Eon’s UK power sales fell 1.5 billion kilowatt hours, or 8%, in the first half of 2017. Posting half year results, the firm warned that Brexit, its impact on Sterling and ‘interventionist’ energy policy would take their toll on UK operations. Power sales to small and medium enterprises (SME) and households fell 12% compared to Read more…

For the scores of commercial premises across the UK that aren’t connected to the mains gas grid, finding a reliable, readily available fuel that won’t cost the earth can be a real challenge. As familiar territory, oil is often the go-to choice for powering everything from heating and hot water to cooking facilities and manufacturing Read more…

Fossil giant Shell has entered the UK industrial and commercial (I&C) power supply market. Ofgem’s register of supply licence applications alerted market participants to the move some weeks ago. Since then the company had refused to comment on its plans, citing a close period due to financial results. However the company today confirmed the move Read more…

British Gas made no money from its business to business energy supply division in the first half of this year. The firm shed 30,000 UK business customers and posted a profit of £0 versus £31m the prior year. Publishing first half results, parent company Centrica said the business continued to rebuild its reputation following fallout Read more…

Dave Cockshott has swapped Inenco for SmartestEnergy. From November, the former Npower director will take on the newly created role of chief commercial officer at Smartest, with responsibility for all customer groups at the firm. Announcing the hire, Robert Groves, CEO of SmartestEnergy, said: “This is a critical role for SmartestEnergy and Dave brings the Read more…

SSE has now installed over 600,000 smart meters, according to its latest trading statement, a significant increase in the last few months. However, it lost almost a quarter of a million customers during that time. The company told The Energyst on 2 March that it had installed “over 400,000 smart meters” and said its proposed Read more…

Drax, owner of the UK’s largest power station, sees further growth in energy retail and plans to take market share from incumbent business-to-business suppliers. However, it has ruled out entering the politically-charged domestic retail market. Meanwhile, in its generation business, according to first half results, earnings growth continues from security of supply and ancillary services Read more…

Wessex Water has acquired switching platform Flipper, which automatically switches subscribers onto the cheapest energy deal. The company, with its future more secure, is looking to move beyond energy. Wessex Water said it will now explore how to apply the platform to the business-to-business market. Flipper launched in 2016 and takes a small annual fee from Read more…

Swedish utility Vattenfall has entered the UK domestic energy retail market by acquiring iSupplyEnergy. The buy gives it 120,000 customers. The move follows Vattenfall’s entry into the business-to-business market, where the firm recently told The Energyst it plans to compete aggressively on price for its wind-derived power. Magnus Hall, president and CEO of Vattenfall, said Read more…

Centrica has agreed to sell its Langage and South Humber Bank combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power stations, with a combined capacity of 2.3GW, to EP UK Investments (EPUK) for £318 million in cash. EPUK’s parent company, Energetický a Průmyslový Holding (EPH), is a Czech-based integrated utility that operates power stations across central Europe. It Read more…

Centrica is to close its Rough storage facility. The company confirmed that trying to eke out more life from the ageing facility is uneconomic. Rough, past its design life, has been in decline for some time, with longstanding technical issues. Centrica stopped injections at the facility last summer while it undertook more testing and said last April Read more…

Telcos and broadband firms say they have no current plans to enter energy retail despite smaller firms eyeing multi-utility business offerings. But those in the broker and billing market believe that may soon change. Virgin and Vodafone told The Energyst that energy retail was not in their sights. BT said the same, but pointed to Read more…

Profits are up at Telecom Plus, the group that owns multi-utility provider Utility Warehouse. Selling its 20% stake in Opus Energy to Drax boosted returns by £62.3m. The group posted broadly flat overall revenues (-0.6% to £740.3m) citing lower energy prices as a contributor. Adjusted profit before tax (continuing operations) was up 9.1% to £53.3m. Statutory Read more…

In this sponsored post, third party intermediary Inenco invites readers to its annual forum, taking place next week: Inenco will host its second Summer Utilities Forum on Thursday 22nd June 2017 at Inenco HQ in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire from 10:00am – 5:00pm, followed by an evening dinner at The Grand Hotel. Jonty Bloom will Read more…

Gas demand last year was the highest since 2011, according to latest government data. While households and businesses burnt more due to a colder winter, the power sector was the primary driver as coal economics tanked. In all, gas demand in 2016 was up 12.6 per cent on 2015 – the highest demand figure since 2011, Read more…

Utility giants RWE and Engie are weighing potential tie-up options, according to newswire Reuters. German utility RWE owns Npower in the UK and has a sizeable renewable energy business via its Innogy operation. Engie, formerly GDF Suez, is also one of the world’s largest power companies, and is part-owned by the French state. Reuters reports that Read more…

Centrica is calling for local suppliers to help build a new gas turbine at King’s Lynn as well as refurbish the existing combined cycle gas turbine at the site. The King’s Lynn plant was awarded a 15-year contract in last December’s capacity auction, at a rate of £22.50/kW. “Having started preparatory works a couple of months Read more…

SSE retail profits took a hit from its decision not to plough on with a billing system upgrade. For the year ending 31 March, the firm posted preliminary adjusted operating profit of £1,874m, up 2.7% on the previous year. Adjusted operating profits in its retail business dipped to £389.5m from £398.9m, with lower wholesale costs offsetting customer losses. However, Read more…

Intervention on energy prices should be extended to small businesses and third party intermediaries must be properly regulated, the Federation of Small Businesses has urged government. In an election manifesto, the FSB said small businesses “should not have to subsidise the cost of policies to reduce bills for domestic consumers”. It called for price caps Read more…

TPI Inenco recently claimed that UK firms are owed £500m due to billing errors, and that only one in five businesses validate their bills. Junifer Systems’ Paul Fitzgerald suggests sheer complexity of data may be to blame, both in terms of the number of parties in the energy data supply chain, and the nature of Read more…