Site search:
-
What’s new?
Energy for London Tags
Brent Buildings Camden Carbon Emissions CHP Cities Climate Adaptation Community Heating Community Initiatives Croydon Data DECC Decentralised Energy Distribution ECO Energy Costs Energy Efficiency Enfield FIT Fuel Poverty Funding Green Deal Hackney Haringey Housing Islington Lambeth Library Local Authorities Mayor Newham Ofgem Olympics Photovoltaics Planning RE:FIT RE:NEW Renewable Energy Retrofit Southwark Tower Hamlets Transport Waltham Forest Waste WestminsterEnergy Archives:
- February 2021 (1)
- January 2021 (15)
- December 2020 (15)
- November 2020 (9)
- October 2020 (3)
- August 2020 (5)
- July 2020 (3)
- June 2020 (4)
- April 2020 (10)
- March 2020 (5)
- February 2020 (2)
- January 2020 (3)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (4)
- August 2019 (2)
- July 2019 (1)
- August 2018 (1)
- November 2016 (8)
- October 2016 (8)
- September 2016 (2)
- August 2016 (8)
- July 2016 (14)
- April 2016 (12)
- March 2016 (16)
- February 2016 (8)
- January 2016 (4)
- December 2015 (1)
- November 2015 (1)
- October 2015 (16)
- September 2015 (3)
- June 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (1)
- April 2015 (1)
- March 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (1)
- January 2015 (1)
- December 2014 (18)
- November 2014 (4)
- August 2014 (8)
- July 2014 (7)
- June 2014 (25)
- May 2014 (8)
- April 2014 (4)
- March 2014 (12)
- February 2014 (7)
- January 2014 (13)
- December 2013 (11)
- November 2013 (15)
- October 2013 (15)
- September 2013 (18)
- August 2013 (5)
- July 2013 (20)
- June 2013 (33)
- May 2013 (8)
- April 2013 (16)
- March 2013 (25)
- February 2013 (14)
- January 2013 (20)
- December 2012 (23)
- November 2012 (23)
- October 2012 (25)
- September 2012 (14)
- July 2012 (12)
- June 2012 (43)
- May 2012 (20)
- April 2012 (8)
- March 2012 (40)
- February 2012 (39)
- January 2012 (40)
- December 2011 (22)
- November 2011 (40)
- October 2011 (33)
- September 2011 (48)
- August 2011 (40)
- July 2011 (58)
- June 2011 (41)
- May 2011 (80)
- April 2011 (38)
- March 2011 (33)
- February 2011 (25)
- January 2011 (24)
- December 2010 (3)
- November 2010 (7)
- October 2010 (6)
- September 2010 (7)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (2)
- June 2010 (4)
- May 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (3)
- February 2010 (3)
- December 2009 (5)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (3)
- July 2009 (3)
- June 2009 (1)
- April 2009 (1)
- March 2009 (1)
- February 2009 (1)
- January 2009 (1)
- December 2008 (2)
- October 2008 (1)
- September 2008 (1)
- July 2008 (1)
- March 2008 (2)
- January 2008 (2)
- October 2007 (1)
- September 2007 (3)
- July 2007 (1)
- March 2007 (1)
- February 2007 (3)
- November 2006 (3)
- August 2006 (1)
- February 2006 (1)
- May 2005 (1)
- February 2004 (1)
Tag Archives: DECC
Renewable Energy Roadmap
July 2011: Alongside the publication of the White Paper on Tuesday [see story below], the Government also published a ‘Renewable Energy Roadmap‘ which “outlines a plan of action to accelerate renewable energy deployment – to meet the target of 15% of all energy by 2020 ” – now said to be a four-fold increase over current levels of renewable energy consumption.
Government has highlighted before the importance of local authorities in helping support the growth of renewable energy and has also recently changed legislation to ensure that local authorities can themselves play their part as renewable energy developers (see letter from Chris Huhne to all leaders and chief executives of local authorities) .
The 100 page Roadmap is, however, incredibly ‘lite’ on the contribution that local authorities can play, pointing only to the work funded by DECC to produce nine regional studies to help “identify and maximise opportunities for the deployment of renewable and low carbon energy technologies in their area.” The Roadmap goes on to state that “Local Authorities and communities will be able to use the results of these assessments to inform development of their local and neighbourhood development plans.” [page 24]
and that:
“While the focus of the project has been to present the results at sub-regional and sub-national scales, much of the original data can be interrogated down to Local Authority level. This original data is available to Local Authorities to undertake their own analysis.” [page 25]
DECC goes on to say that one of their priority actions will be to:
” …Reform the local planning system in England to ensure that it supports economic growth, give communities a greater say and stake in development, and help local authorities and communities to identify opportunities for the deployment of renewables using analysis from regional studies.” [page 30]
Seven of the nine assessments for England are now available through the DECC web site – London’s renewable energy assessment study is awaiting publication, anticipated to be sometime later this year.
Posted in Library, News, Renewable Energy
Tagged DECC, Local Authorities, Planning, Renewable Energy
Leave a comment
“…the biggest transformation of the market since privatisation.”
12 July 2011: Amongst the myriad new market instruments proposed in today’s Planning Our Electric Future White Paper, most of which are targeted at larger scale generation plant, the Government does briefly turn to look at the opportunities from smaller decentralised (termed as distributed generation in the paper) generating plant. The White Paper states: “Used in the right ways and as part of an evidence-based approach to energy planning, distributed energy technologies have the potential to complement both each other and the wider centralised energy system. They can also be an important tool in engaging consumers in their energy use. In particular, we recognise that integrated, local-level distributed energy systems could be an important step towards a more coordinated approach that includes, for example, transport and waste.”
However, no specific proposals are put forward by Government to support smaller decentralised energy projects – the White Paper just goes on to say that “our proposals have been developed with consideration of all scales of generation. These include the following… both types of Feed-in Tariff (FiT) and the Capacity Mechanism will encourage distributed generation in different ways .”
The ‘Feed-in Tariff with Contract for Difference (FiT CfD)’ – as it’s more fully called – will offer long term power price contracts to generators, reducing the risks associated with market price volatility, and hence help stimulate investment in the development of new generation plant.
The Capacity Mechanism will effectively pay generators to be on standby to help ensure that there is a sufficient margin of generation capacity on the electricity system, hence providing additional stability and guarding against power blackouts. These capacity payments are being introduced as a result of concerns over the numbers of power stations being closed down over the next decade (around one third of UK generation plant – mostly aging coal and nuclear) and also due to the increased levels of intermittent generation being added to the network, predominantly wind power.
It is not clear as yet how the particular challenges faced by smaller decentralised energy schemes will be taken into account as all of the work done in the White Paper relates to larger centralised generating schemes. Though references are made in the White Paper to community-based schemes coming forward, no guidance has been provided on how Government will support such activities. The Government has left the resolution of these issues to be worked out by a new ‘Government Industry Contact Group on Distributed Energy’ to be convened later this year. The group is to “be chaired by Ministers, and will involve a small number of key industry representatives ” which seems to suggest that local authority representatives, key players in supporting the growth of such systems, will not be included on the group…
Posted in Decentralised Energy, Library, News
Tagged DECC, Decentralised Energy, Library
Leave a comment
Pimlico and Whitehall Decentralised Energy
7 July 2011: DECC’s Carbon Management Plan (see Note 7 of press release linked) published yesterday, provides a brief update on an LDA project which involves the connection between the Whitehall and Pimlico district heating schemes in order to improve the operational efficiency of the two existing combined heat and power (CHP) plants. The Plan states that “The feasibility of linking to the Whitehall District Heating Scheme will be investigated if this Scheme is opened to new participants over the period of the Plan. An estimated cost for joining the scheme has been included in the planned projects below but it is not currently possible to estimate what the likely costs or savings would be.” £50,000 has been allocated by DECC to progress this action.
Posted in Decentralised Energy, News
Tagged CHP, Community Heating, DECC, Decentralised Energy, Westminster
Leave a comment
Whitehall Exceeds Carbon Target
7 July 2011: The Prime Minister announced yesterday that carbon emissions from central Government HQs and offices – the majority vast of which are based in London – have been slashed by nearly 14% in just one year, and told Whitehall it would have to go further by cutting emissions by 25% by 2015. Lots of Departmental performance information released, but of more interest is the end of year report – Carbon Reduction on the Government Office Estate – which makes interesting reading in relation to the projects implemented in offices to help reduce energy/carbon. These include energy saving competitions, implementing a 19°C set point, various energy conservation projects, introducing Automatic Meter Reading, and an also a successful CHP project at the DWP. DECC’s behaviour change experiments are a good read: ‘scrunch‘ – which gives people who are working late incentives to congregate in one area, thereby allowing whole floors to be shut down; and ‘OK Commuter’, which helps people track their journeys to work. (‘no surprises’ that DECC’s full of Radiohead fans!)
Microgeneration Case Studies
July 2011: DECC has published a series of microgeneration case studies on their website, providing some useful project and cost information on a number of renewable technologies (both heat and power types). None of the projects are in London from what I can see – which is a shame – but useful nonetheless.
London Energy Prices
4 July 2011: DECC have just published their latest data sets on UK energy prices(PDF report and tables also available in spreadsheet format), which includes a regional breakdown of gas and electricity prices for domestic and non-domestic consumers. London’s statistics reveal that:
- London ranks second lowest in terms of paying electricity bills by direct debit, hence missing out savings offered by suppliers, as direct debit payment typically attracts suppliers cheapest tariffs (Table 2.4.2)
- The average annual London electricity bill is £435 (which is also by coincedence the average for the UK). Bills are calculated assuming an annual consumption of 3,300 kWh (see Ofgem’s Typical Domestic Energy Consumption Figures factsheet for further information). The question does arise whether such a consumption figure is suitable for London with its higher levels of flatted accommodation…If the consumption figure were lower, it is possible that electricity bills were actually higher for Londoners than reported by DECC
- The average annual London gas bill is £687 (slightly above the UK average of £681). This based on an annual consumption of 18,000 kWh.
NEED – Analysis of Household Sector
30 June 2011: DECC has today published some initial analysis on the domestic sector from its National Energy Efficiency Data (NEED) Framework. The initial report covers:
- How take up of energy efficiency measures has varied between types of property and household.
- Statistical comparisons of gas and electricity consumption in 2008 by property and household types.
- Analysis of the savings made by households that have installed energy efficiency measures(for example cavity wall insulation or condensing boilers).
The analysis report finds that “There are large differences for insulation measures with only 4 per cent of properties in London receiving insulation measures compared to the national average of 13 per cent.“
The initial analysis report and two accompanying spreadsheets are all downloadable from DECC’s Energy Efficiency Statistics webpage. A summary of the findings are provided in an article in the June issue of DECC’s Energy Trends journal.
National Renewable Energy Statistics
30 June 2011: Short article in latest issue of DECC’s Energy Trends quarterly journal, published today, providing the latest national renewable energy statistics for the UK. The analysis finds that “Renewable energy provisionally accounted for 3.3 per cent of energy consumption, as measured using the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive methodology. This is an increase of 0.3 percentage points from the 2009 position of 3.0 per cent.” The UK’s 2020 target is for 15 per cent of UK energy needs to be supplied from renewable energy sources.
Preparations for the roll-out of smart meters
30 June 2011: According to a National Audit Office (NAO) report released today “There are major risks the Department of Energy and Climate Change must address to achieve value for money from its £11.3 billion national programme to install ‘smart’ electricity and gas meters in all homes and smaller non-domestic premises in Great Britain from 2014 to 2019.” Amongst the conclusions made in the report, the NAO highlight that DECC “expects smart meters to help the average dual fuel 7 customer to save £23 a year by 2020, if they change their energy use in line with the Department’s estimates. This overall benefit depends on suppliers minimising costs and passing on all their efficiency savings through their prices.” Further information on the recent smart meter trials mentioned in the NAO report are set out in Ofgem’s Energy Demand Research Project published earlier this week.
The Economics of Climate Change
29 June 2011: An interesting speech by Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State at DECC, delivered today to the Corporate Leaders’ Group, setting out the benefits of ‘green growth’. Provides a useful overview of the current activities by governments around the world to invest in the transition to a lower carbon economy. Read the speech here.
Renewable Heat Incentive Guidance
24 June 2011: Back in March, DECC announced details on the launch of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). Some of the key points of the announcement included:
- The regulations to introduce the RHI are currently going through Parliament and are anticipated to be approved by summer 2011
- The RHI would then be introduced “shortly thereafter” (anticipated 30 September 2011)
- The scheme will be introduced in two phases with non-domestic sectors targeted first – that is larger heat users in the industrial, business and public sectors. Tariffs for the various technologies within this phase (ie non-domestic scale projects) were announced in DECC’s March RHI press release.
- Household sector support through the RHI would be introduced in October 2012, to tie in with the launch of the Green Deal however…
- …In the meantime, up to 25,000 household installations will be supported by a £15m “RHI Premium Payment” to help people cover the purchase price of green heating systems and help encourage take-up of renewable heat technologies
- The likely levels of support (set out in the DECC press release) for the RHI Premium Payments were: Solar Thermal – £300/unit; Air Source Heat Pumps – £850/unit; Biomass boilers – £950/unit and Ground Source Heat Pumps – £1250/unit
- Details of the Premium Payment were originally said to have been issued in May, for a July 2011 start, but as yet no information has appeared (the Ofgem paper released today – more of which below – simply says “Further information on the Renewable Heat Premium Payment will be available later in the year from DECC.”
- Regulations around the October 2012 domestic/household phase of the RHI will be consulted upon next year.
- Further details on the RHI are on DECC’s website.
Ofgem, who will administer the scheme, have today launched a detailed (two volume…) consultation on the eligibility criteria for installations wishing to apply for the RHI, including requirements such as the regular submission of heat data, meter readings and fuel data for certain bioenergy installations.
Posted in News, Renewable Energy
Tagged DECC, Green Deal, Ofgem, Renewable Energy, Renewable Heat Incentive
Leave a comment
Microgeneration Strategy
22 June 2011: DECC have today published an updated Microgeneration Strategy focussing on non-financial barriers to the deployment of microgeneration technologies. Chapter 5 specifically considers community scale generation opportunities with the Government stating it will take forward activities on helping provide guidance on planning (see PlanLoCaL for further information), finance, sharing best practice, and identifying barriers and possible solutions to the uptake of microgeneration. Dissemination of information will be through a series of events and through DECC’s Community Energy Online portal.