Weekend press round-up: Ofgem urged to prepare for gas sanctions

In the latest round-up of the weekend papers, efforts continue to reduce the UK’s exposure to Russian gas, with Ofgem being urged to prepare for sanctions on Gazprom, the government considering extending the life of coal plants and the prime minister planning to accelerate the rollout of wind turbines.

Ofgem urged to prepare for Gazprom sanctions

The energy regulator has been urged to take action to secure power supplies if Gazprom, the Russian state-owned operator, is hit by western sanctions.

Legislation, codes and regulations do not allow for sanctions against a licenced operator such as Gazprom, Ofgem has been warned.

There are fears that power generators seeking to comply with restrictions could choose to shut down to avoid breaching sanctions if documentation is not updated.

Legal experts have said the regulator should convene a high-level working group to solve the problem and pave the way for new trade restrictions without causing supply issues.

National Grid, energy companies including British Gas owner Centrica and major buyers in the heavy industry sector are likely to be involved in such a group.

Gazprom first entered the UK energy market in 2006 by buying Cheshire-based Pennine Natural Gas and now has a network of meters across the country. The company supplies heavy industry and buys power from a range of generators.

It is illegal to provide money or any economic resource including power to a sanctioned entity. Any generator providing power across a meter registered to a restricted entity would be breaching sanctions.

An energy market source said: “This has raised concerns across elements of the industry.

“There are 2,500 pages of code that underpin the UK’s gas and electricity markets. None of it was written with sanctions in mind. All of that has follow-on consequences for what would happen if sanctions were imposed on well-known Russian gas entities.

“Some of the industry processes that work to simply stop the involvement of a licensed supplier could have a number of knock-on consequences which would be unfortunate for the country in the short term. We need to take this issue off the table so if the government felt like introducing sanctions it could do so in a less disruptive manner.”

The Telegraph

Plan to keep coal power plants open

The government is exploring whether old coal-fired power stations that are due to close this year could be kept open to ease the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Officials have approached EDF to find out if its West Burton A plant in Nottinghamshire could continue generating beyond its planned September closure date, The Times can reveal.

The early-stage talks are aimed at preventing Britain becoming even more reliant on burning gas for electricity, as prices hit record highs and the government seeks to end gas imports from Russia.

However, any request to keep coal-fired stations running would be controversial because they are far more polluting than gas. The UK committed to stop burning coal for power by October 2024 as part of its climate strategy.

Gas-fired plants are the country’s biggest source of electricity, generating about 37 per cent of supplies last year, compared with 2 per cent from coal.

There are only three power plants still burning coal in Great Britain. West Burton A and the coal-fired units at Drax in Yorkshire are due to shut in September. Uniper is due to shut part of its Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant in Nottinghamshire this year, with the rest operating until 2024.

A Whitehall source said: “We are exploring a wide range of options for further bolstering our energy security, including the potential to extend the operation of certain coal-fired power stations which are due to close in September ahead of the end of coal power in 2024. No decisions have been taken yet.”

The Times

Tories plan big expansion of wind farms ‘to protect national security’

A massive expansion of wind farms across the UK is now needed for national security reasons, the business secretary has declared, as, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government considers sweeping changes to planning laws to improve Britain’s energy independence.

Boris Johnson is planning to unveil a radical new “energy strategy” within a fortnight to ensure the UK can meet its domestic needs from a mix of renewables and nuclear. The war in Ukraine has brought further huge rises in global fossil fuel prices and exposed countries’ dependence on overseas supplies.

Remarkably, the need for more on- and offshore windfarms – traditionally a highly controversial subject in the Conservative party – is now being talked about within government as a matter of security, rather than a way of fighting climate change.

Renewables such as wind and solar power are expected to be part of the new government strategy to free Britain from dependence on imported oil and gas and spare households and businesses from the effects of wild fluctuations on global energy markets.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the business, energy and industrial strategy secretary, said last week on Twitter: “This is no longer about tackling climate change or reaching net-zero targets. Ensuring the UK’s clean energy independence is a matter of national security. Putin can set the price of gas, but he can’t directly control the price of renewables and nuclear we generate in the UK.”

Official figures show that meeting net-zero targets would lead to a drop in gas use of 65% by 2035 in the UK, and almost 100% by 2050.

Wind turbines on Eaglesham Moor, southwest of Glasgow. Their construction has been highly controversial in the Conservative party. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

While some Tory MPs also want the moratorium on fracking for shale gas to be lifted to help reduce dependence on imports, cabinet sources said there was no realistic prospect of doing so in the short term, until the process had been proved to be demonstrably safe. Instead a majority of cabinet ministers back a big push for more renewables and an expansion of nuclear.

Johnson said last week that all oil imports from Russia would be phased out by the end of this year. In the UK, 4% of gas and 8% of oil currently comes from Russia. The EU sources about 40% of its gas from Russia and 27% of its oil.

Sources said changes to planning rules that would make it easier to build windfarms are likely to be announced as part of the new energy strategy. Construction has tailed off since David Cameron tightened regulations when he was prime minister: at the moment local residents can easily block such plans. It is also understood that the government may ease the way for more offshore wind farms, in the teeth of opposition from the fishing industry.

The Guardian

Blue flag beaches suffering sewage spills 100 times during bathing season

Raw sewage spills into the sea more than 100 times during the bathing season at some blue flag beaches, according to water industry data that challenges official claims of excellent water quality.

Campaigners are calling on councils to lower the flag when there is a spill to avoid giving swimmers and water sports enthusiasts false assurance.

Almost half of England’s 76 blue flag beaches were affected by sewage spills last year during the official bathing season, from May 15 to September 30, according to analysis by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) of discharge notifications issued by water companies.

There were 123 notifications at Sandown on the Isle of Wight, 108 at Tankerton, in Kent, 92 at Sheerness, also in Kent, and 28 at Scarborough North Bay, North Yorkshire.

Councils left the blue flag flying after notifications, prompting accusations that they prioritise tourism over bathers’ health.

Councils wanting a beach to have blue flag status pay £730 a year to the charity Keep Britain Tidy, which checks it meets minimum standards, including on water quality, cleanliness and information displayed.

On water quality, the sea must be rated “excellent” based on tests carried out by the Environment Agency once a week or more often at one location on the beach during the bathing season.

SAS said the testing gave results only for part of the beach at a specific time and therefore might fail to detect significant sewage pollution. It said there was also a loophole in bathing water regulations under which up to 15 per cent of samples can be discounted when pollution is “exceptional” or “untypical”.

SAS compared Environment Agency ratings for each bathing water location with the number of sewage notifications and found those rated “excellent” had on average twice as many discharge notifications as those rated “sufficient” or “poor”.

Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of SAS, said visitors to beaches could be misled by the blue flags.

“Blue flag status in the public’s mind is an absolute clean bill of health and they would never expect to encounter sewage pollution at one of those beaches,” he said.

He said blue flags should not be flown when there had been a spill because that “could be misleading and might subject people to health risks”.

The Environment Agency issues “pollution risk forecasts” for beaches based on its weekly tests and computer modelling of rainfall, tide, wind and other factors. Councils put up signs warning against bathing in response to these forecasts but SAS said that they were not based on sewage discharge information, meaning they might miss serious pollution incidents.

Testing by volunteers for Hayling Sewage Watch in Hampshire found potentially dangerous levels of faecal pathogens in the water on several days last August at Beachlands, a blue flag beach on Hayling Island.

The highest reading was taken the day before an Environment Agency test that detected no problem.

Southern Water issues online notifications via its Beachbuoy service about sewage spills affecting Beachlands and other beaches in Hampshire, Sussex and Kent.

However, Mike Owens, founder of Havant Sewage Watch, said most beach visitors would be unaware of the notifications. He said councils should warn swimmers by displaying information on electronic signs and replacing the blue flag with a brown one.

But he said councils used blue flags to attract visitors and were more concerned with protecting tourism income.

Havant borough council, the local authority, said: “There is no evidence, from the data taken by the Environment Agency, that the releases [of storm or wastewater] affect the water quality in the bathing area. In the event of a confirmed pollution incident of the beach the flag would be lowered.”

It said there were signs directing beach visitors to the Beachbuoy service.

Scarborough borough council said there was no legal requirement to notify the public of legal discharges into the sea but that they did put up signs advising against bathing when advised to do so by the Environment Agency.

Canterbury city council said it displayed signs advising against bathing at Tankerton when it received a pollution risk warning but left the blue flag flying.

Sandown town council said its lifeguards flew a red flag when there was a pollution incident but kept the blue flag flying as it was not an indication that it was safe to enter the water.

Swale borough council said it used signs and a red flag to warn people “if swimming isn’t advised due to water quality”.

The Times

Ban Ki-moon warns UK against fracking as world stands at ‘dangerous’ point

The former UN secretary general has warned the UK against fracking, as the world stands at a “dangerous” point in the climate crisis, brought on by the invasion of Ukraine.

Ban Ki-moon, now deputy chair of the Elders group of former world statespeople and public figures, said countries faced stark choices as a result of the Ukraine war and energy crisis, and must embrace renewable energy instead of returning to fossil fuels.

“I think it’s dangerous – just look at the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report,” he said, referring to the latest warning from scientists last month. “There is no time for us to lose. Even under normal conditions [before the Ukraine war] we were far behind the pace.”

He called on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to end the war. “President Putin, if he is a man of global vision, or humanity, or compassion, he must stop. Whatever grievances he may have and concerns he may have, he can negotiate later rather than killing people.”

He warned that the Ukraine war, as well as being “outrageous in the 21st century”, would have an impact on the climate crisis. Governments should not try to secure greater supplies of fossil fuels, he urged, as they sought alternatives to imports of Russian oil and gas, on which the EU, the US and the UK have now placed restrictions.

“This [war] will impact the international community’s effort to address climate issues, and the pandemic issues,” he said in an interview. “I am concerned that some European countries are even now considering how to address oil and energy shortages [by seeking] exports of some other [sources of] gas or oil. In the UK, there is some idea of releasing the ban on fracking. These are very short term, unproductive ideas.”

Fracking in the UK would be “not a good idea”, he added. “It’s very short term gain that will lose the long term interest of humanity. I hope the politicians have some longer vision for the benefit of the whole world.”

The UK government signalled this week that fracking was still a possibility, though an unlikely one. Ministers have come under pressure to back fracking, from some backbenchers and sections of the media, even though it is unlikely to be economically viable and would do nothing to ease the current crisis as it would take years to produce any gas.

Meanwhile, the EU set out plans last week to cut dependency on Russian oil and gas by two-thirds by the end of this year. Some of the slack will be taken up by seeking other suppliers, such as shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and by an expansion of renewable energy and push for greater energy efficiency.

But expanding domestic fossil fuels, such as coal, may also be seen as a possibility if Vladimir Putin goes further and cuts off more supplies to Europe. Ban said that Germany, which has been phasing out coal, should not return to fossil fuels: “Germany is the biggest economic power in Europe – they should not take this as a kind of short term political gain.”

Ban also urged countries to consider nuclear energy, which he said would be a “wise choice”. He said: “There has been some debate and controversy on whether to use nuclear energy or not. But if we use a good energy mix, with renewable energy, nuclear energy and other clean sources of energy, that’s the way we can meet the target of carbon neutrality … We have to use nuclear energy.”

The Guardian

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.