Business Energy UK

04/02/2019

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23/01/2019

Natural Gas Commentary
This morning, prompt gas contracts are trading higher with lower supply and increased consumption due to colder temperatures. Household consumption has risen to c.274mcm, c.44mcm above seasonal normal, and is expected at similar levels tomorrow. UKCS output has declined to c.102mcm today with some outages reported whilst LNG sendout has also declined to c.51mcm. NCS flows and BBL imports are at similar levels to yesterday, c.125mcm and c.44mcm respectively, whilst IUK imports are nominated higher at c.14mcm. MRS sites are withdrawing c.35mcm.

Further out, gas contracts are trading higher in line with the prompt. Concerns over global growth and an economic slowdown in China have applied pressure to crude oil prices, whilst news that China will use fiscal stimulus to support the economy provides some upwards support. Meanwhile, the pound sterling has risen on the expectation that Britain will not leave the EU with no deal.

15/01/2019

Gas contracts are trading higher today with crude oil prices trading above settlement. Prices are supported by the supply reductions from OPEC and Russia. The pound sterling has seen volatility this morning ahead of key Brexit vote in parliament later today, meanwhile the euro has seen weakness over fears of a recession in Germany.

11/10/2018

SSE and Npower’s retail businesses will merge following the nod from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), bringing an end to the era of the ‘big six’ suppliers.

The CMA had indicated in August that SSE-Npower deal was in the clear, today it granted official confirmation. Its investigation centred on whether customers on Npower and SSE’s most expensive tariffs would be adversely affected by the merger. The watchdog found they would not, because those switching tariffs tend to go to other suppliers, where cheaper deals via fixed and aggressive acquisition tariffs can be found.

The two companies have hired key management and aim to conclude the transaction by the end of SSE’s financial year (31 March).

The deal will see SSE keep its business-to-business customers, while the new retail company will combine SSE’s domestic customers and Npower’s domestic and business customers.

11/10/2018

Truth

02/08/2018

Eon plans to cut 500 jobs, around 5% of its UK workforce.

The company said the redundancies would be made in non-customer facing roles.

CEO Michael Lewis said the cuts were due to an increasingly competitive environment. He singled out the forthcoming price cap on tariffs as a contributory factor.

Eon is trying to cut out about £100m of cost from its operations over the mid-term.

It has previously flagged the negative impact of energy market intervention and Brexit on its UK earnings.

Lewis said redundancies would be “voluntary wherever possible”.

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 the first six months of 2016. Power sales to the industrial and commercial (I&C) market dipped by 1%.

Reductions in gas volumes sold were more marked. Sales to SMEs and households fell 17%. Sales to the I&C market fell 13%. Total volumes were down 4.6 billion kWh, 16%.

Overall, UK sales fell 15% or €633m, with profit down 20% to €233m.

Eon cited customer losses across all market segments for the falls though said weather was partially to blame for gas.

While the group predicted full year earnings would be in line with its forecasts, Eon warned UK policy would create drag.

04/12/2017

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08/11/2017

Will the Big Six become the Big Five or will we just see more Quite Big energy companies.
After all, some of the challenger brands now have over a million customers and the incumbents are steadily losing share. Meanwhile, Engie, Vattenfall and other utilities could eventually bring their scale to bear.
For businesses, does it actually matter, given the commodity cost is now less than half of the bill and is set to dwindle further?

08/11/2017

SSE and Innogy’s boards have agreed to merge their retail operations. The news comes as SSE posted half year results which showed further customer losses.

The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals but SSE said it aimed to complete the transaction by end of 2018 or early 2019. SSE will seek shareholder approval by 31 July 2018. Its shareholders will own around 66% of the merged entity.

Innogy will hold the remainder and will seek board approval by the end of this year. If SSE shareholders veto the deal, it may have to pay Innogy a £60m break fee.

As of end of September this year, the two firms had around 11.5m customers combined, although at current rates of attrition may dip below 11m by the time any deal is done.

Posting half year results, SSE lost 400,000 customers and reported profit before tax of £402.2m, down from £675m the prior year.

02/11/2017

Government has outlined plans to change the rules around smart meters for small and medium sized businesses.

The department for business, energy and industrial strategy (Beis) believes smaller companies would be disadvantaged by current rules, which allow suppliers to install an advanced meter rather than the latest ‘Smets2’ smart meters.

It has suggested that firms with annual energy consumption of less than 3GWh should instead be offered a smart meter, and that advanced meters will otherwise no longer count towards suppliers’ smart meter targets. Suppliers will still be able to count advanced meters within their smart meters targets at larger customer sites, those consuming at least 3GWh of electricity and/or gas.

The consultation also proposes that suppliers will no longer be able to opt out of the smart meter central comms infrastructure –the DCC – provided they only supply large businesses.

It reasons that firms supplying more than 1,000 non-domestic customers will likely have some SME customers on their books. They will have to register with the DCC and use the platform’s comms infrastructure.

16/08/2017

One of the UK’s largest solar investors believes up to 2GW of the UK’s 12GW of solar generation will change hands in the next 12-18 months.

The Foresight Group currently owns some 900MW of large-scale solar capacity, most of it in the UK.

At the end of June, it completed the acquisition of the 72MW Shotwick solar farm the 50MW Sandridge scheme. The firm is keen to add to its portfolio and outlined significant activity in the UK’s secondary solar market over the next year.

Posting half year results, the company said it was reviewing a pipeline of 500MW of potential investment and that it “expects that between 1 and 2GW of projects will be sold in the secondary market in the coming 12-18 months”.

“As the solar industry becomes increasingly competitive, acquiring assets at attractive prices is becoming more challenging,” said chairman Alexander Ohlsson. “However, Foresight Solar Fund Limited continues to make asset purchases at attractive valuations and sees significant opportunities in the UK secondary solar market as well as other developed overseas countries with stable currencies.”

Earlier this year, the Group made its first battery storage investment, acquiring the 35MW Port of Tyne project. The scheme has a four-year contract from National Grid to provide enhanced frequency response, as well as a 12-year Capacity Market contract.

One of Foresight’s largest investors is BlackRock, which also plans significant acquisition of large-scale solar projects. The asset management giant has launched a joint venture with Lightsource called Kingfisher which plans to create a £1bn, 1GW UK solar portfolio by 2020.

11/08/2017

British Gas, the latest supplier to increase their prices during 2017, it's more important than ever that businesses review energy costs.

SKY NEWS host Sarah Jane Mee blasted British Gas Chief Executive Mark Hodges after his company announced an unexpected energy price rise starting in September.