Morrison Utility Services SGN
Morrison Utility Services, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading utility service contractors, has won a major three year contract to provide first call emergency response services to Southern Gas Networks (SGN), the UK’s second largest gas distribution company whose networks provide natural gas to 5.7 million customers across Scotland and in the south and south east of England.
Under the terms of the agreement, Morrison Utility Services will respond to emergency calls for internal and external gas escapes, gas meter fault correction and meter replacements, and the value of the contract has been estimated to be worth £18 million for the three years, it also includes an option for SGN to extend for a further year.
Work on the contract has commenced and around 100 service engineers will now provide an on-call service to SGN – although Morrison Utility Services was the previous contractor to provide the on-call service, they were awarded the contract following a competitive tender process which had taken place this Summer.
Source;
Utilityweek.co.uk/ News/ Utility Engineering
ttp://www.utilityweek.co.uk/news/uk/utility-engineering/morrison-retains-emergency-res.php
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First to undercut Utility big six
Energy supplier First:utility has undercut E.ON, one of Britain’s ‘Big Six’ suppliers – becoming the cheapest supplier – just hours after E.ON cut its gas and electricity prices. First:utility, an independent energy supplier, is now the UK’s cheapest dual fuel energy supplier.
First:utility has reduced the prices of its iSave and Smart tariffs following E.ON’s announcement reducing the prices of its FixOnline V3 tariff and the move makes First:utility the cheapest dual fuel supplier in all 14 of the UK’s energy distribution areas.
Mark Daeche, chief executive of First:utility stated that as a smaller energy provider they are able to be more nimble and therefore react more rapidly to market conditions, after reducing their tariff he said:
“Today sees the second price cut from First:utility in three weeks. It demonstrates our commitment to UK consumers and to maintaining our position as the challenger in the UK energy marketplace…
… As an independent energy company we are able to be more nimble and react more rapidly to market conditions than the established players”
First:utility’s iSave tariff is available everywhere (Excluding the East and West Midlands areas) and is the cheapest gas and electricity online-only deal. iSave costs the “average” energy user £954 a year – which is a price difference of around £8 compared to the second cheapest deal from E.ON.
Source;
Energychoices.co.uk/ Energy News (First:utility undercuts E.ON to become cheapest energy supplier)
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RWE and Essent seal the deal
Dutch utility Essent and integrated energy company RWE have completed their merger transaction that was announced in January. Essent’s out-going chief executive Michiel Boersma stated that the company has found the “best possible partner” in RWE.
Mr. Boersma who will hand over to Peter Terium on 1 December as Essent’s new chief executive also commented that both companies are committed to securing a sustainable future, and that RWE will provide the financial power that is needed for ongoing investments in the Netherlands and Belgium.
RWE confirmed that all of Essent’s shareholders had accepted the RWE offer on 30 September, enabling the German firm to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Arnhem-based company – The European Commission approved this transaction in June.
Essent’s 50% stake in EPZ, which runs the Borssele nuclear power station, has been omitted from the transaction is awaiting a final court ruling, along with Essent’s waste management operations and grid activities which have also been excluded from the €7.3 billion deal.
Source article;
http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/news/europe/rwe-and-essent-seal-merger-dea.php
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Profiling Utility Direct Debits
Energy company Spark is a great alternative to the “Big 6″ utility companies, delivering great customer service, lower prices, innovative benefits and greener energy, in particular to property managers and letting agents. With their consumer needs in mind Spark is about to introduce a new user friendly approach to calculating monthly Direct Debit payments – Profiled Direct Debit – and is perfect for a tenanted property.
A typical tenant is happy to pay for their gas and electricity by Direct Debit, however when they move out of a property it could result in receiving a rebate where you could challenge what did the energy supplier do with the money when they had it? or you get a huge moving out charge suggesting that you need not have set up paying by a Direct Debit scheme in the first place.
The new scheme would mean you still know how much you are paying in advance allowing you to budget accordingly, but your payments would be more in line with your actual usage, resulting in fewer nasty surprises when you move out. The monthly Direct Debits are set in advance for the year ahead – based on historical usage or industry estimates for your property – ensuring payments closely match the properties seasonal usage, instead of simply being 1/12th of the overall annual usage.
Source;
Sparkenergy.co.uk/ News/ (Introducing Profiled Direct Debit-25.09.09)
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Customers to come first regard Energy Utilities
According to Manuel Rodrigues Da Costa, who is the vice chairman of the networks committee of energy utility group Eurelectric –“The European Commission and the regulators should place the customer at the centre of the – energy network unbundling – process”
Eurelectric – the association of the electricity industry across Europe incorporating electricity producers, suppliers, traders and distributors, has put forward a set of customer-focused indicators on whether the electricity market is indeed working effectively.
The association stated that customers are more interested in seamless supplier-switching and data handling rather than the organisational structure of their energy suppliers.
Eurelectric are attending the Citizens Energy Forum in London this week unveiling a retail market design of their model – The European Commission established the Citizens’ Energy Forum as a new regulatory platform based on experiences gained in the Florence and Madrid Forums, where the aim of the Forum is the implementation of competitive, energy efficient and fair retail markets for consumers.
Sources;
Ec.europa.eu
Utilityweek.co.uk/ News/ Europe (Energy utilities want customers at the centre of a competitive market-30.09.09)
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PowerSecure’s $12m for Power Projects
PowerSecure a pioneer in the development of Energy and Smart Grid Solutions for electric utilities, has announced being awarded $12 million of new orders for its industry-leading smart grid power systems and new utility infrastructure projects – Incorporating their Energy and Smart Grid Solutions businesses to provide products and services in the areas of Interactive Distributed Generation® (IDG®), Utility Infrastructure, and Energy Efficiency, PowerSecure also provides Energy Services to the oil and natural gas industry through Southern Flow and WaterSecures.
Following the announcement, the new smart grid Interactive Distributed Generation® (IDG®) power systems will be deployed in partnership with utilities to deliver more efficient power during peak electricity demand, along with providing standby power for hospital and telecommunications facilities. These systems will be electronically connected to and controlled by PowerSecure’s 24×7 monitoring centre to ensure that delivery of more efficient power is optimised, and that standby power is always ready to support customers’ requirements.
The new utility infrastructure orders include transmission, distribution, and substation projects that will upgrade and improve the efficiency of the electric grid, whereby these projects will be completed on behalf of utilities, including infrastructure that will support large industrial business sites, institutions, federal facilities, and municipalities.
CEO of PowerSecure, Sidney Hinton said:
“We are very pleased to announce these new business awards. The strong pace of new business in our UtilityServices group is continuing, and is a testament to the terrific quality of work they are delivering our utility partners”
Source;
UtilityNewsLink-twitterfeed-http://bit.ly/4mO45h
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Enterprise makes a splash for United Utilities
Enterprise Plc which provides outsourced planned and reactive maintenance services to utility companies and local authorities has won a multi-million pound contract with the UK’s largest listed water company United Utilities, who also operates and maintains assets including water, wastewater, electricity and gas.
United Utilities whose turnover is £2 billion is the UK’s market leader in utility outsourcing and selected the Preston-based Enterprise group, which is owned by 3i, as the preferred bidder for a £400 million contract to maintain and renew both clean and waste water assets on behalf of the water company.
The contract will commence in April 2010 and will last for five years with the potential for a further five year extension to be negotiated at a later date.
Enterprise will be responsible for a wide range of maintenance services across the North West, where their programme will support United Utilities provisioning of clean and waste water services to around seven million people across the region, delivering continued improvements in cost and efficiency.
Source;
Thebusinessdesk.com/ News (Enterprise in £400m UU win)
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Energy supplier nets a profit
Utility supplier Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) has indicated that it is expecting to record a significantly higher first-half adjusted pretax profit, in comparison to last year when the company posted low results, reports power-technology.com.
The company which is the second largest electricity generator across the UK and Ireland owning 10,700MW of electricity generation capacity, has said that their fiscal-year adjusted profit is expected to increase moderately compared to last year, and that the business is also expecting to increase its dividend per share payout by at least 4% more than inflation.
However, in a statement issued by the utility company, ensuring that the combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) Marchwood plant in Southampton, becomes fully operational over the next few weeks is their:
“most immediate priority in our programme of projects and investments”
Source article;
http://www.power-technology.com/news/news65530.html?WT.mc_id=DN_News&mxmroi=14002247/2151377/false
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Bonding with Scottish and Southern Energy
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) supplies electricity and gas to over 9 million customers within the UK’s competitive electricity and gas supply market, and the utility supplier is continuing to grow within the current financial year. SSE is the second largest supplier of energy in the UK where according to a press release issued last week the company issued a 9 year, £500 million sterling bond with a coupon of 5%.
This means that the total funding secured since July 2008 by SSE is £2.9 billion and is made up of new bonds along with loans with an average rate of interest of 6.17%, together with proceeds from the placing of 42 million new ordinary shares in January this year.
SSE’s financial director, Gregor Alexander, states that the company retains a flexible approach to financing investment, and considers all opportunities like this bond that will help to maintain financial strength for the long-term.
Source;
Scottish-southern.co.uk/ Media Centre (Press release-New nine year bond issue)
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United Utilities make profit mark
United Utilities is the UK’s largest listed water company who own, operate and maintain utility assets, including water, wastewater, electricity and gas. The FTSE 100 company has a turnover of £2 billion and is the UK’s market leader in utility outsourcing, and as reported by thebusinessdesk.com United Utilities is on track to meet City expectations for its half year figures. Shares were hit recently on speculation that the company was launching a rights issue to boost the balance sheet – there has been no comment to back this up but United Utilities did say that it had ‘headroom’ to cover its financing needs to the second half of 2011.
The utility company said that underlying operating profit in its regulated business for the six month period ending September, would be broadly in line with last year thus reflecting revenue and cost pressures, and had also incurred one off costs of around £10 million in the half year, due to the restructuring of the business into regulated and non-regulated activities.
A United Utilities spokesperson commented that office and administration costs have been reviewed and that they had taken away some agency staff as part of the company’s renewed focus on the regulated activity.
The article continues by stating that UU remarked that in its trading update, reduced demand for water means that revenue growth in its regulated business for the year would be lower than the 6% price rise which is allowed by the regulator.
UU stated that they are facing cost pressures in areas such as power and bad debts, as well as an increase in depreciation however, regarding funding, the utility provider confirmed that since the start of the 2009/10 financial year it has improved its liquidity position through the issue of three new long-term bonds worth £220 million.
Source;
Thebusinessdesk.com/ News (UU on track to meet profit targets)