News

Mayor’s home energy programme slashed by three quarters

August 2011: News release from London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi responding to the Mayor’s RE:NEW programme announcement which states:
“In 2009 the mayor promised his programme would treat 200,000 homes with easy energy efficiency measures like low energy lightbulbs, and offer advice and support for more complex things like roof insulation, but the new target is just 55,000 homes – or a mere 1.7% of London’s 3.3 million homes.” Full news release here.

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London Lags on Lagging

5 August 2011: Data released today provides further evidence on the extent that London is short-changed in relation to insulating its homes. The local authorities that have seen the lowest percentage of the housing stock insulated over the past three years through the Government’s main energy efficiency policy mechanism, CERT, are all based in London. They are: City of London (<0.1%); Westminster (0.3%); Kensington and Chelsea (0.8%); Hackney (1.3%); Hammersmith and Fulham (1.6%).

The figures, published by the Energy Saving Trust (EST), are released on a regional, council and constituency basis. They show how much loft and cavity wall insulation was professionally installed under the Government’s Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) up until 31 March 2011. The CERT places requirements on energy companies to help consumers cut their emissions through energy efficiency.

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Commission statement on Low Carbon Energy for the Games

5 August 2011: “We have advised LOCOG to draw a clear distinction between how they report new and existing low carbon supply sources, making it clear what has been commissioned for the Games, and what is existing low carbon generation. Where the Games are to be supplied from existing sources, the supplier’s other customers will be supplied with less, having no net impact on the environment.” Read the full statement from the ‘Commission for a Sustainable London 2012’ here.

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Mayor Announces next phase of RE:NEW

4 August 2011: The Mayor has today announced the next phase of the RE:NEW home energy efficiency programme.  The scheme is to be provided to 55,000 homes in specific areas across the capital between now and May 2012 with homes in parts of Barking and Dagenham, Hackney, Lewisham and Waltham Forest being the first to receive this benefit.

To find out if your home might be within an area, check the files attached below to search for your street name. If your street is on the list you can make a booking online or by calling 0800 978 8332.

Further information on the roll-out of RE:NEW across London is here.
Key points from the press release are as follows:

  • RE:NEW is funded by the Mayor and all 32 London boroughs have signed as partners in the scheme, which is being delivered in partnership with London Councils and the Energy Saving Trust. Barking & Dagenham, Hackney and Waltham Forest, with appointed contractor, London Warm Zone, and Lewisham with appointed contractor, Osborne Energy, are the first to roll out RE:NEW. The focus in these areas will be on providing energy monitors and stand by switches.
  • The RE:NEW offer involves a full home energy survey carried out by a qualified home energy advisor, which takes roughly 90 minutes to do. Residents will then get a tailor-made energy saving report once the visit is complete and have a range of free energy saving measures installed.
  • At the same time as improving energy efficiency, RE:NEW aims to reduce fuel poverty in London and each household will be offered a benefits check to ensure residents are claiming all of the benefits and grants they are entitled to.
  • RE:NEW is not an ‘on-demand’ service and is being delivered on an area by area basis because trials showed this approach resulted in more cost-effective and higher take up, helping to ensure that the city’s ambitious targets can be met. It has been designed to be as easy as possible for residents.
  • The aim is to attain the funding to expand the programme to 200,000 homes by the end of 2012 and 1.2 million homes by 2015. This will be subject to additional funding being secured principally through the Government’s ‘Green Deal’.
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Green light for new Essex power station

4 August 2011Energy Minister Charles Hendry has given the go-ahead today for InterGen’s proposals to construct a new 900MW gas power plant at the London Gateway Logistics Park, Coryton, Essex. The plans are for a new £600 million power station comprising of up to two CCGT generating units, each around 450MW in capacity. Further information on the scheme is available on the Gateway Energy Centre website .

No mention is made in the Government’s press release about any requirements for the power station to operate in higher efficiency CHP-mode. As part of Intergen’s 2010 planning submission to the Government a CHP assessment was undertaken which stated that responses from nearby organisations to take heat from the power station “have been encouraging. For example, there is the potential to supply the London Gateway Development with heat in the form of hot water or steam for heating or refrigeration purposes. The project also has the potential to provide heat to organisations in the area such as the Petroplus owned Coryton Oil Refinery, the Ford Motor Company at Dunton and Basildon Hospital.”
The assessment continues that the “Gateway Energy Centre (GEC) will hold further discussions with local organisations, including government agencies, with the aim of establishing further interest e.g. in a community heating scheme. If achieved, the result of this would be to improve overall plant efficiency whilst also reducing energy consumption by the users of the heat. The design of GEC will incorporate features which, with suitable modifications, will allow for export of heat in the event that suitable users are identified.”

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Thames Water to become Britain’s biggest solar power generator

August 2011: Thames Water is aiming to become Britain’s biggest on-site solar power producer after signing a deal to install photovoltaic systems large enough to cover 15 football pitches at three key sites in London. A 450kW array of solar panels, commissioned last week at Beckton (Newham), will generate 385 MWh a year on average, while 150kW arrays installed at Crossness (Bexley) – where a 2.5MW wind turbine is also planned to be installed –  and Walton will each generate 133 MWh a year on average, enough to power 140 average-sized homes.
Once the Crossness array is expanded to its full potential of 1,700 kW, it will generate an additional 1,400 MWh a year on average. And once the Walton array is expanded to its full potential of 3,000 kW, it will generate an additional 2,500 MWh per year.

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District Heating Good Practice: Learning from the LCIF

August 2011: Two London schemes are profiled in the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) Low Carbon Infrastructure Fund (LCIF) programme ‘lessons learned’ report published today. The Fund was set up in 2009 to provide funding for the district heating infrastructure needed to link housing schemes to new and existing low carbon CHP plants.

  • LCIF funding provided £3m to develop the spine heat network for the Greenwich Peninsula. The Greenwich Peninsula, with its proposals for more than 10,000 new homes, is part of a larger, mixed-use scheme including commercial, retail, educational and leisure uses. The full combination of works includes two significant CHP pipework ‘spines’ which capture all significant development areas on the Peninsula
  • Cranston Estate, Hackney where £0.5m grant funding was provided to install a district heat pipe for the retrofitting of a CHP plant, providing electricity and heat to three high-density housing estates.
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Olympian effort made to get utilities ready for the Olympics

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

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

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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London Warm Zone News

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

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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