% discount for paying by direct debit.

Npower business customers are given a free e3 pack, which contains a free Electrisave monitor worth £79.95 (a smart meter), and all the energy efficiency tools and advice you need to reduce your energy bills by up to 25%.

Find out more about Npower’s business electricity tariff.

Scottish Power business electricity

Scottish Power (www.scottishpower.co.uk) has over 200,000 business customers and offers two business electricity tariffs:

Business electricity for small and medium businesses – For businesses that use up to or less than 75,000kW of energy a year.
Business electricity for large businesses – For businesses that use more than 75,000kW of energy a year.

Large businesses (with more than 25 sites) can benefit from internet invoicing, which gives customers access to up-to-date billing information whenever they want, and they can view up to 13 months’ historic data, including invoices and statements.

Scottish Power allows customers to pay in six different ways, including monthly/quarterly direct debit, using credit/debit cards and by cheque, cash or giro cheque. Businesses will receive a discount for opting to pay by direct debit.

Scottish & Southern Energy business gas

Scottish & Southern Energy has over 9 million customers in the UK. Its business customers can benefit from:

Fixed prices for the entire contract period
Contract packages with a variety of contract periods and payment methods to suit your business
Experienced business energy advisers
Local customer service centres in Scotland, England and Wales. Or the option of a visit from an experienced Business Energy Adviser to talk to you about your business energy needs.

Switching business energy suppliers can be a fast and easy process, not to mention that you could save up to 50% on your gas and energy bills. If you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how this could benefit your business, simply call our energy team today on 0870 710 7560 or request a call back at time to suit.

Or you might want to subscribe for further updates direct from our site.

Part 2 Energy Efficiency Q&A:

Felipe — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:11:19 +0000

Energy Efficiency Q&A Round Two

As promised here we are with the second round of question and answers about energy efficiency. Today we will answer questions about rebound effect and negawatt, so if you want to find out the meaning of these terms keep on reading.

What does energy efficiency mean for businesses?

For a business, energy efficiency mostly applies to electrical appliances, heating equipment and everything else powered by electricity. Governments have pushed manufacturers to produce increasingly low-energy devices, such as desktop computers, televisions, refrigerators, freezers and a wide variety of electrical appliances used in each industry.

Simple energy efficiency measures at work include installing loft and wall insulation, draught-sealing windows and doors and replacing incandescent bulbs with efficient, modern CFLs and LED lights.

Cars are covered by a different energy efficiency scheme, which looks similar to the red-to-green EU Energy Label and ranks vehicles on their carbon emissions per kilometre (CO2 g/km). The most efficient modern cars emit less than CO2 100g/km, and all new cars in the EU will be required to – on average across European fleets – emit less than 130g/km by 2015. But this is content for another article, lets get back to energy efficiency.

What’s the rebound effect, and what does it mean for energy efficiency?

In 1865, William Stanley Jevons suggested that improvements in energy efficiency could result in unintended “rebound effects” – such as behavioural changes – that offset the energy savings. For example, greater fuel efficiency in cars may actually lead to motorists driving more frequently and for greater distances, cancelling out the environmental benefits of efficiency.

A report from Cambridge University earlier this year suggested that such rebound effects could cancel out 52% of anticipated energy efficiency savings by 2030.

What’s a negawatt?

The IEA suggests that energy efficiency should effectively be viewed as just another energy source, much like coal or wind power. Following the spirit of the IEA, the US scientist Amory Lovins suggested using the compound “negawatt” (negative-watt) as a unit for expressing the energy waste avoided through energy efficiency.

We have reached the end of the second of our Energy Efficiency Q&A. We would love to have a third round but for this we’ll need your help. Head to our Twitter account or Facebook Page and leave your questions there or if you prefer you can use our comments section below.

Or you might want to subscribe for further updates direct from our site.

Wasted Energy At Work:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:13:04 +0000

How much electricity power do we waste at work

As a business person have you ever thought about avoiding wastage of your electricity supply to further reduce costs? If you haven’t done so already, then you might want to ponder your thoughts on that just for a while. Electricity power is wasted in different ways, and some of them are not quite as obvious as you think. Here are some pointers that will give you an idea:

1) Standby Power

Standby power is usually the power consumed by electronic appliances when they are in the standby mode. While using the standby mode for devices when you don’t use them is a good idea, substituting it for a shut down can be detrimental. In order to help the device in standby mode maintain its previous state, some power is used, which increases your expenses by quite a substantial amount over the long run. Therefore, use the standby mode when you go on a coffee break, however, remember to shut the appliance down when you leave for the day.

2) Overuse of cable modems and computers

While using cable modems, you might notice that they are left switched on at all times even when they are not in use. It is usually assumed that computers draw almost an equal amount of power in the same way as a perfectly working refrigerator, which is between 70 – 250 watts. Therefore, you might want to take a closer look at how you use this equipment to save on your energy expenses.

3) Excessively charging your equipment

Do you have the habit of leaving the phone connected to the charger throughout the night? Do you always use AC power supply when you work on your laptop? Over charging battery-run equipments will further add to your expenses, and over time, these products will start consuming more electric power to run efficiently.

One way to avoid this is to unplug the gadget from its charger once it’s charged. On the other hand, if you’re too busy all the time to do that, you might want to purchase chargers that come equipped with a system capable of halting the power supply when the equipment is fully charged.

4) Plugged in phone charges

Look under the desk in most businesses and you will probably find a mobile phone charger that has been left plugged in with no phone on the end. What most people don’t realise is that even without the phone plugged in, the plug is still using the same amount of power. Therefore avoid wasting excess power by removing these from the sockets when not in use.

5) Office Computers

Because of the increased boot up time of the new windows platforms such as Windows Vista, many people choose to leave their office computers on all night and over the weekend to avoid waiting for the lengthy boot up process in the morning. Unfortunately your modern day computer is a hive of electrical activity when not in use, and a number of computers left on, can drain serious amounts of power over the course of a year. Avoid this by switching computers off or using software to automatically schedule your computers to shut down and power back up at the right time. Our PC Powerdown software allows you to activate your own schedule for only £12 per PC, an investment that will easily be paid for in just a matter of months.

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

Or you might want to subscribe for further updates direct from our site.

Part 1 Energy Efficiency Q&A:

Felipe — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:01:40 +0000

Energy Efficiency Q&A Round One

Every time we discuss the current and future state of Britain’s energy industry a certain subjects can not be avoided, such as energy efficiency, climate change, carbon footprint, green energy and few others that we will discuss in a series of two articles starting today.

So what is energy efficiency? Is energy saving the same as energy efficiency? What role does energy efficiency play in slowing climate change? Below you will find answers to all these questions.

What is energy efficiency?

Energy efficiency generally refers to achieving the same result – lighting up a house, for example – by using less energy. It can be used to describe everything from small-scale changes such as more energy-efficient refrigerators and PCs in homes right up to more efficient power stations or energy savings across a company’s supply chain.

Perhaps the most obvious example of energy efficiency is the energy-saving lightbulb. A compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb typically uses around fives times less energy than a conventional incandescent bulb, but produces the same level of illumination.

What’s the difference between energy efficiency and energy-saving?

Though the two are often used interchangeably, efficiency is just one aspect of energy-saving (sometimes called energy conservation). Energy-saving can also include, for instance, behavioural changes such as encouraging individuals to turn appliances off standby, or technologies such as automated lighting systems that only turn on when they detect movement.

How big a role does efficiency play in slowing climate change?

Alongside increased energy generation from renewable sources, it’s one of the two key strategies that governments are deploying to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The UN sees efficiency improvements as quicker and cheaper to implement than green energy, and such speed will be crucial to avoid tipping points – where dangerous runaway climate change occurs – that scientists believe may be less than a decade away.

Efficiency has a major role to play in cutting CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that improvements in efficiency alone could be responsible for 65% of the reduction in emissions from developing countries over the next 20 years. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change places energy efficiency at the heart of its recommendations for meeting the UK target of an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050.

This is it for round one of our Energy Efficiency Q&A, hope you enjoyed it and make sure you don’t miss the second round on Friday.

Got a question you want to ask about energy efficiency? Use our comments section to do so or feel free to drop us line on Twitter or on our Facebook Page with your queries. You never know your question might be featured on the second round of our Energy Efficiency Q&A.

Or you might want to subscribe for further updates direct from our site.

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