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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.

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

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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Carbon Management Profit:

Felipe — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:01:41 +0000

Carbon Management equals Commercial Opportunity

Carbon management becomes strategic business priority for the world’s largest global corporations says the 2010 Carbon Disclosure Project’s 2010 Global 500 report

The Climate Week NYºC 2010 started on Monday and activities will go on till Sunday the 26th of September. During the whole week business leaders, government officials and NOG’s representatives from around the world will discuss key issues and explore solutions to ensure a cleaner, greener and more prosperous future for us all.

This year’s central theme is “Climate Innovation = Commercial Opportunity”. Celebrations started with an opening ceremony at the New York Public Library that drew about 300 people. But the very first forum was held at the Bank of America headquarters where the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) announced the 2010 Global 500 report.

The CDP’s Global 500 report ranks companies according to their carbon reduction commitments on a 100-point scale. It analyses how each organisation is measuring and managing its carbon emissions, how it discloses information to stakeholders and above all what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint.

Among the five corporations scoring highest in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) latest rankings released today, are Siemens, Deutsche Post, BASF, Bayer and Samsung Electronics. Highlights to Germany’s Siemens who scored the highest this year, achieving a near-perfect 98 out of 100.

The CDP’s 2010 Global 500 report and new Carbon Reporting Leadership Index (CPLI) key findings were:

85% of the carbon performance leaders surveyed reported have board or senior executive level responsibility for climate change
48% are now embedding climate change initiatives into the overall business strategy and across the organization
9 out of 10 companies surveyed identified significant commercial opportunity arising from climate change, separating the companies driven by risk factors, from those that are identifying and seizing competitive advantages and cost-benefits
65% of Global 500 respondents are implementing emissions reduction targets. However, only 19% of the Global 500 companies are showing significant emissions reductions
North America significantly lags Europe in disclosure and performance: 21% of European respondents are in the CPLI, compared to 6% of North American respondents
Leading companies see two main areas of focus for action: the energy efficiency of operations, likely encouraged by cost savings potential, and the development of innovative products and services that enable customers to cut their emissions

“Fuelled by opportunities to reduce energy costs, secure energy supply, protect the business from climate change risk and reputational damage, generate revenue and remain competitive, carbon management continues to rise as a strategic priority for many businesses. Companies globally are seizing commercial carbon opportunities, often acting ahead of any policy requirements. More companies than ever before are reporting through CDP and measuring and reporting their emissions, which is the first building block in working towards a low-carbon economy” aid Paul Dickson CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Dickson also noted that despite the failure of the world’s political leaders to come up with a new climate change agreement, the private sector is embracing the need for carbon emissions reductions. He went on to say “heavy disappointment at the failure to reach agreement on a global deal at Copenhagen and smears against climate change science.”

About the Carbon Disclosure Project

The Carbon Disclosure Project was launched over a decade ago at No. 10 Downing Street in London, when the residence was occupied by Prime Minister Tony Blair. This independent not-for-profit organization holds the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world.

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Energy Market Report Sep10:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:58:20 +0000

Our monthly analysis of the UK gas and power markets is now available on line for the month of September 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 September 2010 report here and all historical energy reports can be located here.

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.

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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.

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Business Electricity Comparison:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:21:36 +0000

Best Practices for Business Electricity Price Comparison

Think it’s time to reevaluate your business electricity provider and reduce your company’s energy costs? Here are some helpful pointers to get you started:

Ask for competitive pricing bids

To ensure your company continuously enjoys good energy rates from your chosen supplier, you should have multiple bids to rely on. Based on these bids, find out what the providers’ terms are like as well as risk factors. Bear in mind that those who offer the lowest prices are not always the best, because at the end of the day, you may find their services lacking in quality. Watch out for unwelcome surprises in the form of hidden costs in the price quotes.

Understand your electricity bill

Companies should prioritise energy suppliers based on who can provide electricity bills that are easy to read. There should be no hidden costs; rather, every cost including late fees should be outlined clearly on the bill. It goes without saying that the power bills should be delivered in a timely manner each month or on a quarterly basis, and disputes settled within 10 business days – quickly and amicably.

Rope in an energy broker to do the job

Energy brokers are considered bulk buyers for companies to increase savings on their energy consumption, but that’s not all they do! An energy broker also helps you compare prices and educate you on what the current market prices are for energy sources like oil and natural gas. Reputable brokers usually own comprehensive websites with guides to energy savings and lots of content to educate you. They will be more than happy to guide you through the process of comparing electricity prices for your business — in fact, at Catalyst we provide you with all these services at absolutely no cost.

Perform a background financial check on providers

Even if you do not enlist help from an energy broker, you should find out an energy provider’s financial status. Just as they have the right to perform credit checks on consumers, so do the consumers to do background checks on potential providers. They should ideally boast of good Better Business Bureau ratings and a solid financial statement for each year they have been in operation. Never hesitate to ask for their annual financial records to better understand their business operations and reliability.

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Compare Gas Electricity Prices:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:39:55 +0000

Compare Gas Electricity Prices – 3 FAQ’s to Help You Switch Providers Easily

With the fluctuating prices of energy, most business owners agree that saving money on their power bills can help lessen operational costs and lighten their financial burden. Besides saving more money that you can put to better use for your business, you will also be doing your bit for the enviroment and you could also benefit from renewable energy sources. Something that your current provider may not be able to offer.

Here are the 3 frequently asked questions together with their answers to help you get started on the right step towards comparing gas and electricity prices.

1. How do I know if it’s time to switch and compare energy prices?

Listen to the industry news, and you’ll know when the suppliers have lowered their prices! Once they do, you’ll know it’s an opportune time to switch providers.

There are other benefits that should cause you to switch and compare prices. You may have been “hooked” into your current provider because of the initial deal you signed on. However, you quickly realised that the offer is not so great after a while, due to the fact that other competitors are now offering better packages. The best thing to do is to keep abreast with energy-related news, and constantly educate yourself by comparing prices.

2. Which provider should I choose?

When comparing energy prices online, you are required to key in your postcode. This is because the cost you will pay depends on where your business is situated in the UK. That said, it does not mean that you should choose the provider that boasts the cheapest prices. Quality matters too, and is usually evident in the course of dealing with the provider.

In fact, this being the most important step that will possibly affect you for a number of months in the near future, it’s best to use the help of a good energy broker, especially when it is available completely free of charge — at least at Catalyst it is.

3. What should I do after I have decided the provider I want to switch to?

Virtually nothing! You do not have to notify your old provider but you may need to verify details when the new provider or broker steps in. You also need to pay off any outstanding bills to avoid hiccups and possibly a hefty penalty.

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Ofgem Overhauling Regulation:

Felipe — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:41:24 +0000

Ofgem Overhauling the UK’s Energy Regulation

Last week Ofgem, the UK’s energy industry regulator, unveiled its plans to introduce incentives for companies that develop creative solutions to reduce their business energy usage, improve energy efficiency and help them meet low carbon commitments. Ofgem is conducting a major overhaul in the UK’s energy regulation, as part of its plans it will facilitate £32 billion of investment in low carbon networks and expand the low carbon innovation fund to encourage greater innovation across gas and electricity networks.

To give investors more security Ofgem is also studying the possibility of extending price controls for energy networks from five to eight years.

It is estimated that Britain needs £200 billion in investments over the next ten years in order to maintain renewable energy supplies at affordable prices for businesses and households alike. The £32 billion that Ofgem is putting forward to stimulate businesses to develop their own solutions to improve their energy efficiency is nothing compared to £200 billion needed, but it sure is a good start to help Britain achieve its low carbon society dream.

Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem’s chief executive, said: “If Britain’s energy networks are going to meet the challenge of delivering a low carbon economy then we need them to have innovation in their DNA.”

Meanwhile the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Ofgem are trying to accelerate the roll-out of smart domestic energy meters.

The bodies released a prospectus outlining the government’s plans to roll out smart meters to every household in the UK.

This rollout aims to provide efficiency and interoperability by simplifying and improving industry processes, including changing suppliers, as well as enabling smart grid development.

For businesses looking to gain more control over their energy expenditures the installation of a smart meter is also highly recommended, simply request it from your energy supplier or from your independent energy broker.

Smart energy meters will empower you to make choices on how much energy your business is using in real time, precise data collection solutions all aimed at putting you back in control of your costs.

If you would like more information on our smart meter 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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Compare Business Electricity:

Catalyst Commercial Services Ltd — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:20:15 +0000

Comparing Business Electricity Tariffs – Top Energy Saving Tips For Your Busisness

Did you know that your company can save up to 40% on its energy bills? If you took the initiative to switch your electricity provider on a regular basis and let an energy broker negotiate better power prices for your company, you will indirectly lessen your company operational costs. Here are some tips that can help you get started on your way to major savings.

1. Compare business electricity contract terms amongst potential providers: Some business owners choose to deal with energy brokers rather than going directly to the suppliers.

This allows the brokers to negotiate on behalf of a company, and allows the company to benefit from a range of supplier quotes. Sometimes the broker will have a reduced business electricity tariff available to them as part of there overall product set. Of course, it goes without saying that an energy broker should be able to negotiate a much better deal for a business than an individual business owner can directly.

However, whether you deal with a supplier directly or choose to use a broker, it pays to scrutinise the business electricity contract terms. Contract duration is an important issue you should carefully consider. Most contracts last between one to five years, but remember, some providers will charge an early termination penalty if you decide to end the contract prematurely, so plan carefully ahead before you decide to enter into a long-term contract. A profesional energy broker will always remind you about the impending contract renewal and should present you with a new electricity tariff comparison.

2. Let your new provider make the switch easier: You don’t need to worry about contacting your old provider should you decide to go with a new supplier directly or through a broker. Your broker or supplier will take care of everything and make the switch as seamless as possible. However if you have a current contract with your current provider or have an outstanding debt with them, then expect them to object to the transfer.

3. Educate yourself on who are the top energy suppliers: E.On, Npower, EDF Energy, and Scottish & Southern Energy are some of the more reputable suppliers in the market. It pays to know more about your chosen supplier and their background in the industry, which will definitely help you make a more informed final decision about whom to consider for any potential savings and better service and support.

For more information on energy brokers, and the services that they offer, have a quick look through the rest of our site.

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Renewable Yes, Nuclear No:

Felipe — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:38:46 +0000

Yes to Renewable and No to Nuclear – Says the Energy Secretary

Energy Secretary wants to Shield Britain’s Energy with Renewables. Ahead of today’s Commons statement on energy policy, speaking to the Sunday Telegraph and Sky News the Energy Secretary Chris Huhne made quite clear what will be the Government’s plan to prevent Britain from suffering a power crisis. Mr Huhne was very clear when he spoke out in favour of harnessing onshore and offshore wind power and that there won’t be any Government money to subside new nuclear power plants.

With flows of North Sea oil and gas diminishing in future years, the Energy Secretary’s intention is to strengthen Britain’s energy production by making it more independent, allowing it to withstand “shocks from the outside world” which could send prices soaring for both households and businesses.

We have to agree with Mr Huhne to a certain extent because right now, the UK imports nearly a third of its energy from unstable regions such as Russia and the Middle East. Which we already know makes energy prices move up and down through out the year. A 100% nationalised energy production would be virtually impossible these days but if the Government had more control over it, energy prices could become more stable.

“There is going to be a strong emphasis on the economic benefit of becoming more independent of energy imports. The lights will not go out on my watch,” – declared Mr Huhne

It would be ideal for Britain and any other country in the world, if it could be totally self energy sufficient relying only renewable energy generation. Even though this is a futuristic dream to say the least, Britain has got great potential to increase its renewable energy generation not only with wind power but also with wave and tidal power.

As stressed by Mr Huhne, all three technologies are in their infancy and there is room for a lot of improvement.

To date there are approximately 262 wind farms operating in the UK counting on & offshore farms. These wind farms have the capacity to power more than 2.5 million homes on ideal wind conditions. Right now there are 27 onshore and 5 offshore wind farms under construction not to mention the 468 winds farms planned to populate Britain over the next decade or so.

Last December, figures showed proposals were under way to increase Scotland’s total from 1131 turbines to at least 3855 with nearly 1000 already given consent or under construction.

Despite the fact that the Energy Secretary stated that there won’t be any subsidy to build new nuclear plants he expects that such power station will still be built to help secure the safety of the UK’s energy generation.

We want to hear from you now. What is the best way to secure Britain’s energy generation? Nuclear or Renewables? Share your thoughts on our comments section below.

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