Finance and investment

Suppliers failing to meet Renewables Obligation should be ‘starved of cash’

National Grid takes £117m pandemic hit

ENW commits £500,000 to fund Citizens Advice ‘energy champions’

Electricity North West (ENW) has revealed plans to pay for seven new members of staff at Citizens Advice, including five ‘energy champions’, with a £500,000 fund. The two-year partnership will start immediately in response to the pandemic and marks the launch of the North West network operator’s ‘Be Winter Ready’ campaign.

Foreign takeovers of energy firms to face tougher scrutiny

Energy acquisitions by foreign companies will be screened for potential national security implications, under new legislation.

Public backs infrastructure splurge but regulation ‘out of step’

People understand the benefits of investment in infrastructure in terms of creating jobs and enabling decarbonisation but government and regulators must have a common message. This is the view of Lawrence Slade, chief executive of the Global Infrastructure Investors Association, who spoke to Utility Week on the back of its poll on public attitudes towards infrastructure and investment.

TRIG buys stake in East Anglia One offshore windfarm

Build Back Better: Peter Emery – a man with a plan

Funding the UK’s offshore wind ambitions

Calisen to acquire 1.3m smart meters

Smart metering company Calisen been awarded preferred bidder status on a portfolio of 1.3 million units. This takes its total pipeline for 2025 to 13.2 million smart meters.

Government urged to bring forward heat network protections

Fuel Poverty Action is urging the government to bring forward planned consumer protections for the customers of heat networks this winter. In a letter to energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng the charity urges the government to bring forward arrangements for compensation when district heating breaks down and to upgrade networks which repeatedly fail, on an emergency basis.

Greenwashing investigation ‘should include energy retailers’

An investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into misleading claims about eco-friendly products should be broadened to include energy retailers, the chief executive of Good Energy has said. The CMA said its investigation is a response to the growing number of products and services marketed as environmentally friendly, adding that £41 billion was spent on ethical goods and services – almost four times as much as people spent two decades ago.

Fast and flawed: Pressure mounts on CMA’s PR19 stance

WHD and social tariffs ‘could be used as vulnerability flags’

Schemes such as the warm home discount in energy or social tariffs in water could be used to flag potentially vulnerable customers to different sectors, a new report has recommended. National Energy Action’s ‘Surviving the wilderness’ report focuses on three sectors – energy, water and council tax. It concludes that common approaches to debt management can help customers to know what to expect at all stages of the process, and how to navigate the support options which may be available to them.

Octopus continues growth with acquisition of Upside Energy

New renewables fund looks to raise £200m with initial public offering