Finance and investment

Cryogenic energy storage start-up secures $46m investment

Does squeeze on contractors threaten resilience drive?

Council-owned Victory Energy finally has licences stripped

Portsmouth Council’s energy supplier will finally have its supply licences revoked more than a year since it was scrapped at a cost of at least £2.5 million.

Ofwat confirms inter-company loans will be banned

Weekend press round-up: Leaked report warns climate crisis threatens human survival

In our review of this weekend's newspapers we see mounting pressure on investment banks to put funds into environmentally sound companies; JP Morgan has warned the climate crisis could endanger the human race; and the government is told it must do more than carbon offsetting to reach its climate goals.

Utilities sector ‘at risk from poaching’ under new immigration rules

The government's tough stance on immigration is bound to raise questions across the sector about a possible recruitment gap. But, should the greater concern be around retention of talent, in the face of other industries looking to utilities to address their own shortages? Adam John takes a closer look at how utilities and the contractors community anticipate the new post-Brexit immigration rules could affect the industry.

Can Centrica be saved?

Even by the recent catalogue of corporate woes, Centrica’s announcement earlier this month that it had plunged into a loss of more than £1 billion must have been hard to take for outgoing CEO Iain Conn. As further heavy losses for 2019 continue to put the spotlight on the British Gas owner, Adam John looks at the direction of travel now for the energy leviathan and who might be the person to lead it.

Government must accept ‘economic sense’ of subsidising onshore wind

A leading investor in renewable energy has told Utility Week the government must accept the economic argument that excluding onshore wind from subsidies “makes no sense”. Richard Crawford and Jaz Bains, of The Renewable Infrastructure Group, also warned that the Conservatives' pledge to reach 40GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 was “very challenging” and that a framework for incentivising investment was urgently needed.

S&P predicts tough but stable AMP7 for SVT

Ofwat revokes Tor Water licence

Challenging PR19: Where CMA appeals can be won or lost

With a record number of appellants requesting referrals from Ofwat to the Competition and Markets Authority for their PR19 business plans, Utility Week gathers expert views on the areas most likely to feature in the appeals.

Portsmouth hits back at ‘inference of overcharging’

Anglian stands firm on investment over bill cuts

Price cap and nuclear outages lead to loss at EDF Energy

EDF Energy has reported a £294 million pre-tax operating loss in its financial results for 2019, blaming the price cap and nuclear outages, The company also announced the acquisition of a majority stake in electric vehicle charging company Pod Point.

Ofwat: Companies must prove appeals are about customers not profits