Weekend press round-up: Deadline to fix ‘dumb’ energy meters put back until end of 2021

In our latest review of sector coverage across the national newspapers, the deadline to upgrade millions of first-generation smart meters has been “quietly” extended by a year. Elsewhere EDF is set for a showdown with the Treasury over state funding for nuclear power stations. And The Times issues a plea for information about business secretary Alok Sharma, missing since March.

Deadline to fix ‘dumb’ energy meters put back until end of 2021

The deadline to fix millions of first-generation smart meters at risk of going “dumb” was quietly extended by a year, The Telegraph can disclose.

More than 20 million smart meters have been installed in homes as part of the Government’s plan to modernise the energy grid and reduce power usage.

However, an estimated 14 million are first-generation devices which often lose their smart functions when a customer switches supplier, meaning they do not display usage in real time or send readings automatically.

The latest delay means that customers with meters which were supposed to be fixed or replaced by the end of the year could have to wait until the end of 2021 for an upgrade.

A programme to connect the devices to a national network began in August last year and was supposed to conclude by this December. But this newspaper has learnt that in March the Government shifted this crucial deadline.

A spokesman said that the four million meters currently operating in “dumb” mode are being prioritised to be fixed by the end of the year. Currently just over one million have been connected to the network but this still leaves millions more which are at risk if a customer changes energy supplier.

Peter Earl, an energy expert at switching website comparethemarket.com, said: “Any further delays to the enrolment of those early generation meters to allow inter-operability between suppliers is obviously a bit of a debacle.

“You have a whole tranche of customers that were expecting their smart functionality to return in a position where they will have to go through another winter not being able to switch with confidence.”

He also questioned whether the Government’s target of enrolling the four million dumb meters by January was achievable given the progress so far.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The replacement of traditional gas and electricity meters with smart meters is a vital infrastructure upgrade that will make our energy system cheaper, cleaner and more efficient, helping to reduce our contribution to climate change.”

The department said that the end of 2021 date was just a backstop and not a delivery target or ambition.

Daily Telegraph

EDF demands clarity on British nuclear power plans

French energy giant EDF is set for a showdown with the Treasury over state funding for nuclear power stations as Britain’s atomic future faces a make-or-break moment.

Jean-Bernard Lévy, chairman and chief executive of Électricité de France, will speak to chancellor Rishi Sunak via video link on Wednesday to demand clarity over Britain’s plans for funding nuclear power.

The industry was left reeling this month when Japan’s Hitachi quit its Horizon project to build a £20bn plant on Anglesey.

That shock retreat, after years of prevarication by Westminster over state support for nuclear power and turmoil in the Japanese nuclear industry, left only EDF and China General Nuclear with plans for atomic power stations in the UK.

EDF and China are building the delayed and over-budget £22.5bn Hinkley Point C power station in Somerset, but Paris has balked at the prospect of French taxpayers funding the next nuclear project in Britain.

Instead, EDF, which is 84% owned by the French state, wants British taxpayers to underwrite a new plant at Sizewell in Suffolk. A proposed new financial structure, the regulated asset base, would levy a tax on UK household energy bills to help pay for the project.

Other options include the British government taking a stake — although that has worried the Treasury, which is anxious about adding to its debt mountain. EDF declined to comment.

Sunday Times

Scottish Government must stop ‘outsourcing’ windfarm jobs overseas, demands Labour

Scotland’s economy secretary has been challenged by Labour to stop “outsourcing” green industry jobs as yet more windfarm work goes overseas.

Last week it was announced BiFab – which operates two fabrication yards in Fife and one near Stornoway – had failed to win any of the work for the massive Seagreen development being built off the coast of Angus.

All of the platforms for its 114 turbines are being manufactured in China and the United Arab Emirates.

In a letter to economy secretary Fiona Hyslop, Labour MSP Rhoda Grant expressed concern over the decision to grant the Seagreen contract to a Chinese company at the expense of BiFab yards.

In the letter, Rhoda she said: “Our natural assets belong to us all and it is simply wrong that companies gaining these wind farm licences do not use our local companies to fulfil the construction of these wind farms.”

The GMB union has launched a national campaign to protect the future of the Arnish yard on Lewis which it says is facing closure due to the granting of the Seagreen contract overseas.

Grant commented: “With Scotland set to be engulfed by a tsunami of unemployment and the need for a just transition to a green economy more urgent than ever, it is deeply galling that these much-needed jobs have gone to the Far East and to the UAE.

“BiFab workers in Fife and on the Isle of Lewis deserve a Scottish Government that stands up for them, not for foreign businesses.

“With the letting of Scotwind Licenses there is an opportunity to end this outsourcing, which damages our economy, local communities and the environment. Neither should these new licences be let to companies who have in the past refused to engage with the skilled workforce in Scotland.

“Scottish Labour is committed to delivering a Green New Deal for Scotland that will deliver high-pay, green jobs and the vital energy, engineering, transport and housing infrastructure that Scotland needs.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “It is disappointing that SSE has not been able to award this Seagreen contract to BiFab, particularly as BiFab’s bid for this contact was competitive with all other UK and European bids.

“This is a clear demonstration of the need for UK Government led reform of the Contract for Difference funding scheme. Whilst this scheme has reduced the cost of offshore wind projects, this is now jeopardising local supply chain companies in Scotland and across the UK securing important contracts.

“Overall, the Seagreen project will still bring economic benefits to Scotland. However, this would have been a good opportunity for SSE to demonstrate its support for the Scottish supply chain and create new jobs across Scotland.

“The Scottish Government is committed to supporting growth within the Scottish supply chain and to bringing new projects to Scotland.”

Daily Record

New petrol and diesel cars could be banned within a decade

Free parking and a VAT cut on electric cars are being considered by ministers as Boris Johnson prepares to ban the sale of new combustion engine models within a decade.

A report commissioned by the Department for Transport said that a series of “upfront incentives” were needed to drive up the sale of new electric vehicles.

The study said additional financial support to buy a battery-powered car was “one of the most effective and popular levers” the government could adopt.

It suggested that cutting the VAT rate for electric cars and, in turn, penalising those who buy petrol or diesel models was popular with potential buyers.

It said that other incentives, including free use of public car parking spaces, could have a “positive impact” at least in the short to medium term. Some councils already offer either free or cheaper parking for electric vehicles.

The 239-page report called for a compulsory price-labelling standard that emphasises the real ownership cost of an electric car rather than simply the upfront purchase price, as well as incentives for petrol stations and other businesses to install charging points.

Last night, the DfT told The Times it was “actively considering” the proposals.

Ministers are preparing to announce that the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be brought forward from 2040 to 2030. Mr Johnson is expected to confirm the new target as early as next week as part of a strategy to achieve net zero carbon emissions in the UK by the middle of the century.

The Times

What’s in Boris Johnson’s climate in tray?

A huge breakthrough in climate policy was signalled this week when China announced it will reduce its emissions to net zero by 2060.

It’s a potentially game-changing leap, following in the footsteps of the UK’s existing 2050 net zero target.

But promises are easy, actions are more challenging – and the UK has been steadily slipping from its climate targets.

It’s consistently promised tougher policies for the future, but for a few years, Britain’s long-term climate strategy has lain buried in fog.

We know the net zero carbon destination point, but we can’t yet see how the government intends to get there.

At last, in a contribution to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday, the prime minister did briefly illuminate several paths towards carbon Nirvana.

But they’re only tantalising pointers to the direction of travel, when a full, clear properly funded roadmap is urgently needed.

Read more here

BBC News

Alok Sharma — missing since March 

On Tuesday evening, a clutch of chief executives dialled into a call with Alok Sharma, the business secretary.

The mood was tense. Boris Johnson had just warned the nation of tough measures that would put the economy into partial hibernation once again. With the Covid-19 infection rate jumping sharply and fears of a no-deal Brexit increasing, bosses wanted something — anything — that would offer hope. They were disappointed.

“What people were looking for was, ‘Is there a plan?’,” said a chief executive who was on the call, which also featured Sir Eddie Lister, the prime minister’s chief strategic adviser. “We’ve got Covid, Brexit and the furlough scheme ending. He [Sharma] didn’t even signal that there was something going to happen — albeit a few days later the chancellor has made a statement.

“For everyone on the call, we were just going, ‘What the f*** is going on?’ The way in which he engages with industry; it’s such a dead bat that you question the value of the conversation.”

Sharma’s wooden approach has become one of the defining features of the government’s failure to work with business during the pandemic. Amid one of the worst economic crises to hit the UK, and with a tsunami of redundancies and business failures about to crash down, Sharma has gone awol. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), one of the most important bases for rebuilding the economy, appears to have been ground into submission by No 10.

Sharma was wheeled out for BBC’s Question Time on Thursday, a performance that was long on platitudes but short on substance.

A procession of companies and trade bodies has made the pilgrimage to BEIS’s Victoria Street HQ, or dialled into Zoom and conference calls with Sharma and his officials, to plead for cash, support and strategic vision. Car bosses have begged for a scrappage scheme, a battery factory or an electric car plan. Aerospace companies have asked for a £1bn venture capital fund to prop up suppliers, as well as a doubling of research and development cash. Energy bosses have demanded the publication of a long-delayed white paper, and asked whether the state will support new nuclear plants. Most have left empty-handed.

Where support has come — such as in VAT cuts and business rates holidays for hospitality and retail — it has been led by the Treasury, and is short-term in nature.

Frustration is boiling over. “I don’t get a sense of what he [Sharma] is pushing for and I haven’t seen anything with the footprint of the business secretary,” said a director at a lobby group. “Maybe he doesn’t have the power.”

A chief executive said: “They always say, ‘We’re listening.’ That’s good — but I haven’t seen a huge move from listening to delivery.”

“We want BEIS to fight for us,” said a director at an international business. “That’s its role, but we don’t get that impression. Sharma is very concerned about his political masters and what they might say.”

Some suspect the neutering of BEIS via the installation of an automaton in Victoria Street is a deliberate ploy by No 10 — together with the sidelining of lobby groups such as the CBI. From Lord (Michael) Heseltine and Lord (Peter) Mandelson onwards, the department has long been populated by pro-European secretaries of state.

Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, is said to view BEIS as a “remoaner” department. Sharma may simply be the embodiment of Boris Johnson’s infamous “f*** business” retort in June 2018 to companies’ concerns over a hard Brexit.

Sunday Times

Electric-only service station network gives electric car take-up a boost

Petrol stations are useful things, aren’t they? You can fill your car with fuel, obviously, but how else can you secretly indulge in a sneaky chocolate bar, finally pick up that bottle of screenwash you need to clear all those bugs – and grab a bunch of flowers for that (temporarily) forgotten birthday or anniversary?

That will all change with electric cars, though. No petrol, no petrol station.

After all, according to charger supplier BP Chargemaster, 80 per cent of us will charge our EVs at home. Why go somewhere else to pay more for the same electricity?

Because despite home charging being the best option for the vast majority of usage, sometimes we have to leave that comfort zone and travel beyond the range of our EV (although range will increase in EV models over the next few years, easing most ‘range anxiety’). It might be for work, to visit friends and family (when that’s again allowed) or get away from it all on a staycation.

There are plenty of public chargers around the country already – around 34,000 at the current count – but the infrastructure will need to scale up, while also becoming more efficient and sustainable, over the next few years to accommodate a greater number of electric vehicles on our roads.

Enter Gridserve, a start-up that has plans to build 100 ‘Electric Forecourts’ around the country over the next five years.

The first of these is at a site at Braintree, Essex, not far from Stansted Airport. Not perhaps the most obvious location for such a pilot scheme – London has the highest number of EV registrations – but it makes a lot of sense to Gridserve CEO, Toddington Harper, when describing the concept behind the project.

He said: “This is designed as a public charging solution, to be able to charge any type of electric vehicle, as fast as that vehicle would allow, in a setting that’s suited for people. They can turn up to charge with all the convenience you would get from a modern petrol forecourt.

“What’s needed now is dedicated infrastructure like this, designed to serve particular communities. This is more like an alternative to a petrol station rather than a service station.

“There’s over 800,000 vehicles and Essex, but not many of them are electric yet, so what we’re trying to do is to convert as many of those people into electric vehicles, and net zero electric charging, as quickly as we possibly can. That’s why, for us, this was a really good location. And there’ll be many more coming.”

Sunday Telegraph

Science and technology to drive new UK industrial strategy

Boris Johnson’s government is drawing up a new industrial strategy that focuses on science and technology, the prime minister’s push to help the UK’s underperforming regions, and green energy.

Business secretary Alok Sharma is ripping up former prime minister Theresa May’s white paper on industry strategy and producing a new document this autumn, partly because of the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

The new strategy will reflect the priorities of Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, by having a heavy focus on science and technology.

Mr Cummings is keen to create a government funded body to drive the development of cutting edge technologies, modelled on the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was set up in the 1950s and supported innovations including the infant internet.

The new document on industrial strategy will include a “road map” about which sectors and regions should be the focus of future government investment, according to people briefed on the plan.

Mr Johnson won the 2019 general election on a pledge to “level up” the UK’s underperforming regions.

Britain ranks as one of the more regionally unequal economies in the developed world, according to figures from the OECD, the Paris-based international organisation. London is far ahead of other regions in terms of gross domestic product per worker and productivity.

The new industrial strategy will emphasise the importance of cities beyond London, such as Manchester and Birmingham, as well as the science and technology corridor between Oxford and Cambridge.

But ministers must also decide which industries to prioritise, given that some of the UK’s most cutting edge sectors, such as aerospace, have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Downing Street is keen to push green energy initiatives, including technology to capture and store carbon dioxide, hydrogen fuel cells and more offshore wind farms.

A spokesperson for the business department said industrial strategy was being updated to remain “relevant” and to reflect the government’s priorities.

“It is our ambition to have an industrial strategy which puts the UK at the forefront of global technological opportunities, boosts productivity across every part of the country and supports our green recovery from coronavirus,” added the spokesperson.

The Financial Times

Southern Water boss nets £538,100 bonus as cases of pollution soar

Southern Water has paid its chief executive Ian McAulay a £538,100 bonus despite reporting an ‘unacceptable’ rise in pollution across its network.

The award took his total annual pay and pension to £1.1million, more than double his basic salary of £435,000. The company said in its annual report that it had 434 pollution incidents in the year to March 31, 2020 – more than the previous three years combined.

Last year, Southern Water, which is part-owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, was ordered to pay record penalties of £126million after it emerged that it had been pumping contaminated water into rivers and the sea for years.

The water regulator Ofwat said that Southern Water had attempted to ‘deceive customers’ over the incidents, which had taken place over seven years to 2017. Ofwat said Southern Water had falsified records to cover this up, claiming the water had been clean.

Southern Water blamed the failures on its previous management which it said had been guilty of ‘dishonesty’. McAulay was hired to replace the previous chief executive, Matthew Wright, who left the firm in 2017. McAulay was paid £1.2million the previous year, which included a £570,300 bonus and a £76,200 relocation award.

In its most recent report, Southern Water reported seven serious ‘category one and two’ events in the year to March 31, 2020, the same as the previous year and double that of the year ending March 31, 2017.

But it also said the number of ‘less serious’ ‘category three’ events had risen sharply to 427. It described its own performance as ‘not acceptable’ and said that it had invested £54million in the year in an attempt to make improvements.

Southern Water provides water to 2.6million customers and wastewater services to more than 4.7million customers across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

In a statement last night Southern Water insisted McAulay is the ‘lowest paid of the water and wastewater companies’. It added that he has been giving 20 per cent of his salary to charity since the Covid-19 crisis began.

The firm blamed its own increased reporting of incidents and ‘heavy rainfall – particularly after dry periods’ for the steep increase. It said: ‘There is a higher incidence of blockages where flows have been lower, as fats, oils and grease, and wet wipes are not flushed to our wastewater treatment works.’

It added: ‘Our analysis found one of the biggest causes of pollutions from our assets is the resilience of the power supplies at our sites, which lead to power outages, and occasionally mean we have to restart our works.

‘We are working with partners across the South East, including energy network providers, to understand if there is a network issue and how this can be resolved.

Southern Water said it had put a dedicated team in place with a ‘pioneering’ plan agreed with the Environment Agency ‘to address our unacceptable pollutions’. The action demonstrates its commitment to reducing pollution incidents and helping to improve the environment, it said.

Nick Mills, head of pollution and flooding resilience at Southern Water, said: ‘We’re very much a company in transformation and have undergone significant cultural changes. This has affected our reported performance in 2019 and the size of the challenge ahead of us. We are confident this plan and future iterations of it will allow us to reduce the number of pollutions incidents.’

Mail on Sunday

Utility Week’s weekend press round-up is a curation of articles in the national newspapers relating to the energy and water sector. The views expressed are not those of Utility Week or Faversham House.