Energy Spectrum

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 664

    BEIS’s Updated Energy and Emissions Projections 2018, published in April, showed that the UK remains off target to meet its fourth and fifth five-yearly carbon budgets. In this week’s Energy Perspective, we look at the projections in more detail, concluding that while the pressure on the government to rachet up its policies has...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 663

    At the start of April, National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) became a separate legal entity within the National Grid group, separate from the transmission business and with its own licence. In this week’s Energy Perspective, we discuss the move, which marks a milestone in the development of the ESO. We...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 662

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we consider Ofgem’s tightening of the rules for becoming an electricity supplier with company entry checks and fit and proper persons tests. We commend the regulator’s proposals but flag that it will be tougher for it to define and monitor an ongoing performance monitoring regime. In...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 661

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we consider investor confidence and market sentiment following the legal challenge to the Capacity Market, the specific steps BEIS has taken to settle nerves and also the general support being afforded to demand-side response to provide market access. The proposals from government in its Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) consultation...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 660

    Despite being championed regularly by the government during the mid-2020s, more recently, the embryonic shale gas industry in the UK has had to make its own case. Support for that case could be seen in recent reports by UK Onshore Oil and Gas and others which demonstrate the potential for...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 657

    An increasing number of interventions, including new mutualisation events, are likely to cause shocks in energy third party charges in the coming years. That is the conclusion of this week’s Energy Perspective, in which we explore the current level of these costs for policy and networks, focussing on changes for...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 656

    With an Ofgem review of the microbusiness sector in the offing, the increasingly competitive nature of the business energy market – which is also being radically overhauled by innovation – means that the regulator would be wise to take a wider, overall market view in its review process. This is...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | 655

    A programme as complex as the smart meter roll-out was always going to be subject to significant challenges. Last week BEIS Committee Chair Rachel Reeves commented that the roll-out would not meet its 2020 notional deadline, echoing growing sentiment in the industry but, in this week’s Energy Perspective we suggest that...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | Issue 653

    We present five key themes and findings from this week’s edition of Energy Spectrum issue 653 The commissioning of the 1GW NEMO link interconnector, linking the GB power market to Belgium, on 31 January marks the start of a potential wave of new development that could see total cross-border capacity...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Five things we learnt from Energy Spectrum | Issue 650

    We present five key themes and findings from this week’s edition of Energy Spectrum Issue 650 It could be hard for market participants particularly small ones to see where and how they can understand or influence progress in the midst of Ofgem’s review of network access arrangements and the forward-looking...

  • Low carbon generation

    FiTting up RO mutualisation?

    There is no official announcement so far about whether all suppliers have now paid their 2017-18 Renewables Obligations (ROs) in full. Reports in the press today state that one supplier has not paid £14.4mn it owes to the late payment fund, and is in merger talks with another medium-sized supplier....

  • Announcement

    Cornwall Insight Response to MMO

    Ofgem has just put out its decision on the Market Making Obligation. The headline is that the regulator will not suspend this year the initiative that helps smaller parties access electricity wholesale products, but is likely to do so once the SSE/ Npower merger and the acquisition of Scottish Power’s...

  • Home supply and services

    Picking Winner: Valuation drivers in the energy supply

    For more than a decade the number of active licensed energy suppliers has been increasing, slowly at first but dozens a year more recently. This year though that number has tipped in to decline as companies such as Flow Energy, Iresa and Affect Energy have for different reasons left the...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Energy Spectrum Overview

    ENERGY PERSPECTIVE In this week’s Energy Perspective, we discuss the findings of an insight paper by Cornwall Insight’s local specialist sister company Pixie Energy. Published in response to the upcoming Feed-in Tariff (FiT) closure, the UnFiT for Purpose paper makes a case for securing a continuing route to market for small-scale renewable generation....

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 29 May 2018

    Energy Perspective In this week’s Energy Perspective, we look ahead to this summer, a period that we believe could prove to be ground-breaking in terms of testing some long-held theories about flexible power systems. With the electricity market in rapid in transition we explore a range of emerging market phenomena...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 14 May 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we consider the current options for appealing industry code changes, following the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issuing its final determination on the allocation of costs in relation to the EDF Energy/SSE appeal on an electricity transmission charging rule change (CMP261), relating to alleged breach...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 8 May 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we examine the progress in setting the broader energy price cap. The challenge now, we argue, transfers to Ofgem and the industry in implementing it. Ofgem has been seeking views on different ways the various elements of the price cap might be calculated through a...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 23 April 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we examine the case put forward by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit for repowered onshore wind projects to be allowed into the Contract for Difference (CfD) scheme, as the UK’s first windfarms near the end of their expected lifespans. We explore the generation, volume...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 16 April 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we review the BEIS consultation on the next phase of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO3). We argue that although at first glance proposals for ECO3 give the impression that it is business as usual, there are some key changes taking place going into this next...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 30 April 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we explore how for storage the preference to move to the behind-the-meter proposition is increasing as the initial interest in grid-scale assets wavers. We argue that there are many good reasons for this trend, including the fact that it allows organisations to maximise revenues by...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Cliff-hanger: supplier new entry in volatile markets

    Weekly overview of our Energy Spectrum publication In this week’s Energy Perspective, we set out how recent wholesale price events, and increased volatility generally, could be impacting new entrant domestic suppliers. Where their business model is customer acquisition through cheap fixed prices, accompanied by low levels of trading for risk management,...

  • Regulation and policy

    Inventing the future: innovation in RIIO-2

    Overview of our weekly publication - Energy Spectrum Energy Perspective Last week, we summarised Ofgem’s recently issued consultation on the framework for RIIO2. In this week’s Energy Perspective, we focus more closely on the component parts of the regulator’s latest thinking. While the fact Ofgem has already flagged that network companies should...

  • Power and gas networks

    Empty spaces: is there a case for new gas storage?

    Overview of this week's Energy Spectrum publication In this week’s Energy Perspective, we explore the implications of recent gas supply incidents and ask the question – do we need more gas storage? Historically, the GB market has lacked the gas storage capacity of its European counterparts. This was brought into sharp...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview

    Energy Perspective This week’s Energy Perspective explores BEIS’s latest Energy and Emissions Projections (EEP) published in January 2018, uncovering what the forecasts can tell us about the shifting official view of the energy systems of the future. We focus on the changes since the last EEP’s publication. We highlight how...

  • Announcement

    Nigel Cornwall | 12 days of Christmas

    For the final interview in our 12 Days of Christmas series, with issue 600 of Energy Spectrum out today, we spoke to Nigel Cornwall, founder of Cornwall Insight and Pixie Energy, a company looking to progress local energy market ideas and initiatives.  Nigel reflected on Cornwall Insight’s journey since 2005,...

  • Announcement

    Tony Ward | 12 days of Christmas

    Our 12 Days of Christmas series is timed to coincide with issue 600 of Energy Spectrum. It commemorates 12 years of our weekly publication, which first debuted in 2005. It offers perspectives from senior industry figures on the past 12 years and discussion on where the energy market could be...

  • Announcement

    Alistair Buchanan | 12 days of Christmas

    For the latest of our 12 Days of Christmas series as we approach issue 600 of Energy Spectrum, we spoke to Alistair Buchanan, Partner and UK Chairman of Power and Utilities at KPMG. Alistair joined KPMG in 2013, following ten years as CEO of Ofgem. It marked a return to...

  • Announcement

    Tim Rotheray | 12 Days of Christmas

    Our 12 Days of Christmas series is timed to coincide with issue 600 of Energy Spectrum. It commemorates 12 years of our weekly publication, which first debuted in 2005. It offers perspectives from senior industry figures on the past 12 years and discussion on where the energy market could be...