Lights Dimmed To Cut Energy Costs

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Emma

Lights could be dimmed on miles of roads across England as The Highways Agency looks at ways of reducing carbon emissions and business energy costs.

There is a proposal from The Highways Agency to reduce the light levels on A-roads when roads are not very busy.

Research will be carried out to assess when and where lights could be dimmed and the local transport minister, Norman Baker, said he supported the proposal as long as it didn’t adversely affect safety.

With rising business electricity prices many organisations and businesses are looking at ways of cutting energy costs and reducing their carbon footprint at the same time.

The announcement was made as the result of a parliamentary question to the Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, from Mr Kawczynski, the MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham. He asked “what plans she has to revise guidance on the minimum amount of lighting required on A roads”.

Mr Baker’s written reply was “The Highways Agency has plans to reduce the level of lighting on A roads when traffic levels are significantly below road capacity. The agency has no plans to reduce the level of lighting on A roads during the peak periods that occur during the hours of darkness or to temporarily switch A road lighting off when traffic flows are low”.

He added “The level of light reduction will be based upon internationally agreed standards and made in consultation with the UK’s Institution of Lighting Professionals”.

He said it was right that the lighting authorities think about how to cut costs and reduce environmental emissions. However, this had to be done consistently with proper safety assessments.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said “This is not about switching off lights on A-roads. However, we want to continue to reduce the carbon footprint associated with managing England’s major A-roads and one of the ways we are considering doing this is dimming lights when traffic levels are very low”.

He added “Any changes to light level will be determined in consultation with industry experts and will meet internationally agreed standards to ensure there will be no impact on safety for road users”.

Utility Exchange has reported in the past that a number of councils are switching off lights altogether on some roads during the night when traffic is light. As business electricity prices continue to increase and energy costs go up then it seems more businesses and agencies will look at ways of reducing costs including switching off or dimming lights in public places when it’s safe to do so.

Biomass Plant Could Burn For Days

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Ollie

Firefighters are still tackling a blaze at the largest biomass plant in Europe and it could continue to burn for several days.

Utility Exchange reported yesterday that a fire had broken out at Tilbury Power Station, the largest biomass plant in Europe.

Over 100 firefighters were tackling the blaze yesterday and smoke could be seen for miles around. The incident occurred after thousands of tonnes of wood pellets caught fire at the top of a 200ft tower.

The power station has been closed while firefighters continue to tackle the fire which could take days to bring under control. The plant only generates about 1% of electricity for the National Grid and therefore it’s not thought that the incident will have any effect on overall supply.

The wood pellets were stored high up in a 200 ft tower which caused problems when it came to trying to put it out. Because they were so high up firefighters couldn’t use water because this would add to the weight of the pellets and may cause the structure to collapse. Consequently, foam was used to try to cut off the supply of oxygen to the fire. However it’s not known how long the fire will continue to burn below the foam.

Chief Fire Officer, David Johnson said “We expect this to be a protracted incident going on for some hours, if not days”. He added that conditions inside the building were “extremely hot, extremely smoky and very punishing”.

The next stage he said was to start removing wood pellets away from the storage area, which could take a couple of days.

A spokesman for RWE npower which owns the power station said they hoped there was no structural damage.

Firefighters Battle Biomass Power Station Blaze

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Kathryn

Firefighters are battling a blaze at Europe’s largest biomass power station.

Over 100 firefighters are battling a blaze at Tilbury power station – the biggest biomass power station in Europe. It’s believed the fire broke out early this morning.

The fire is thought to have started in a fuel storage area. It’s understood that this area contains 4,000 tonnes of crushed wood pellets. The owner of the plant RWE npower said “A fire broke out at 07:45 GMT in a fuel storage area at the station. All our employees have been accounted for”.

Tilbury power Station is located in Essex next to the River Thames. Firefighters from Essex County Fire & Rescue Service are battling the blaze. The chief fire officer, David Johnson said “The fire is in the main part of the power station where there are numerous storage cells holding biofuels, which are compressed and crushed wood fibres. Two of those, at least, are very well on fire – that’s about 4,000 tonnes of fuel. The difficulty we have at the moment is access because the fire is very high up in this structure”.

Local residents have been told there’s no danger from the smoke but have been advised to close their windows.

Tilbury was initially built to burn coal but has recently been granted permission to burn biomass fuel and wood materials as reported by Utility Exchange last year. There are concerns that the blaze has caused some structural damage.

UK Energy Production Falls

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Emma

Primary energy production in the UK fell by a record amount according to figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Statistics for December show a record fall in primary energy production of 14% compared with 2010 levels. In addition primary energy consumption fell 7% after the second warmest year since records began. Energy consumption has fallen in the UK for the last five years.

Primary production was down as a result of falls in output from the UK Continental Shelf due to both maintenance activity and slowdowns. Over the year petroleum was down 17% while gas production was down 20%.

Energy consumption was down largely because 2011 was one of the warmest years on record and therefore there was less demand for energy for heating. It may also have something to do with more homes being insulated and therefore using less energy. There’s also the fact that economic conditions have affected businesses so business electricity consumption may also be a factor in the fall in energy consumption.

Demand for gas was the lowest it’s been for 16 years. This is in part due to the warm weather and the fact that generators have reduced how much they use. For the first time, the amount of gas imported was higher than that produced in the UK but despite this the amount of gas exported achieved record levels.

Last year the amount of LNG (liquefied natural gas) imported from Qatar increased at similar levels as those for pipeline gas from Norway.

It wasn’t just gas imports that exceeded UK production. Crude oil imports were also higher than UK production however net exports of petroleum products totalled 5.2 million tonnes and were the highest it’s been since 2005.

Carbon intensive energy generation fell while output from low carbon technologies increased. Gas generated 41% of electricity supplied last year while coal made up 32% and nuclear 20%. The amount of wind generated electricity increased from 2.4% to 4% and hydro electricity generation increased to 1.5%.

The DECC will publish Energy Trends and Quarterly Energy Prices at the end of March. This is likely to give more detailed information of trends for 2011.

Ofgem Urges Big Six To Sell More Energy

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Ollie

Ofgem, the energy regulator, wants the Big Six energy companies to sell more energy to smaller suppliers.

Ofgem wants to help small energy suppliers compete against the Big Six and therefore has come up with plans to force them to sell more of their energy to smaller suppliers. The regulator is proposing they should be forced to sell a quarter of the energy they generate.

Back in June last year Utility Exchange reported that Ofgem was looking at forcing energy companies to sell 20% of their electricity supply on the open market, however MP’s argued that this didn’t go far enough.

Now Ofgem has said that it wants to see more energy sold on forward markets. This means companies buy energy to be used months or even years ahead and Ofgem thinks this will enable smaller suppliers to be able to protect themselves from volatile short-term energy prices. Most electricity suppliers buy their energy from the forward market – up to two years in advance.

Since Ofgem announced its proposals to force the Big Six to sell more energy, several suppliers including SSE and E.ON have said they will sell more of the electricity they generate on the day-ahead markets.

While Ofgem was considering a 20% target last year it seems 25% may be the new figure they have in mind to be sold on the forward markets. The proposals, Ofgem said would “require the Big Six to sell a range of different products so independent suppliers would be able to hedge their positions more effectively on the forward markets and therefore compete on a more level playing field”.

The Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey said “I welcome Ofgem’s proposals and the momentum that is building behind badly-needed reforms of our energy market. Consumers will get the best deals when suppliers face tough competition and that is what both Government and regulator are working to achieve. Right now only six big companies have 99pc of domestic customers – energy bill payers in this country need more and better choices”.