Tag Archives: Mayor

FT: ‘London seeks energy supply licence’

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Admin

14 March 2013: The GLA has recently approved a process to secure a junior – or ‘lite’ – electricity supply licence – the benefits of which are set out in an earlier post here.

The Mayor recently updated progress on this work stating that:

“Technical assessments of the services to be procured from the electricity market and regulatory matters needing to be addressed have been made. The GLA met Ofgem (the electricity regulator) at the beginning of February 2013 to enable a formal application for a licence.”

And the FT has today reported on this work stating: “The GLA is the first public authority to apply for a so-called Licence Lite, an electricity supply permit that would allow it to buy excess electricity from London’s boroughs and sell it back at cost price to other public bodies in the capital, such as the police or NHS hospitals.” The GLA press release is available here.

The report goes that:

“Several London boroughs run generators to power public buildings, such as Islington’s Bunhill Heat and Power project, which uses a gas-fired generator to heat homes and local swimming pools. Westminster operates two gas-fired generators in Pimlico that heat homes, businesses and three schools. Excess energy produced at these sites is returned to the National Grid through a mainstream supplier at a variable wholesale rate of about 5 pence per kWh. The GLA would offer 20 to 30 per cent more for the boroughs’ excess as a way of encouraging growth in the low-carbon energy infrastructure. Ofgem, the energy regulator, brought in Licence Lite in 2009 but no permit has yet been issued. Some blame uncertainty over the legal obligations a new supplier would face, as well as lack of interest from existing industry suppliers. Licence Lite holders are required to contract with a mainstream supplier to provide regulatory and operational support.”

“A dozen London boroughs, which together are capable of producing 76MW, could benefit from the scheme, which is intended for launch in 2014, the GLA said. If the measure is a success it would also be considered for private sector energy producers in London. By raising the returns on the energy produced by small suppliers, the GLA said, the move could help attract more than £8bn of investment in electricity infrastructure in the capital up to 2025.“

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Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Admin

February 2013:  This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

the Mayor’s position on nuclear and its role in securing London’s future energy supplies; the number of ‘low carbon generators’ currently helping power Transport for London’; the Mayor’s application to DECC’s  Fuel Poverty and Green Deal Pioneer Places funds; European Investment Bank (EIB) funding for energy efficiency retrofits in housing; the amount of energy consumed by The Shard; the potential for the Green Deal in London; further funding for the Mayor’s RE:NEW home energy efficiency programme; promoting the Green Deal to Londoners over-65; publication of the latest TfL Environment report; GLA environment publications; hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles; the number of fuel poverty households treated under RE:NEW; revised publication date of the RE:NEW evaluation report; the total number of homes treated under RE:NEW; funding and evaluation of the RE:CONNECT Low Carbon Zones programme; zero carbon developments on the Greenwich Penisula; the Mayor’s Low Carbon Prize; the RE:FIT Schools initiative; the number of jobs created under RE:FIT; progress on the LED traffic lights initiative.


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‘Boris Johnson’s climate flippancy translates into policy failure’

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Admin

February 2013: Green Party London Assembly Member Jenny Jones writes on The Guardian website that “The London mayor has missed his own targets on domestic insulation, carbon emissions and electric cars – and now he questions climate science”. Read the full article here.

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City Hall responds on Boris’s climate change article

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Admin

January 2013: Responding to the controversy over the Mayor’s recent musings on climate change, where he wrote about a potential link between extreme weather to the incidence of sun spots – details on all of which are set out in an earlier post – the Mayor’s environmental advisor, Matthew Pencharz,  appeared on the BBC’s London Politics show on Sunday (27 Jan) to answer questions on City Hall’s carbon reduction policies. The programme can be seen here – only for the next 3 days however (fast forward to 51m30secs to the relevant section).

Whilst not directly addressing the Mayor’s comments on climate change and  sun spots (the ideas for which – and substantive arguments against – are set out on the excellent ‘Skeptical Science’ website here) the interview did highlight: Continue reading…

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“Capital’s public buildings get energy efficient makeover”

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Admin

January 2013: Mayoral announcement made last month stating that “Energy conservation measures are already complete or near completion in 111 public buildings in London. The pipeline shows that 400 buildings could benefit from the Mayor’s award-winning RE:FIT programme, saving the public purse in the region of £7 million each year”. Read the full news release here. Further information on the new framework adopted for the programme at www.refit.org.uk .

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The Mayor states national energy policy “in chaos”

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Admin

November 2012: Further to his points made on fuel poverty and energy efficiency at last week’s Mayoral Question Time session, the Mayor also made some forthright statements on the current state of the UK’s energy policy (see page 44 of session transcript here ).

” I happen to think that the energy  policy of this country is in chaos at the moment and we need to sort it out.

“…prices are going up but supply is increasingly insecure.”

“It is pretty obvious to everybody that the current strategy is incoherent.

“We seem to  be going for more and more wind farms which are not actually doing the job.”

The Mayor stated that such concerns led to the convening of his first ‘electricity summit’ earlier this month and to the formation of  a ‘High-level Working Group with the energy industry to examine infrastructure and investment issues in relation to London’s current and future energy needs. The group’s work will begin in January 2013.
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Has the Mayor ‘shown enough political leadership to tackle fuel poverty in London’?

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Admin

November 2012: This was the question asked of the Mayor at last week’s Question Time session with the London Assembly in City Hall. The transcript of the discussion has just been posted on the GLA’s website – the fuel poverty section runs from pages 43-46. The Mayor responded with the following points:

  • On recent increases in energy prices the Mayor stated that “We have repeatedly had the energy companies in .  What they are getting away with at the moment is the claim that they are obliged to spend so much on renewables and energy efficiency of one kind or another and their claim is that that is pushing up the cost of providing energy. Whether or not that is true is very, very hard for me to evaluate.”
  • The Mayor has brought up London’s specific energy issues directly with DECC –  “I have been in touch with Greg Barker who is responsible for this and my Office has been in touch with the Department repeatedly for a long time.”
  • That “we are committed to expanding our policy of retrofitting.  I do not pledge that we can do that in all homes and in many cases the housing stock in London does not make it easy for us to do this but we are going ahead, as I say, with a programme that I think not only offers the opportunity for home owners to cut their bills but also offers massive scope for employment. I think it is a shame that successive Governments have not taken this up more vigorously.”
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RE:NEW Green Deal delivery

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Admin

October 2012: Just posted on the GLA website is a Mayoral approval form for the current round of RE:NEW 2012/13 (also called RE:NEW II). The approval form is signed and dated by the Mayor back in April (pre-election) but has only been posted on the GLA website on 16 October. It provides for £3m to be allocated to retrofit a further 24,000 homes (on top of the 64,000 homes treated under RE:NEW I) by the end of this calendar year. An additional £300,000 is being spent on stimulating early Green Deal uptake with  a delivery agent procured (using the RE:NEW framework) to deliver RE:NEW Green Deal to residents in selected areas.

The approval form sets out that “The focus of the RE:NEW Green Deal delivery would be to generate early leads for Green Deal assessments once it becomes available, test different methods for generating this take up (including the creation of local champions and referral fees) and other engagement and education tools.”

“It is expected that through this work stream, 3,500 homes would have signed up for a Green Deal visit by March 2013. As part of the wider engagement, there would also be an element of education and promotion of Green Deal across London as a whole. This would enable any Londoner to sign up to receive a Green Deal survey as soon as available.”

Further information on RE:NEW targets is available in the following post.

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GLA to apply for a ‘junior’ electricity supply licence

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Admin

29 October 2012: The GLA are apply to the energy regulator Ofgem for a ‘junior or sometimes known as  ‘lite ‘ electricity supply licence. This allows for smaller electricity generators to sell their electricity at market value. The approval form sets out that “the application to Ofgem  [is] for a licence lite licence so the GLA can buy the electricity produced by London boroughs and other public sector decentralised energy generators in London and sell it at proper market rates”. This project builds on an earlier GLA project (details here).

The background to this issue is actually quite simple but solutions complex! Luckily some helpful commentaries are posted on the web by Carbon Limited and also law firm Nabarros. At the heart of the argument is that smaller generators are often in poor bargaining positions with the electricity retail market when wanting to sell their electricity. The true value of the electricity generated by a decentralised CHP, or PV array, could be realised by selling the electricity direct to consumers (very roughly say, around 12-14 pence per unit) rather than the wholesale market (again roughly, but say 4-6 pence per unit).

However, to do this, an electricity supply licence (for generators exporting more that 2.5 MW) is, in most instances required, and holding such a licence places a number of very complex and costly requirements on the licence holder, effectively creating a barrier to entry for smaller generators in this market. Recognising this situation, Ofgem introduced arrangements for a new ‘lite supply licence’ which – in theory  – would allow the holder to sell their electricity more widely but provided exemptions to these smaller generators from the requirement to be involved in a number of complex electricity market processes, as would normally be required under a ‘full’ supply licence conditions (see the ‘Final Proposals document by Ofgem posted here for more on this).

In practice however, though a project with a number of London boroughs looked at this issue earlier this year, no participants have applied to hold such a licence. Hence, with this action, the GLA is looking to test Ofgem’s process and apply for this new licence and support the development and production of decentralised energy supply in London.

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‘Londoners in fuel poverty could double’

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Admin

5 October 2012: Inside Housing pick up on a previous Energy for London  post on how the number of households in London identified as being ‘fuel poor’ could double as a result in the change in the definition of fuel poverty.

Concerns over the true extent of fuel poverty in the capital have been raised for some time – with research from the Mayor suggesting that – compared to official statistics – one in four London households could in fact be affected. However, despite this, there remains no London-wide strategy for tackling fuel poverty. This issue was highlighted by the London Assembly’s inquiry into the issue earlier this year which recommended that:

“Recommendation 8: The GLA should, by July 2012 and in consultation with the energy companies and local authorities, develop an affordable warmth strategy for London. The plan should include: agreement on the risk mapping criteria; the identification of priority areas for intervention on the basis of risk mapping; a timeline for the programme to work in each of those areas between 2012 and 2016; and agreed measures to tackle some of the barriers to investment in London (such as parking restrictions and planning”

DECC recently stated that, in the new year, they will publish and consult on “an updated  fuel poverty [for England] strategy to ensure resources are being used in the best possible way.” With government terminating Warm Front early on in 2013, one of its main fuel poverty programmes,  and the Green Deal and ECO having very specific fuel poverty targeted activities (ie. predominantly solid wall – or a more limited spend for all insulation measures, but only in low income areas) – it appears the national target to ‘eradicate fuel poverty’ by 2016 , as set out in the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, will not be achieved despite the proposed change in definition (see recent House of Commons research note for further information on this). This all makes the rationale for a coordinated programmes of activities to tackle fuel poverty, operating London-wide, ever more urgent.

Many London boroughs have programmes in place to help insulate dwellings in their area (some of which are listed here).  The Mayor’s  main insulation programme, RE:NEW, reported that it does not measure the number of fuel poor households treated (here and here and here) .

The Mayor does support a ‘Know Your Rights’ campaign which aims to encourage people to find out what support is available by calling Home Heat Helpline, an industry-led initiative which provides advice to households concerned over fuel bills or how to improve the energy efficiency of their home.

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Mayor’s Briefing Note on the Green Deal

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Admin

July 2012: During last week’s Parliamentary debate on the four key Green Deal statutory instruments (SIs), Labour Shadow Energy Minister Luciana Berger MP mentioned the following:

“…I was surprised on Friday to receive an e-mail which began:

“Dear Luciana,  In advance of Monday’s Committee scrutiny of the Green Deal statutory instruments, I thought it may be helpful to send a very short briefing note from the Mayor of London.”
Once I had checked that it was not a joke—if anyone wants to see it, I have it here—I was delighted to find a neat little document setting out exactly what is lacking in the Minister’s current proposals and how they could be made much better.  I must ask the Minster, is it now Conservative policy to brief the Opposition on the weaknesses of their policies?” [Column 12/13 of debate]

The briefing provided by the Mayor’s office to Ms Berger can be downloaded here. It highlights the Mayor’s concerns that:

  • “The capital has by far the highest number of needy properties of any region, but there is a real danger that these properties could be sidelined by Green Deal providers as a result of the current framework being proposed by Government.
  • …there is a pressing need for an area allocation for the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). Without such a target there is a real danger that London will miss out on the attention it needs, as energy companies and Green Deal providers focus on treating areas that are cheaper and easier to retrofit.
  • …without an area allocation to ensure that flats and mid-terraces – key markets in London for the Green Deal – are able to access ECO subsidies, there is a serious threat that these homes will miss out on the benefits of the scheme.
  • Londoners could end up paying an additional £390m on their energy bills to fundthe Green Deal nationally, while the capital receives investment of only £156m in return –an unacceptable possibility given London’s specific needs.
  • Only 1/3 of the suppliers for London’s unique RE:NEW scheme, which provides energy efficiency measures to needy London homes, have expressed interest in becoming Green Deal providers so far, and it is extremely important for the success of thescheme that more providers are encouraged to get involved in the capital.”

The issue of establishing a regional target for London – or area allocation as mentioned in the Mayor’s briefing note – has previously been considered – and rejected – by Government in the Green Deal consultation document from November 2011.  A section titled ‘Regional Distribution’ in the consultation [p132/133] stated:

“Concerns have also been raised that rural areas and inner cities have not been seen an equal, proportional level of delivery of energy efficiency measures under CERT – and that this perceived pattern might be borne out in the ECO without additional constraints being put in place.

“…There is some variation between regions, for example, 9.9% of homes in North East England but only 2.7% of homes in London received measures under CERT during the period of the analysis. However, it is very difficult to isolate the cause of any under delivery in specific areas as a number of factors are at play, including: previous activity; LA and other potential partner activity or resource; prevalence of different property types (flats, solid wall, etc); expense of activity (could economies of scale be generated); distance from installers; etc.

“…In view of the evidence from CERT, and consideration of the shift of focus that the ECO would entail, DECC does not see a case for introducing further constraints to delivery in geographical terms. There might be a case for reconsidering this position at a review point, when there would be evidence on the patterns of geographical distribution of measures from the new obligations. DECC would welcome further evidence on this issue during consultation.”

Consequently, the Government’s recent response to the consultation makes no comment on specific regional provisions at all.

The Mayor’s briefing note suggested that “Provision for area allocations could be delivered through secondary legislation or within the ECO brokerage document, which will set out how Green Deal providers can access ECO funding.” The Green Deal SIs were however ‘Affirmative instruments’ which means in Parliamentary language that Parliament could accept or reject the SIs but could not amend them. Government decisions on the ECO brokerage have however not been finalised as yet, and a further consultation on a model for this is to be held by DECC over the summer.

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Top 20 Cities with Billions at Risk from Climate Change

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Admin

July 2012:  With the weather we’re currently experiencing, it’s interesting to read this Bloomberg article setting out that “More than 130 port cities around the world are at increasing risk from severe storm-surge flooding, damage from high storm winds, rising and warming global seas and local land subsidence. Poorly planned development often puts more people in vulnerable areas, too, increasing risk. About $3 trillion of assets are at risk today, a tally on track to reach $35 trillion by 2070, according to an ongoing study by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.” Click through the slides to see the 20 port cities most vulnerable to climate extremes – which doesn’t fortunately include London.

London is however likely to face increased challenges associated with flooding – as set out in chapter 3 of the Mayor’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy which highlights that:

  • Nearly 15 per cent of London lies on the former flood plains of London’s rivers”
  • A significant proportion of London lies within the Thames tidal floodplain and without the protection afforded by the tidal flood defences, much of that area would flood twice a day, everyday on each high tide
  • The last tidal flood in London was in 1928, when 14 people drowned in Pimlico. In 1953, London narrowly escaped damage whena tidal surge inundated large parts of Kent and Essex, killing over 300 people. This resulted in the construction of the current Thames tidal defences, an integrated system comprising the Thames Barrier, 185 miles of floodwalls, 35 major gates and over 400 minor gates.
  • The Thames Barrier has been operational since 1982 and has been closed over 100 times to protect London from flooding

The Museum of London’s 2011 ‘Postcards from the Future’ exhibition imagined what London might look like as a result of a number of future stress factors, including climate change. The 14 striking images, which include wind turbines in Piccadilly Circus, a nuclear power station in Kew Gardens and palm oil cultivation in Hyde Park, can be viewed here.

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