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…

Local authorities are launching energy companies. Some now supply businesses, sign power purchase agreements with local generators, and seek TPIs to scale their B2B rosters. What hurdles do council entrants face, asks Brendan Coyne Local authorities are watching Bristol Energy and Nottingham’s Robin Hood Energy, the first UK municipal energy companies to launch in the modern Read more…

US firm Energy Services Group has acquired UK-based Utiligroup for a reported £100m. The Lancashire firm provides data management and software to energy companies around billing and wholesale services as well as sales and pricing. Its ‘supplier in a box’ solutions have helped a number of small energy suppliers enter the market, and it is Read more…

Centrica’s storage arm has confirmed that there will be no further injections of gas at the Rough storage facility in storage year 2017/18. Long term gas prices increased marginally on the news. The ageing facility, which has been responsible for the lion’s share of UK gas storage, has suffered technical issues for some time. As a result, Read more…

UK power prices in the first three months of 2017 averaged almost a third higher than the same period a year earlier, according to latest analysis from pricing firm ICIS. Gas prices for delivery over the next year were up 42%. However, longer term prices began to fall from February as market fears over winter Read more…

Small businesses appear to be tiring of constant calls from energy brokers, new research published by Ofgem suggests. Yet at least a quarter are still paying over the odds for their energy. A survey of 1,254 small businesses (up to 49 staff) found broadly similar switching and engagement levels in 2016 compared with the previous Read more…

Energy Broker Pulse has been acquired by business communications firm Arrow for an undisclosed sum. Pulse, owned by Ben Dhesi and wife Purdeep Kang, made a profit after tax of £577,982 in the year to 30 September 2015, according to Companies House filings, up 220% on the previous year. The company has notched up significant Read more…

Inaccurate billing by energy suppliers is costing UK firms half a billion pounds a year, according to third party intermediary Inenco. The consultancy says that one in five business energy bills are wrong, and that UK firms could claim that money back in refunds – if they know what they are looking for. However, Inenco says Read more…

Former Extra Energy CEO and Inenco Direct managing director Geoff Childs has joined utility smart billing firm Junifer Systems. Childs joins as business development director. Paul Fitzgerald, the outfit’s sales director, said Childs’ knowledge of founding and rapidly scaling an energy retail company would benefit clients, some of which are local authorities preparing to enter the energy Read more…