British Gas in 2,600 new jobs pledge
July 21, 2009 at 4:14 am
Despite the doom and gloom in the jobs market with the recession, British Gas is to buck the trend and create 2,600 new posts by 2012. The reason for this is down to the introduction of smart meter technology, which the government is aiming to get into every home by 2020.
Smart meters allow energy suppliers to take the readings of gas and electricity meters remotely, which means no more visits from the gas man. As the meter men are no longer needed, you might think that this would lead to fewer jobs in the industry. This is partly true, and British Gas has already admitted that some jobs will go, but this is far less than the thousands of job losses that many were expecting. There are also likely to be job losses amongst call centre staff who won’t be needed to deal with complaints relating to estimated bills.
In total, 1,700 new jobs will be created and a further 900 will be moved from other metering companies. British Gas has revealed that the jobs will consist of 2,100 smart-energy specialists who will be needed to install the new meters across the country, as well as 400 support staff, and the rest will be made up of managerial positions.
The new meters have been called ‘green’ meters because they won’t involve people driving out to check them, which will in turn cut down on emissions. Times Online claimed that this could be the biggest change in the country’s energy system since North Sea gas was introduced in 1970s.
Biogas to hit the network in 2011
July 21, 2009 at 4:12 am
In these days of climate change, new forms of clean energy should be welcomed with open arms. But how are people going to react to the news that they could soon be powering their homes with human waste?
That is exactly what is going to happen by 2011, after United Utilities managed to get financial support from Defra for its trial project. The trial will take place at the Davyhulme sewage treatment works in Manchester, the second biggest in the country.
It will cost £4.3 million, and by 2011 it is thought that it will be producing enough biogas to power 5,000 homes.
The biogas is an especially attractive form of fuel due to its renewable status, and if this is a success then many more plants are likely to be constructed across the country in the future.
The biogas will be cleaned of its contaminants and will then be converted into biomethane, which is similar to natural gas, which can then simply be used in the gas grid or in vehicles.
The manager of the United Utilities biogas sector, Caroline Ashton, said that the project had been given a “huge boost” from the new funding, and seeing as the treatment of sewage goes on for 24 hours a day, there would be an “endless supply” of biogas.
It is being seen as a way for Britain to reduce its carbon footprint, and is essentially a way of making use of free energy that would otherwise go to waste.
Consumers in for a shock as fixed price deals end
July 10, 2009 at 1:23 am
The enormous price hikes inflicted on consumers by energy providers last year (42%, or £381, in the year to 31 Dec 2008) sent many householders in search of fixed-price deals, which last July cost an average of £1,045 for twelve months.
At the moment 4.6 million of us have capped deals but if yours is about to come to an end it may come as a nasty surprise to find that the current annual bill is around £1,145. Your supplier should contact you when your annual deal is about to come to an end, but do not be tempted to switch straight into another fixed deal since prices are falling and likely to keep doing so. If you enter into another year’s capped deal you will not benefit from the further cuts which are forecast for later this year.
The best advice for consumers is to shop around and do their sums. Online deals are excellent value and yet only one-in-twenty households are taking advantage of them. It is actually possible to come off a year’s fixed rate deal and save £27 by switching to an online deal whilst the average online deal is a staggering £225 cheaper than the average standard deal.
In addition, consumers should look into dual fuel deals and paying by direct debit. Will Marples of uSwitch.com also warned consumers that most fixed rate deals carry an exit charge so it can be costly to switch out of one before the fixed period ends.
How could Heat Capture tech save our gas bills?
July 3, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Fossil fuel power stations in the UK aren’t going anywhere for the time being but the government and former Business Secretary, John Hutton, have insisted that coal-powered plants still have a role to play. So how can you sweeten the medicine? Heat capture might be the answer.
The heat energy that soars from the giant chimneys that tower over our power stations has the potential to save 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the UK every year. The Institution of Civil Engineers has studied the heat energy being emitted from these power stations and found that capturing the currently wasted heat could meet 5% of the UK’s heat energy demands.
The technology known as Combined Heat and Powered Plant (CHP) saves the heat and then transfers it to industrial, commercial or residential sites along pipelines as steam or hot water. The system is fairly straightforward but requires major adjustments to the power plants in order to allow them to harness their heat. However, once the system is in place, it could make these fossil fuelled power stations much more efficient as well as beneficial to the environment. According to research from engineers at the University of Southampton, a coal or nuclear power plant currently wastes 2,000MW of heat for every 1,000MW of electricity. Additional heat capturing technology on these sites and on future sites could harness their energy on a hugely greater scale.
One of the downsides of this technology is that the power stations have to be located near the destination of the heat energy. This is why so many CHP stations in Scandinavia are found near towns and cities. Sites such as those near London at Kingsnorth and Drax near Leeds would be ideal places to introduce this system. It could do away with the need for boilers in our homes and places of work, with heat coming into the buildings in the same way that electricity does.
