Author Archives: Admin

Latest Guidance for FIT Generators

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Admin

August 2011: Ofgem document for renewable generators with a capacity over 50kW up to 5MW that want to benefit from the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme. It provides an overview of the scheme’s eligibility criteria and explains the process of seeking accreditation.

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Better Metering Toolkit

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Admin

August 2011: The Better Building Partnership (BBP), a collaborative project led by London’s leading commercial property owners and supported by the Mayor of London, has produced a guide designed to support both owners and occupiers in understanding the benefits of installing advanced metering systems in buildings, including the current options available. This and other studies undertaken by the Better Buildings Partnership available to download here.

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Olympian effort made to get utilities ready for the Olympics

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Admin

August 2011: Utility Week feature article looking at the efforts to provide low carbon heat and power to the Olympics.

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EDF 4 year deal to supply electricity to Whitehall departments

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Admin

August 2011: “French nuclear energy giant EDF has beaten off rivals here to win Britain’s biggest electricity supply contract, worth £6.8 billion, to supply the Government for the next four years. The deal, negotiated by the Cabinet Office in just three months, involves supplying all Whitehall departments with cheap electricity from April 2012. It also provides for supplying thousands of public buildings across England and Wales, including hospitals, police stations, defence sites, London Underground and the British Museum.” From thisismoney.co.uk – click on link to read full article.

In their press release EDF Energy highlight that “As well as electricity supply, EDF Energy will provide strategic and practical sustainability advice to help Government departments use energy more efficiently and reduce emissions.”

LU is one of the largest electricity users in the UK (annual consumption of around 1TWh of electricity).  London Assembly Member Mike Tuffrey recently wrote on using the purchasing power of the London Underground electricity contract to support the greater use of renewable energy.

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In the market for green energy

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Admin

July 2011:  As highlighted previously,  fruit and vegetable traders in Ridley Road market, Hackney, are collecting their green waste to feed into an  anaerobic digestion (AD) plant as  part of a trial between the AD specialist Biogen Greenfinch and Hackney, which is about to be rolled out across more of the council’s markets. More detail on this project is provided in this interesting article just published by edie waste news and available here.

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Simple energy efficiency measures can save around £322 a year

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Admin

July 2011:   Centrica has just published some work they commissioned earlier this year from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), which conducted the largest ever independent analysis of natural gas use in British homes based on 40 million meter readings .  The report found that customers who adopted a range of simple measures saved on average £322 each year, and saw a 44 per cent fall in their gas use between 2006 and 2010. The research is presented regionally (hence specific London conclusions presented) and some of the outputs include:

  • British Gas has a lower proportion of customers in London than other parts of the country
  • Appendix E provides British Gas customers average domestic natural gas consumption by postcode in London
  • An indication  of potential cost savings that can be achieved in London and elsewhere by the adoption of energy efficiency solutions.
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London Warm Zone News

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Admin

July 2011: London Warm Zone is working with councils across East London to show people where their home is losing energy and what you can do to stop it. The Home Energy Check is currently available in limited areas covering:
Barking and Dagenham – Dagenham Low Carbon Zone
Hackney – Leabridge ward
Waltham Forest – Lea Bridge ward
Further information here.

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London’s Power Stations

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Admin

30 June 2011: DECC’s annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) has just been published providing a welcome summer reading challenge for all energy-geeks… DUKES is principally concerned with national level energy statistics, and hence does not provide regional breakdowns in most instances (those are usually set out in separate articles in DECC’s quarterly journal Energy Trends). However, there a few issues areas worth looking at. In the first instance, it’s useful to be aware of what power plants operate within London itself, which in total contribute only a small percentage of London’s total electricity demand. The following London schemes are listed in the ‘Power Stations in the UK’ table in Chapter 5 of DUKES, to which some additional information/links have been added to below:

  • Barking Power – a gas fired Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) of 1000 MW (megawatts) generation capacity, which first started operating in 1994
  • Citigen (London) UK Ltd  – based in Charterhouse Street in Smithfields and owned and operated by E.ON, this scheme is fuelled by  gas and gas oil, and is rated 31 MW and first started operating in 1995. The unit operates in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) mode providing heating, and also cooling (via chilled water) distributed by a district energy network to a number of customers in the City area.
  • Thames Valley Power – a joint venture between EDF Energy and ATCO Power, this  Gas/Gas oil 15MW CHP has been operating since 1995 at Heathrow Airport.
  • London Heat & Power Company –  a 9MW gas CHP based at Imperial College which started operation in 2009.
  • Barkantine Heat & Power Company – A 1MW gas fuelled CHP with district heating system based on the Barkantine Estate in Tower Hamlets
  • Taylors Lane – Taylor’s Lane Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) station, situated in Willesden is operated by E.ON and has two gas turbine units fired on natural gas with a total capacity of 132MW and began generating in 1979.
  • Enfield Power Station– E.ON owned and operated 400MW gas turbine scheme which began generating in 1999.
  • SELCHP – South East London Combined Heat & Power Ltd (SELCHP) 32 MW waste fired operated by Veolia Environmental Services began generating in 1994 – but only in power-only mode. Heat offtake opportunities (so the plant can finally operate in true-CHP mode) are currently being explored with Southwark Council.
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Energy Consumption in London’s Homes

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Admin

29 July 2011: DECC’s latest Energy Consumption in the UK release includes data and factsheets on the use of energy in the  industrial, transport, domestic and service sectors. Some of the findings from the domestic sector factsheet include:

  • In 2010 domestic consumption was 32 per cent of total UK final energy consumption
  • The majority of energy consumed in the domestic sector is for spacing heating which in 2009 represented 61 per cent of total domestic consumption.
  • Water heating and lighting appliances accounted for a further 18 per cent each with cooking accounting for a further 3 per cent
  • Electricity consumption for lighting purposes represented 33 per cent of electricity consumption by household domestic appliances, followed by cooking (32 per cent) and cold appliances (14 per cent)

No other official data providing a breakdown to this level of energy consumption in homes exists. No regional breakdown is provided or breakdown by dwelling type, hence this is the best available dataset to use in relation to energy consumption in Londoners’ homes. See the following Ofgem factsheet for information on typical total domestic energy consumption.

 

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Recycling Cooking Oil in London

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Admin

July 2011: The Committee on Climate Change are currently undertaking a review of bioenergy and took a trip to have a look at the work of Uptown Oil who  collect used cooking oil from about a thousand sources in London – including Young’s pubs, Selfridges and Hackney Borough Council – to produce biodiesel.
A Business Green article published last week highlighted that Carluccio’s Restaurant chain – which has around 20 cafes in London – announced that it has signed a deal with biofuel firm Convert2Green to be converted into biofuel.  Other biofuel suppliers in London include:
Uptown Oil based in Borough
Pure Fuels based in Edmonton
Proper Oils who work with a  Croydon Council collection scheme
Uptown have also been selected to supply biofuel to PWC’s new HQ whose energy will be partially supplied by a trigeneration scheme (combined heat and power with cooling) – one of London’s only biofuelled CHP schemes.
Figures for the amount of cooking oil collected in London and be turned into biofuel do not appear to be available, however, a study reported on by the London Assembly in 2009 indicated that 37,000 tonnes of used cooking oil is available in London and the DfT’s latest biofuel statistics state that the “largest single feedstock for UK biofuel was used cooking oil (314m litres, 26% of total biofuel supplied)“. London’s Draft Waste Municipal Waste Strategy commits that the “Mayor will, through his Food to Fuel Alliance, aim to catalyse at least five exemplar food waste projects in London…the Alliance will support food waste projects that generate renewable heat and power (including transport fuel), and compost material for local use.”

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Nuclear Trains Stopped for Olympics

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Admin

28 July 2011: An interesting issue which hasn’t been raised for some time: “Trains carrying highly radioactive nuclear waste which normally pass through the Olympic Park are to be suspended for the duration of the Olympics. The operator of the trains, Direct Rail Services – a company wholly owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority – has claimed the the suspension is not security-related but to free up track space. The spent nuclear fuel rods, sent from the Sizewell B plant in Suffolk to Sellafield are routed across the North London Line of the London Overground, passing through Stratford, Hackney, Islington and Camden on their way to the West Coast Main Line at Willesden Junction.” Read the full article here.

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First Accredited Passivhaus In London

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Admin

July 2011: A timber framed, two bedroom house in Camden has become the first certified Passivhaus in London, setting a benchmark for energy efficient design for the city. Read the full Green Building Press article here.

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